Ted Strandt | Stone Cutter
STONED RIGHT OUT OF MY MIND: SEVEN OTHER DWARFS
This show is the story of my DNA handed down to me from my maternal Grandmother, Johanne Hansen. Born in the town of Skellerup on the island of Fyn in the country of Denmark, her father was a Stenhugger also known as a Stone Cutter, as was his father and his father before him. Stone Cutters all the way back to the late 1700s.
Like a sea turtle who is drawn to the beach where he was born, I found myself applying for work in a monument shop where I was hired. My Grandmother came to the U.S. in 1921. She had a creative side being a dressmaker as did two of her children through painting and sewing. One of them was my mother, who provided an early influence on art in my life.
It was on a trip to Denmark that my physical and metaphysical worlds met. I had the opportunity to visit the ancestral farm, the home of generations of Stone Cutters that came before me. It was a very special place for me and this was my physical connection. The metaphysical happened when I traveled to visit the Jelling Stones. Here, I ran my hand over the Rune Stones carved during the Viking Age as a tribute to King Gorm The Old and his wife Thyra. I felt a connection to this stone carver. The Scandinavian mythology mystically traveled from the stone to the ancients, the ancestors, and then to me. It was at this moment that I felt the seed was planted in me for the Seven Other Dwarfs. Through this show, my work, art, and life come together.
It’s my hope by the end of your viewing I will have given you a glimpse into who and what I am.
