The Carousel at Albany

In Albany Oregon they are building a carousel from scratch. Not reassembling, not refurbishing, and not skimping on any of the extras that are essential to creating a work of art of this magnitude. There will be a menagerie of animals, with 52 animals and 2 chariots, all hand carved and hand painted in the traditional style of Gustav Dentzel. The group was gifted the guts of a carousel by Dentzels descendants. The work is being done primarily by volunteers. The day we went by there were retired engineers, cabinet makers, and artists of all kinds. It is a painstaking process. There are renderings of all of the animals hanging from the walls. These renderings were drawn up by Terryl Whitlatch, who has worked with Star Wars’ George Lucas, and Kurt Christensen (artist and graphic designer. These sketchings are based on the desires of the individuals that have sponsored the carousel animal. for instance, there was this wonderful frog in bloomers crouched down mid-hop with a jar of flies under one arm. Her purple bonnet was blown back in the wind, and on her bottom was the word Sugar. The frogs name was Harriette. Harriette was designed in honor of the sponsors grandmother who lived through the great depression, loved frogs, canning, and purple, and had made clothing from sugar and flour sacks. Each of the animals has that kind of story to tell, and there is a book in which you can read all of them. So in front of these renderings, there are big blocks of wood. Some are just that with words like leg, tail, etc. written on them in sharpy. Some are being chiseled while we watch, some are being sanded, and some are being painted. A few are actually finished, and they sit in the foyer where the children are encouraged to climb up and sit on their backs. It's such a wonderful opportunity to see this work in progress. The smells of the workshop, the feel of the wood as it goes from a rough block to a shiny colorful carousel animal. There are many opportunities in this world to ride a carousel, but I don't imagine many to see one being created. You should check it out. While you're there, just up the street is a little toy store called Frogs and Pollywogs. A friend of mine named Celia owns it. She is the one who told me about the carousel project in the first place. Pop in and tell her I sent you.