Mark Herrington Sculpture

Franklin Residents Dedicate Public Sculpture

FRANKLIN, ME -- About 75 people from surrounding towns gathered Sept. 5 for the long-awaited dedication of local sculptor Mark Herrington's piece, "Recurrent Journey," at the Franklin Memorial Park.

Herrington's striking black stone sculpture was created as part of the 2009 International Schoodic Sculpture Symposium in Winter Harbor.

Eric Archer of Franklin, an Eagle Scout from Troop 81, volunteered and did all the digging and cement work. They also arranged for other work to be donated by community members.

Franklin First Selectman Ian Staub spoke about the strong investment made by his town to raise $1,000 toward the sculpture's cost at town meetings.

Cathy Lewis, who heads the Schoodic Sculpture Symposium Board and Planning Committee, called the biennial event as a way for communities to come together for a common purpose. She also noted the educational value for local schoolchildren, who witnessed the creation of sculpture by artists from around the world.

Herrington, who lives in Franklin, noted that "Recurrent Journey" was created to honor the town's history and its rich quarrying past. The sculpture, composed of basalt and erratic rocks, stands in Franklin Memorial Park operated by the Franklin Historical Society.

"Franklin also has a large glacial deposit called an alluvial fan that has placed stones here that started their journey from as far away as Quebec," Herrington, who attended the 2010 sculpture symposium in Egypt, explained. "I used both quarry stones and glacial stones for this reason."

"It is my hope that people will get a deeper appreciation of what goes unseen all around us. I aligned the sculpture to face east," the sculptor continued. "All journeys begin with the rising sun."