Jason with Joel climbing to the highest point in the Faroe Islands at 3,000 feet above sea level.
‘Convocation’ set to be unveiled in late-October
This past July, Jason was invited to the Faroe Islands by a sculpture artist, who previously rented his current shop space before moving to the North Atlantic archipelago in 2011.
Joel Cole, formerly from Shakopee, MN, asked Jason and another Minnesota artist to assist with a large-scale public art project for which he was commissioned by a local municipality near the capital city of Torshavn.
Cole reached out to Jason explaining the project and how he could be involved.
It started with huge sheets of copper delivered to the Carver shop, which were then bent into various random shapes.
Joel Cole with Jason
A little over a year later, Jason was off to the Faroes for a 10 day work trip to assist with the brazing process and anchoring of the copper to the basalt rocks.
“I had the wonderful opportunity to go and explore the Faroe Islands in the middle of the North Atlantic Ocean,” Jason said.
A whaler’s knife
The Faroe Islands is located north of Scotland, west of Norway, and east of Iceland and is an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Denmark. It has a total population of approximately 54,000.
Several of its islands are connected via underwater tunnels and its inhabitants are primarily sheep herders and fishermen.
“They don’t have a lot of trees. It’s like just grass and rock,” Jason said. “One of my favorite things I got to do while I was there was actually herd some sheep.”
They walked about 7 miles to help herd sheep for a small village so the sheep could be sheered and administered medicine. It was an amazing experience, minus getting dive-bombed by seagulls for being inadvertently too close to their nests.
He also had an awesome travel companion, turned friend – Tim Burns, a wood artist from Duluth, who was also a friend of Joel’s from back home helping with the project.
Convocation underway
Cole’s project, Convocation, is a large-scale public sculptural environment slated to be unveiled in late-October. He described the intended atmosphere of Convocation as a peaceful and meditative space. The primary goal is to create an environment where visitors feel safe, welcome, and comfortable, away from political or external distractions.
The installation features several specific components:
- Nine forms constructed from local basalt stone.
- Materials including patinaed copper and glass.
- An integrated lighting element.
Other Trip Highlights:
- Climbing nearly 3,000 feet to the top of the highest peak out of all the mountains. “What a beautiful view that was! We were above the clouds, and we could watch the clouds kind of flowing around the mountain peaks all around us. It was very Tolkien, misty mountain epic-ness,” Jason said.
- Picturesque views from land and sea. Sometimes it felt like he was in Jurassic Park without
- The kindness and hospitality of the people. “We had so much coffee and cake because we were the Americans stopping by for a visit – they would put out a spread – as much as they could whip up on short notice,” he said, which in his opinion was a lot.
- An epic mix of work and pleasure exploring culture, natural beauty and building friendships.
Sheep herding excursion
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