Temporarily Down

The project is temporarily down due to vandalism and for site maintenance. When creating this project, I expected to replace some bells every week, because of sticky fingers. Objects are taken from graveyards all of the time, and it is also oddly flattering that someone would want to keep a piece as a memento. With close to 1,600 separate pieces, I can see how a person could say to themeselves,"Oh it's just one, it won't be noticable." A little can turn into a lot very quickly.

I returned to take down my project for site maintenace by the crew a few days ago and from a distance I thought it looked a little thin. When I got to the middle of the project I was shocked to see ten whole rows missing, close to 300 individual pieces gone. This shocked me. This would have taken a while to do( to take that effort), I thought it must have been noticable and noisy. When I returned again to take it all down, I noticed a shiny bundle in the woods next to the canal. It turns out someone or several individuals, took the rows and wadded them up into little nests and put them at the edge of the canal. At least I do not have to replace every single piece, but there is some damage and I have to unbend them all.

So, stay tuned for the return of the "Bells" in August.

Visitations, Natural and Otherwise

Rhode Island, specifically on the Pawtucket/Providence city line , experienced a freak hail storm last week. I am originally from Nebraska, and I know bad things happen when a cold front and a warm front meet(i.e. massive tornados). I had been on the phone with a friend when I thought I heard a very heavy rainfall coming. My cat knew better, and with a swift trot, made a beeline for under the bed. In the next moment it was as if Mother Nature dumped an ice chest over my house. The street became a river of ice,when only moments before it had been reaching 80 degrees inside. Big and little pellots of ice. It lasted for about 20 minutes. I went outside afterwards and even my car was dinged a bit. The ice stayed in the yard until a warm rain in the evening.

So you can imagine what I thought happened to the little tin bells at the the North Burial Ground. I feared the worst, but I had made extras for natural and human disasters. I went the next morning to check on everything...and almost everything was fine and tinkling like normal! Just a few blew around here and there. What I found very curious were the human interventions. One bell was wrapped in knots and replanted, half its size. In a few spots someone gathered surrounding bells an planted them together. In the very back there was some vandalism and I started to think of the movie "Yellow Submarine." Have you seen any Kinky Boot Beasts in the area?

The bells also naturally (or maybe supernaturally) catch onto each other, forming pairs. Maybe some companionship has formed underground and is reaching upwards?