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ACADEMY STREET MEDLEY
ARTIST: Jack Mackie
MATERIAL: granite, lithichrome shadow black
DATE: 2016
LOCATION: Academy Street
COMMISSIONED: Town of Cary
These twelve granite pieces mimic the shapes
of musical instruments that found an American
voice in the Carolina Piedmont and
Appalachians: mandolin, dulcimer, dobro,
violin, and courting dulcimer. On each bench
is a uniquely etched image of dogwood
flowers and animals indigenous to North
Carolina. One of the dulcimer benches, for
example, features the Bickwick Wren, while
the dobro bench includes the bog turtle. Every
bench also features text, primarily drawn from
poems, referring to either the instrument or
to dance and music as a whole. The etched
text is by poets who range from the classical
(Yeats, Coleridge) to North Carolina natives
(Carl Sandburg, RR Richardson, and Maya
Angelou). These texts are sandblast etched
into the granite and filled with Lithichrome
Black Shadow, a standard industrial lacquer.