Solomon's Castle is no joke.....it's plenty jokes.

Some months back Kym O'Donnell and I visited Solomon's Castle, a long contemplated quest to one of Florida's more strange and remote locations. The visit was not a disappointment!
Solomon's Castle is located in central Florida pretty far from civilization. It is located at 4533 Solomon Road, Ona, Florida 33865.

The castle is also Solomon's family home and the grounds are filled with his eccentric sculptures made from recycled material and found objects. I was lucky enough to meet the artist and he took Kym O'Donnell and myself to his workshop. Solomon's workshop is very impressive ( wood working tools, welders, almost every tool to create you can think of)! And we spent a good deal of time taking it all in as Solomon busied himself with clear coating a few small works with a spray can. One gets the feeling that this man never stops working. Another notable part of this artist is that all his works are built on puns or jokes. As he showed us through his finished works and works in progress an endless flow of corny jokes stood in for description.

Solomon's Castle with "The Horse of a Different Color" in the foreground. Photo by Kym O'Donnell

My favorite moment came when, entering a newly constructed building Solomon called "The Alamo" which is not open to the general public, Solomon described the purpose of two wooden seats positioned at either side of a hallway perpendicular to the entrance to the main room. Solomon described the two wooden chairs as the final resting place for he and his wife who were to be taxidermed, sat across from each other and engaged in a staring contest for visitors to witness.

This made me think of The Art Guys project "Forever Yours" immediately. With all the jokes and puns to boot! So, if you are into warped humor, recycled materials and long drives in the wilds of Florida, Solomon's Castle is for you.

All Photos by Kym O'Donnell

OLDusa- Day One in St. Augustine FL

Recently I visited yet another Florida location that was a first for me. The oldest town in the United States of America, St. Augustine Fl. The historic district is now quite a tourist attraction and is geared to maximize the popular culture appeal of stuff like ghosts and pirates but there are many unusual rabbit holes to explore. Everything we passed as we walked from our hotel room on the first day had the word   "old" in it- oldest town store, oldest school house, and the old jail.

In front of the old jail is a sculpture of a chain gang which is amazing in how well it reads considering the crudeness of the plaster it is made from.

At sunset we arrived at the Castillo de San Marcos. This was one of the major sites in St. Augustine that I was interested in because of the construction materials and history. It was not a disappointment!

The castle is the oldest masonry building in the continental US- construction was started in 1672.

The actual town or settlement was established 107 years prior to the beginning of the fort's construction.

The structure is amazing. The fort is built with local shell infused limestone that, by it's nature, became one of the greatest engineering triumphs of it's time. By chance, the materials available were the exact prescription for an impenetrable fortress.

View of exterior mote wall

Detail of the Coquina "rock" used in the fort's construction.

The coquina masonry of the walls literally absorbed cannon fire into itself rather than cracking. This is evident on the bayside of the fort where the holes are plain to see. Years ago I became interested in this fort after reading about it's construction materials and came up with an idea for a sculptural installation called "Punching Bag for the Englishman with the Iron Fists" which would consist of a cast coquina punching bag suspended from the ceiling and two cast iron fists on the floor. I tracked down the sketch book drawing of this dated 6/12/2000.

I noticed an abundance of architectural phalluses at the site and all over St. Augustine in the older buildings. Each corner of the fort has a dick-like rampart tower. Around town there are numerous free standing structures like this that seem to serve no purpose or are connected to walls. 

The only structure in the fort that was made of cast concrete is an addition by the United States military when it controlled the fort. It is an oven for heating canon balls till they are red hot so that when fired they would start fires on the wooden vessels they struck. It is a very interesting structure resembling a kiln with a chimney and open end at both front and back.

Across from the oven is a wall that the US soldiers obviously used to try out their firearms.

Spring Mix- Warring Gargantuas and a brief history of bats and hotels.

OK lots to cover-
Recently I have been going back to films that I recall from childhood to see if they are as I remember them or if, as I am apt to do, the memory has been tweaked to my taste. Earlier blog posts have already touched on this (see     ). In this case I revisited "War of the Gargantuas". This Japanese film is in the giant monster genre and a favorite when I was a kid and watched Creature Feature and Ultraman religiously.

The plot of the film involves two giant gorilla-like creatures, one green and one brown, that have contrasting behaviors when it comes to interacting with human beings.

The brown gargantua was raised in a lab environment and likes people- even comes to the rescue of the foxy japanese scientist lady a few times. The green gargantua, who lives underwater, likes to eat people and destroy cities. The film is fairly graphic when it comes to the green gargantua eating people, which is something I had forgotten. The greeny eats folks and spits out their clothes and can eat up to 8 people at a time. Another thing that I had no recollection of is the fact that Russ Tamblyn plays the American scientist that studied the browny in captivity.

Above Russ Tamblyn in "War of the Gargantuas" Below as Dr. Lawrence Jacoby in "Twin Peaks"

Altogether the "War of the Gargantuas" was worth the revisitation. My next will be "Voyage into Space" where I have finally tracked down the disembodied giant eye monster I remember from childhood.

Bats and Hotels

Recently I have begun a public art project that has been a long time coming ( I mean this in regards to my past attempts at building bat houses as a public art project in Tampa with the Experimental Skeleton Inc. group). I am building ten bat houses for the PortoFino Hotel at Universal Studios Orlando Florida. The genesis of this particular project was prompted by my realization, while doing mural work for the hotel in a boom lift, that there is a large bat population living behind the fake shutters on the exterior of the buildings at PortoFino. Since the shutters are being replaced as a part of the hotels face lift I proposed that bat houses be built and painted to mimic the facades of the hotel. The little structures would have the same trompe l'oeil treatments we are redoing with mural work. The project, in collaboration with the Nassal Company, has begun and the first of the completed bat houses are being installed around the man made lakes that surround PortoFino. During the research into this project another historic attempt to equip a hotel with  a living place for bats emerged. This research also goes full circle to connect to a local project (Tampa Bay area).

PortoFino facade with painted architectural elements.

Three chambered bat house based on the PortoFino facade.

Bat house installed on pool pump house ( centered above the portal ) close to man made lake.

   In 1929 Richter Clyde Perky, a fish lodge owner in Sugar Loaf Key, built a spectacular bat tower to control mosquitoes in the lower Florida keys. He followed plans by a man named Charles Campbell who was, according to my research, a pioneer in bat research and had a vision to control the spread of malaria through his knowledge of the animals. To Perky this probably seemed like a heaven sent answer to some of his major problems ( mosquitoes and the fear of disease born from the pests) but neither probability or luck were on his side. Bats did not like the new digs. It seems through all of its history, because of its design, the Perky Bat Tower has seemed like a dump to bats. The tower still stands today even though Perky's hotel burned down in the 1930's.

   The more amazing fact is that 14 of these towers were built. It seems that, besides visionary intent that I admire beyond the results, all of the structures lacked the design elements necessary to attract the bats of the particular environment they were installed in. Of the towers built only 3 survive. The three include the Sugarloaf Key tower built by Perky and two in Campbell's native Texas ( one in Comfort Texas and one in Orange Texas) which have been reworked internally to actually serve as habitats for bats as originally intended. Then there is the fourth- Temple Terrace/ Tampa Florida was the home of another of Campbell's experiments. Built in 1924 ( according to the web site funding the rebuild) and burned down by vandals in 1979, the Temple Terrace Bat Tower is subject of a campaign for renewal. Originally on the banks of Hillsborough River this incarnation will be more visible to the curious. In fact, the Temple Terrace Bat Tower is being compared to other bat related tourism in the US as a promotional device. The new tower has the support of actual bat specialists ( identified as Cyndi and George Marks of the Florida Bat Conservancy ) and for this I am very happy.

   I plan to go to the Perky Tower within the week to document it and blog the observations.