Our cover photo for this issue
is a view through the Caelum Moor sculpture known as Sarsen Caer. It’s a Celtic name. Sarsen is sandstone found throughout southern England, while Caer means castle or fortress in the Welsh language. Altogether there are five of the granite monuments that are the setting for this month’s Fifth Annual Art on the Greene arts festival that is staged between Globe Life Park in Arlington and AT&T Stadium.
If you go there, you can discover the names of all of them, consisting of 22 sections of Texas pink granite from the hills of Marble Falls that took sculptor Norm Hines more than two years to fashion into these remarkable environmental monuments.
Visitors can discover all the interesting things about them while visiting the 125 artists from across the country showcasing their world-class skills.
Here’s how the Arlington Parks Department describes the setting:
“The environmental sculpture known as Caelum Moor has a long history in Arlington. The spacious work of art, created by sculptor Norm Hines, Professor of Art at Pomona College in Claremont, California, includes five groups of granite monuments set in a landscape.
“Norm Hines was commissioned by Jane Mathes Kelton to create the environmental work of art. Kelton was a resident of Arlington and the CEO of the Kelton Mathes Development Corporation.
“Caelum Moor was named and designed with reference to megalithic monuments. Kelton, whose ancestry was Scottish and who was drawn to the ancient sites found throughout the British Isles, made the Scottish design request in her commission of the artwork.
“The sculpture is composed of five individual groups of stones, each with its own Celtic name within a landscaped setting. The stone monuments range in height from 8 to 30 feet, and weigh a total of more than 540 tons. While the stone groups are reminiscent of the forms of ancient monoliths, they diverge in important ways. Each group is unique, offering carved details designed to encourage visitors to approach and engage the polished surfaces. Caelum Moor was installed in Richard Greene Linear Park in a configuration designed by the sculpture artist.
“Altogether the setting provides the opportunity for an attractive and engaging environment for the public to gather, to observe and reflect, to be refreshed and to enjoy the blending of nature and art.”
My wife and I had the pleasure of knowing Jane Kelton and her dream of creating a special place for people to enjoy. We visited the quarry in Marble Falls and watched Norm Hines working on the megaliths with tools ranging from large cranes to small hand tools he used to fashion the unique designs found on the stones.
Before we departed on the day of our trip to see him there, he handed us an electric chisel tool and asked us to autograph the bottom of one of the finished stones.
Our signatures remain there today
underneath the configuration of Morna Linn – the one that stands in Mark Holtz Lake adjacent to the linear park.
So, mark your calendar for May 20-22 for the arts festival and plan to spend the day discovering not only the unique items of the talented artisans showcasing their singular skills, but also a setting not to be found anywhere else but Arlington.
