Category: Sculptures

Stone Cold Toad…or Frog?

On By ResaIn Sculptures162 Comments

“Round about the caldron go; In the poison’d entrails throw.“

“TOAD, that under cold stone

Days and nights has thirty-one

Swelter’d venom sleeping got,

Boil thou first i’ the charmed pot.”

“Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and Cauldron bubble.”

“Fillet of a fenny snake,

In the cauldron boil and bake:

Eye of newt, and toe of FROG,

Wool of bat, and tongue of dog,

Adder’s fork, and blind worm’s sting,

Lizard’s leg, and owlet’s wing,

For a charm of powerful trouble,

Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.”

“Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn and cauldron bubble.“

Pics taken by Resa – August25, 2025

Toronto, Canada

The Artist: Not sure. Searches came up with several names, none checked out.

END NOTES

For those who may not know, the words in this post are from Act IV – Scene I – in William Shakespeare’s tragedy- MacBeth (written 1606-07); a tale of achieving ultimate power through treachery and murder, and the personal madness that ensues.

I did research toads and frogs. Frogs have bigger back legs for jumping. Toads have bumpy skin and frogs have smooth skin. There are green toads. I believe this is a Froad or a Trog.

Simple Pleasures: Haiku From Just The Right Place

On By ResaIn Book Reviews, Sculptures180 Comments

by: ELIZABETH GAUFFREAU

fading light, moonrise
day and night come together
our past, our future

Welcome to the final stop of the Simple Pleasures blog tour!

Liz –Thank you, Resa, for hosting me for the final day of my blog tour for Simple Pleasures: Haiku from the Place Just Right! 

Resa – My pleasure, Liz!

Florida Vacation

Liz -Today, I’m taking your readers to Cold Hollow Sculpture Park in Enosburg, Vermont. The park features dozens of sculptor David Stromeyer’s large-scale abstract metal sculptures spread over 45 acres of hay field. 

Resa – I am thrilled about getting to feature David Stromeyer’s art, with your book of images with Haiku. I’ve chosen to use all of the options you sent. FYI readers – the names of the sculpture is below its photo.

Ngozi

Cold Hollow Sculpture Park


Liz – I first visited the park site with my dad in the early 1970s, when he was counseling someone who lived in the area. I remember that the sculptor lived on the property in a barn that had seen better days, which I found the epitome of counterculture cool. 

Lost in the Roundabout

At that time, Stromeyer had two, maybe three, sculptures completed and displayed. I vividly remember the one he’d created out of the tank of a smashed milk truck. The sculpture made such an impression on me that twenty years later, I included it in a short story.   

  • Rock-in Sphere
  • Slice Rock
  • Banded Rock
  • Jumoke
  • Primavera
  • Da-jo-jo
  • Ensemble-4+2

Resa – Liz, I thoroughly enjoyed your book, and have selected my 2 fave Haiku for this post.

Elizabeth Gauffreau writes fiction and poetry with a strong connection to family and place. Her work has been widely published in literary magazines, as well as several themed anthologies. Her short story “Henrietta’s Saving Grace” was awarded the 2022 Ben Nyberg  prize for fiction by Choeofpleirn Press.


She has published a novel, Telling Sonny, and a collection of photopoetry, Grief Songs: Poems of Love & Remembrance. She is currently working on a novel, The Weight of Snow and Regret, based on the closing of the last poor farm in Vermont in 1968. 

Liz’s professional background is in nontraditional higher education, including academic advising, classroom and online teaching, curriculum development, and program administration. She received the Granite State College Distinguished Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2018. Liz lives in Nottingham, New Hampshire with her husband. Visit Liz on her blog!

Book2Read Purchase Link: https://books2read.com/SimplePleasures Print & Fixed EPUB for tablets and Kindle Fire 

BookFunnel PDF Purchase Link: https://buy.bookfunnel.com/gef1ili6qd For any device

What More Can I Say
strong against the wind
rosehip jelly long ago
rugosa grow wild

Adrienne Trent – Burdens

On By ResaIn Interviews, Sculptures96 Comments

This truly unique and fascinating collection of sculptures has caught my imagination.

It’s found in the temporary space of John B. Aird Gallery, housed in the Artscape building at 906 Queen W. during renovations of its home at MacDonald block.

Artist Adrienne Trent (pictured below) says, “the focus of installation work is not usually about sales, unless to a museum”.

Therefore she is able to project her mind’s eye without the yoke of commerciality. Hers is an honest  exposé of “art for art’s sake”.

About 2 years ago, photos of Adrienne’s  art was fed into an AI program. It came up with the image you see below. She decided to create an actual sculptural collection based on what she saw.

 Below is the result. So, a reflection is added to the mirror of art imitating life and/or life imitating art : Art – imitating artificial intelligence imitating art imitating life that is possibly life imitating art, ad infinitum.

Adrienne created the sculptures using gesso plaster and old curtains from The Goodwill.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

When I asked Adrienne how she came up with the title “Burdens”; she replied that she was at home when asked, on the spot, for the working title. She looked around her home, and answered “Burdens”.

Although not raised in the house she bought as an adult, it had been in her family for 6 generations. This has kept her reticent to fully renovate the original heritage. That respect was a burden. The name stuck.

John B. Aird Gallery is one of the few avant garde galleries to show in Toronto. For me it was a breath of fresh air, after strolling through certain posh downtown galleries where there’s seemingly a second coming of Andy Warhol, and commercialized street art on canvas.

The collection of 4 at the rear of the room is sustainable art from an earlier show. I love this. Some of the items include:

An old used easel, baskets, snowshoe, baseball mitt, license plate, violin, muffin tin, plaster head, rusty can, broken chair, wheel of sorts and is that a paper cup?

The show runs until March 23, 2024. Go on a Saturday, and Adrienne will be there to talk with.

Photos (except for poster) © Resa McConaghy

Henry Moore Sculpture

On By ResaIn Sculptures44 Comments

Rebecca at Chasing Art and I have had a few conversations about Henry Moore’s sculptures.

I’ve been wanting to shoot this sculpture for Rebecca (and all) for a while now. It’s in a park  by the AGO. Every time I go by the AGO & the park, I think of her.

I began at one side, and shot my way around the sculpture.

This sculpture was in front of the AGO since 1974. It was moved to the park in 2017.

It was replaced with: Elephant on a Ball

The Henry Moore Sculpture Centre
“The Art Gallery of Ontario is known internationally for its extraordinary and extensive collection of Henry Moore works. The Henry Moore Sculpture Centre at the AGO originally opened in 1974, to house Moore’s original gift to the AGO, now totalling more than 900 sculptures and works on paper.”

Pics taken by Resa – July 19, 2023

Toronto, Canada