Before and After at The Ruins

Plus, calendar dates and a special glimpse into an in-progress Ruins collaboration

Today’s post is very full of good things. Take your time, settle in, and enjoy the details.

Did you know that you can become a part of The Ruins Membership?

Paid membership perks include learning about behind the scenes art in progress (like you can discover today) and early access to joining the hugely popular open calls to artists that can result in you becoming a Ruins Artist your own self.

Calendar workshop dates to consider:

Knotweed Land Art Adventure

Sunday, April 6, 1:00 - 4:00 pm
Floodplain Studios, a new destination for art and nature on the GAP trail.

Ephemeral Wildflowers and a Lasting Nest (Rachel will be joining in on this one)

Sunday, April 27, 12:30 to 4:30 pm
The Ruins Project

Registration is now open for two afternoons of making, learning and noticing in the aching glory of an Appalachian spring. Both are limited to 10 participants and past workshops have sold out quickly.

Dates have also been set for Erika’s summer, fall, and winter workshops in The Ruins. Follow Erika on Substack at The Mudlark Mosaicist to be the first to know when registration is live.

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One hundred years plus neglect is enough to erase most of the outlines of a story.

But The Ruins story also had its outlines razed with bulldozers.

It’s really quite extraordinary that any of the infrastructure of Banning #2 coal mine was left at all. It occurs to me as I write this that maybe the reason our well-loved concrete and brick walls are still standing is because the bulldozer couldn’t fit back into the tight spaces across the creek and up against the hillside.

Thank goodness for that access problem.

For ten years now, I have been explaining to visitors how tragic it is that we have found no more than one or two photos of what The Ruins looked like back when it was an operational coal mine. Sure, we have a handful of farther away shots that show the big expanse, including the tipple and railroad tracks. But nothing that fires the imagination as to what a particular area, now beloved for its art, really looked like back in 1907.

Enter a brand new (but also very old) photograph, courtesy of the Forsythe Family of Banning and Charleroi.

A chance meeting at the Belle Vernon Tractor Supply between Blair Barthels, our resident Ruins historian, and Judy Forsythe resulted in adding another link to our broken, rusty chain as we keep digging for what was.

Pictured below is Judy’s grandfather, the handsome Mr. Jacob Strawn Forsythe. A great photograph in all respects. But it’s the building behind him that made my heartrate speed up. There is so much to identify and recognize in this photo. I asked The Mudlark Mosaicist to take a new photo from the same exact spot for comparison.

I have been in love with this particular section of The Ruins for so long, it feels like an old friend. The fancy dental work at the roofline. The open windows that frame the woods in the distance. My hands have rubbed across its brick corners so many times. I have long wondered at the shadow of the bricked-up door of The Fan House in the right photo, just to the left of the beehive color studies. Now I can see what its original door with paned glass looked like. It was for men to walk through. See the DANGER sign?

And then there is the larger, barn-like sliding door farther to the right. Now, when we stand at The Ruins Beehive corner, I can say there was once a big wooden door here that protected the men from the dangerous, giant fans used for ventilating the mine.

Mr. Forsythe adds his human scale to what was so often a murky question mark in our minds.

Now let’s inspect the next photo of Mr. Forsythe

This one is taken from farther back. It still shows the corner with the familiar dental work but now we can see more infrastructure and lay of land.

To give you perspective, The Ruins Threshold, our floor pebble mosaic by Kathleen Doody sits just off camera to his right. However, I believe when this photo was taken (possibly 1907?) and because of the distance, the entire concrete structure of The Map Room had not even been built yet. I can only guess at what the wooden troughs were used for. Water to cool the fan motors, maybe?

If you look closely at the far distant right, you will see what looks like a brick house-like feature with a chimney. That is gone, save for its open doorway. The Red Dog Challenge wall is back there.

And of course, just off Mr. Forsythe’s right shoulder is where The Stone Quilt from The Patch House Project hangs.

And one more photo comparison. This one brings us to present day.

My good friend and yours, Steven Palmer of Old 56 Salvage, has saved this fan portal for me. I say he is your friend because if you are enjoying the many past and ongoing Ruins collaborations, you have him to thank. The Tiny Rings, The Moss Project and many of the giant wheels that make up The Wandering Wall, all originated from his salvage yard. Steven’s artistic brain and salvaging savvy have made their mark.

His considerable instinct for old, beautiful things told him that this fan portal would make sense as an artistic element at The Ruins. Shortly after I said, “yes, please hold it for me”, I received the photos of Mr. Forsythe. Another link in the chain, connected. It’s not the same portal, but my goodness isn’t it similar? I recommend enlarging it on your screen and looking closely.

My happy job this spring will be taking careful time to decide where we will install our Ruins fan portal and then plan to build a mosaic inside it.

One of the hallmarks of the art of mosaic is the repetition of elements.

The circle and the square keep repeating themselves here. I can’t help but believe that the past is whispering to us as we plan new art. The portal as an archetypal image, whether a fan portal or the deeper and more mysterious coal mine portal, is sending its messages to us. We are listening.

And now, speaking of PORTALS…

A peek into Portal #1. A work in progress