Aging Stone Gargoyle from Washington DC Finds New Life

Once upon a time, a long time ago, an unnamed stone carver completed his carving of a manly gargoyle, with a broad nose, steady gaze and leafy hair and beard – one of several gargoyles decorating the buildings in the Federal Triangle in Washington, D. C.

This handsome fellow, (the gargoyle — we have no idea what the stone carver looked like – we just assume that he, being a stone carver was good looking), stared down into the street, perhaps wondering why he was merely decoration and was not, as his ancestors had been, being used as a downspout to funnel water from the roof. Perhaps that is why his brow is furrowed. Maybe not. Sometimes it’s hard to tell what a gargoyle is thinking. A century or so later, in 1988 to be exact, Stephen King wrote the text and f-stop Fitzgerald took the photos for the visually magnificent Nightmares in the Sky. (Editor: reviewed in this issue by Jan Brown.) Among the 100 black and white and 24 color photographs is our fine leafy-haired friend from Washington.

Fast forward to present day when our own resourceful Jan Brown was searching for that perfect gargoyle face to adorn the T-shirts for the 2006 Roche Harbor Hand Carving Symposium.

We’re not sure how Jan decided upon this particular image, perhaps it was his simple asymmetry, perhaps just his straightforward gaze. Whatever the reason, Jan painstakingly transferred the image, adding a few touches of her own, and made it ready for the silk screener’s transfer to grace our Ts.

Adorning stonewashed blue and stonewashed green Ts, he has now become the official image for the 2006 Roche Harbor Hand Tool Carving symposium.

Thank you unnamed carver, thank you f-stop and thank you Jan Brown.