Tunnel Art Unveiled: “Ironwood” and “Pollinators”

The dragonfly is no slouch. But the bee . . .

If you had been in possession of a few old railroad spikes, artist Greg Stott might have been at your door in recent months. At the unveiling of his work on a cold Saturday afternoon in the tunnel connecting the Northern Rail Trail and the Mascoma River Greenway in downtown Lebanon NH, Stott talked about his inspiration to use materials that honored the original purpose of the trails. Sourcing the railroad spikes turned out to be a challenge, however; he painstakingly collected a single spike or two, or maybe a dozen at a time, from Upper Valley neighbors.

Artist Greg Stott (right ) gets an assist from Dave Shinnlinger (left) in unveiling “Ironwood.” Shinnlinger also contributed his welding skills to the project.

“Ironwood” (above), the finished work, now hangs high on one of the tunnel walls, composed of the spikes welded into tree branches rich in texture and accented with aluminum leaves.

The other artistic contribution is “Pollinators,” (below) by a group of AVA artists: Allison Zito, Amber Geneva, Debra Jayne, Tyler Morrison, and Michael Kraatz. No grand unveiling for this work during Saturday’s ceremony; it was installed and ready to greet visitors and holiday revelers (photo, top) at the tunnel’s entrance. It posed this question: “How many times can the fastest dragonfly flap its wings per second?” The answer (which I had to look up) is 30. Bees? An astounding 300 beats per second.

As big and beautiful and welcome as these works of art are, they could use more company. The tunnel still retains umpteen square yards of concrete-surfaced walls waiting to surrender their bareness to additional artistic works. May “Ironwood” and “Pollinators” be the first of many.

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And in case you are wondering . . . Susan B. Apel shuttered a lifelong career as a law professor to continue an interest (since kindergarten) in writing. Her freelance business, The Next Word, includes literary and feature writing; her work has appeared in a variety of lit mags and other publications including Art New England, The Woven Tale Press, The Arts Fuse, and Persimmon Tree. She connects with her neighbors through Artful, her blog about arts and culture in the Upper Valley. She’s in love with the written word.