Wednesday, May 16, 2018

Monument of mystery


The other day in Forest Lawn, getting in my 10,000 steps, I found this monument that looked like a big, corrugated bell.

What was it??

Nobody's name was on it.

I walked around the other side to make sure.


Then I studied it from yet another side.


It was like this blank bell!

What in the world??

Forest Lawn is weird like that. You do find strange things. It is not like the Catholic cemeteries I knew growing up, such as the United German and French, and Mount Calvary. You find very strange things at Forest Lawn.

It does make it great to draw, I will tell you that. And you find many very moving things, like a grave I found of a gentleman identified as A Soldier Of The Revolution. A Soldier of the Revolution!! I deeply admire anyone who fought in the Revolutionary War. I said a prayer for that soldier, I will tell you that right now.

But you do run into things like this bell.

Or whatever it is.

Any ideas?




Thursday, May 10, 2018

Another day, another drawing

Yesterday I went back to the Lawn! That is how I think of Forest Lawn Cemetery because I am having such a great time drawing things here.

I have had a couple of days off from work so I am able to do this in addition to other work that needs to be done. Yesterday I drew an angel from a memorial near Mirror Lake. It would be hard to top that angel because that statue is just so graceful, so lovely.

However. Today there I am, driving very slowly down the path, Mozart on the car stereo, the sun shining, possibilities limitless, scanning the statues. And as if across a crowded room, I saw him.

Philip Bachert!

I knew instinctively, he was The One.

Of course I did not know his name. I found that out only when I approached the statue. It read: "Philip Bachert, 1840-1915. Wiedrich's Battery. 1st N.Y.L. Art. 1861-1865. G.A.R."

Before I began to draw I ate some lunch I had brought and I studied the statue. Then I got up and addressed Mr. Bachert. I thanked him for his service and then said that I hoped he would not mind if I drew him.

Is that statue amazing or what?

When I went home I looked everything up. Wiedrich's Battery was a Civil War outfit run by Michael Wiedrich, who came from Alsace-Lorraine where my mother's family came from, or Elsass as I have seen it spelled in German Catholic cemeteries. The whole battery was made up of German immigrants from Buffalo.

My friend at work Scott Scanlon even did a story about Wiedrich's Battery and what monsters they were on the battlefield of Gettysburg and Bull Run.

When I was leaving, I happened to see another Civil War monument. This other soldier fought in Mozart's Regiment.

Who knew there was a Mozart's Regiment in the Civil War?

The bad news: You have to go fight in the Civil War.

The good news: You get to be in Mozart's Regiment!

I will have to find out what is with that.

That will have to be a story for another day!


Sunday, May 6, 2018

Afternoon in the cemetery


Remember my adventure Urban Sketching? Today I went back to Forest Lawn Cemetery and I did some more drawing.

It is very relaxing and sets a nice tone for the week ahead and all the work I am buried in, you know?

Speaking of burying, I have gotten more used to Forest Lawn. Once when I had to go for work a couple of years ago, it upset me being in there and I could not wait to get out.

But now I kind of like it. I like it because there are things to draw and it is quiet. Yesterday I went for a walk in Delaware Park and it was so loud and I kept hearing the "F" word.

At the cemetery there is hardly anyone. Not only that but there are all these rules about you have to behave with respect to let people rest in peace.

I like that!

You can hear the birds and the splashing of the water!

I drew the Schoellkopf memorial and then I drew a bunch of geese. Then I drew more geese. I am getting good at drawing geese! They are fun. I love the big fat shape of them.

Then I was going to leave because hours had passed and I was hungry. But on the way out I saw the Volunteer Firemen's Memorial and so I stopped and gave it the old college try. That is it at the top of the post!

You get absorbed when you are working and at one point I was so excited because I saw the firemen's coat coming into focus that I realized I was actually drawing with my mouth wide open. It is such a beautiful statue and such a pleasure to draw.

When I was through I got up and took a closer look at the statue.

They put it up in 1901. On the side of the monument, beneath the fireman, there were inscriptions and I began to read them. It turned out they listed firemen who died in some 19th century fires. One was the American Hotel, in 1865. They listed a number of men who died in that fire. There were a few other fires too but that was the big one.

All the firemen they listed were in their 20s. I backed up and took a look at the graves surrounding the monument I had just sketched. I started doing the math. 

Almost all of them were in their 20s or 30s. A few were in their 40s and 50s.

I was surrounded by the graves of firemen who had died fighting fires!

Son of a sea cook, I started to cry!!

This is why you do not go to cemeteries. 

Let us say a prayer for those brave firemen and then move on. 

We can always cheer ourselves up by looking at my pictures of geese.



Honk if you love geese! Haha, could not help that.

Next time I was thinking I could try drawing the Red Jacket statue, except he is right near the entrance and everyone would be looking at me. I saw some angels that looked interesting.

And when the chips are down there are always the geese. Comic relief in the cemetery.

Sometimes you need it!