Brunel Sculpture Garden: Resurrecting a Roadside Attraction

Transcribed by Jerome Kazlauskas via otter.ai

Anthony Mennella  0:03  
Everything fell on the concrete that's around it, so I thought it would be nice to put a doily on it. Say, make it, put the concrete base all white, too. So, imagine.

Brett Barry  0:16  
Anthony Mennella and his team are hard at work, restoring a unique Catskills landmark. On this episode of Kaatscast, Brunel Park (home of Boiceville's iconic totems). Stay tuned.

This episode is sponsored by another Catskills landmark ... Hanford Mills Museum. Explore the power of the past as you watch the waterwheel bring a working sawmill to life. Bring a picnic to enjoy by the millpond. For more information about scheduling a tour or about their exploration days, visit hanfordmills.org or call 607-278-5744. If you haven't been, we highly recommend it; and for a good read, we also recommend Briars & Brambles Books. The go to independent book and gift store in the Catskills, located in Windham, New York, right next to the pharmacy, just steps away from the Windham Path. Open daily. For more information, visit briarsandbramblesbooks.com or call 518-750-8599. If you've ever driven west on State Route 28 through Boiceville, New York, you've likely spotted several totem poles off to the right. To find out who put them there (when and why), we met up with Cynthia Nikitin (steward of the Brunel Sculpture Garden).

Cynthia Nikitin  1:39  
So, Emile Brunel bought this land in 1921. He owned 77 acres here in Boiceville and he started creating these sculptures (probably back in 1929) after a very successful career as a portrait photographer and as founder of what is now known as the New York Institute of Photography and he moved up to Boiceville (full-time) and he started building these monumental sculptures out of concrete as homage in an honor of the native peoples and indigenous communities that used to be located here and he did it (basically) for his own amusement. As far as we know, he was a self-taught sculptor because his profession was as a photographer. The oldest one is the statue of the territory ... the Brunel totem (we call it) in the front of the log cabin, which was completed in 1929. The other 12 sculptures and totems and statues in the collection at Brunel Park were completed between 1929 and 1941, and then he passed away in 1944.

Brett Barry  2:43  
Brunel's appreciation for Native American culture extended to a popular hotel that once occupied the property.

Cynthia Nikitin  2:50  
The resort came first. Yeah, Emile Brunel bought the Brown Hotel (shortly after he purchased the land here) and turn that into a resort called Le Chalet Indien. It really had its heyday in the thirties and forties, but it actually continued to exist into the early 1960s. The sculptures though were (sort of) on his studio residence land on his private land and the resort was a little bit further back tucked into the woods and on what is now Brunel Drive, you know, whether the totems were here to (sort of) attract people that might have been part of it ... our National Register of Historic Places designation is as a roadside attraction. But obviously, guests, you know, enjoyed being here and we have some wonderful archival photography of some of the visitors to this place.

Brett Barry  3:42  
Including famous visitors like Madame Wellington Koo, Chinese Indonesian socialite and (in 1926-27) the First Lady of the Republic of China. She helped found the League of Nations. Fellow artists and architects stayed here, too (including Sidney and Harriet Janis and the Austrian architect, Frederick Kiesler, who summered here in the 1930s and 40s). Back then, Brunel's sculptures may have been in their prime, but time has taken its toll.

Cynthia Nikitin  4:12  
They're almost 100 years old and we learned recently that concrete lasts about 100 years. So, we just knew it was time to take care of these ... these sculptures, which are really iconic features, very unusual (sort of) landmarks for the Catskills and the town of Olive. There are a number of totem poles that he created that have animistic features and human features, as well as figurative sculptures of Native American figures, as well as the totem which is (sort of) the Stella is a tribute to ... basically to religion ... to the religions of non-indigenous people and (sort of) their alter egos and also this is a place that really does celebrate Native American tradition in history and lifeways.

Brett Barry  5:03  
He was French.

Cynthia Nikitin  5:04  
Yes, he was.

Brett Barry  5:06  
And so, what can you say about someone who not only was he not Native American, he wasn't American, coming in and creating these things; they're more of an homage to Native Americans than something that comes out of someone's own culture and belief system?

Cynthia Nikitin  5:21  
That's correct, Brett. Yes, they were very much an homage and an honoring of indigenous people. This was (sort of) a blow against erasure. He was making sure that generations knew that this were the lands of the Esopus (the Munsee, the Lenni Lenape) who were forcibly exiled and he didn't want people, you know, forgetting that. But, you know, like many French artists that were enamored of exotic places and exotic cultures and use them as subject matter, you know, in their artwork. He was (sort of). I think of that ... of that mindset.

Brett Barry  5:41  
What has been the response since you've been the steward of this property by Native American visitors?

Cynthia Nikitin  6:06  
Yeah, that's ... that's a wonderful question and that's something that we've been very cognizant of and very careful to (kind of) not overstep, you know, our boundaries here and we have been welcomed by members of the indigenous native community. We have an indigenous educator and artist and musician and healer on our board, Donna Coane, who is the lead drummer with Spirit of Thunderheart and we've had ceremonies here (we've had solstice ceremonies). Donna and her son built a Women's Moon Lodge on the land, so we are really trying to (sort of) re-indigenize the land, working with colleagues and friends and partners in the indigenous community to (sort of) guide us and lead us in the best way to do that.

Brett Barry  6:59  
In a moment, we'll check in with Anthony Mennella, whose leading the effort to restore Emile Brunel's sculptures. But first, we want to thank everyone who voted in this year's Chronogrammies to crown Kaatscast (Best Regional Podcast) two years in a row. We hope you'll tell your friends about us and if you could give us a rating on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen, that really helps new listeners find us, too. Thank you. Thanks also to the Catskill Mountains Scenic Byway, which will take you right to Brunel Park and Sculpture Garden. The 52-mile Catskill Mountains Scenic Byway follows New York State Route 28 through the heart of the Central Catskills. For maps, itineraries, and links to area restaurants, shops, and accommodations, visit sceniccatskills.com. Back in Boiceville, (mason) Anthony Mennella spoke about his own introduction to the statues assessing their condition and steps (he and his crew) have taken to restore them.

Anthony Mennella  8:02  
I didn't realize how much they would have already been like patched over here and there over the years, right? So, started with like wire wheels because I'm trying to get to something that's a good substrate to work on, but (yet) preserve the integrity of the original structure. The wire wheels were burning through them, then sanding discs and diamond blades, and then I sandblast it with a small sandblast art figure. I can put it on a scaffold. It was very tediously slow. So then ... I was like, "Well, I know what to do," so I rented a commercial air compressor and a large sandblaster and that went a lot quicker and it wasn't, you know, damaged and nothing; and yeah, we've took it down to the bare stuff and there's all different kinds of wire (wire mesh, hardware cloth, nails, rebar, or a metal-twisted wrought iron). You know, it was whenever he had around, you know, why he was making it up. Whatever it's heartfelt (I guess) and, you know, we're talking there and it's funny that ... that guy was the head of the photography. It started the new (right) and you would think he'd have more pictures, but I (kind of) understand because I unless I have to. I don't take a lot of pictures of my work. But in this situation, what are the ... the goals was to detail the progress before and after and what we came upon, you know, so I took pictures when I originally met Cynthia walking around, you know, and then as we started working on. I took pictures of damage and ... and also to have coloration that was on the original totem. Now, Cynthia supplied me with analysis that was done. A conservator (came here) did the fieldwork. You don't circle the cracks (actually) from the water damage that was coming through. It was turned into concrete in the calcite, which is what you see and when you go to like Howe Cavern. Alright, the calcium deposits were dripping out of the statue and they were forming stalactites and stalagmites (over the beards was a stalactite); and on the bottom, there looked like two little fried eggs, you know, because they were starting to build up with the calcium, and then there were cracks in the statue or like a leg would be shiny and that's because it had that calcium on it. We had to remove all that. Then, I talked to the conservator and I talked to the laboratory that did analysis on what was used in it. Now, I pretty much go old school with my mortar anyway for like simple (Portland Sand and Lime) and that's what he used. We use metal lathe and different that this is a fiberglass mesh (alright); and so, if there was cracks in it, we didn't just smear stuff over a crack (we felt it in the crack), and then put the fiberglass grid on it and it's very thin so as not to have it, you know, and then go over it (wooden with hydraulic cement). Then, we put a stucco mix (that's wider in color), and then we put a bright way to coat to thoroseal, so that we keep the outside elements out. A lot of these statues and to vary degrees are (kind of) hollow in the middle as far as you put a wire cage with loose rocks, and then he put the wire around it, and then the cement. So ... in some spots, there may be already three or four inches thick.

Brett Barry  12:00  
The day I visited, Anthony's crew was spraying on a final coat of stucco and sealer; and while most of the sculptures will stay bright white in keeping with historical records, the centerpiece totem at the entrance of the park will get color (also in keeping with its former self).

Cynthia Nikitin  12:17  
There are 14 sculptural features (two of them are bas-reliefs), so there are 12 three-dimensional forms and Anthony and his team are focusing on the ones that are taller than we are. So, it's ... yeah, it's ...

Anthony Mennella  12:35  
Six or seven?

Cynthia Nikitin  12:36  
I would say ...

Anthony Mennella  12:37  
Yeah.

Cynthia Nikitin  12:37  
Seven, and then there'll be a few that my husband and I are going to tackle after he retires based on what Anthony tells us to do.

Anthony Mennella  12:47  
The dying at a concrete, the cement is not concrete (concrete as rocks), we're going to use brown, red for the lips, black for the eyes and the hair. Red is also gonna be for a headband.

Cynthia Nikitin  13:02  
My husband and I, Eugene, have (sort of) cleaned and repainted a number of these sculptures about 10 years ago using a silica-based paint, which we thought would last. But we did not have a power washer; and so the paint did not really adhere to the surface the way that we'd hoped to and we never touched the Stella in the front (the Brunel totem); and Anthony says, "I don't want it. That's the money shot." He says, "I want to learn from these other sculptures. I want to not practice, but I want to do work on the other ones and learn about, you know, what kind of ... what kind of materials to use." The grid for the sandblaster, you know, how they ... how they take pressure washing. I don't want to learn on the first one on the one in the front. So, he spent time working on the other sculptures that we didn't even realize he was going to be able to do that. So, that was a bonus to really (kind of) get his chops down and feel comfortable with it, so that he could move ahead and have all the best practices and knowledge that he can to address the sculpture that most people see and remember.

Anthony Mennella  14:07  
When you're doing renovation (say) on an old house, right? You know, you start taking stuff apart, and then it's like we're gonna replace this window (first window takes you like two and a half hours), you know, but there's 16 windows. By the time you get to the end, you're doing them in a half an hour, right? Because you've already learned everything, so it was building up momentum. What do we do here? I know what to do with that (now) because we did it over there, you know, and now, we got a system, it's going along good and we apply the sealer on it and go over it with brushes, so as not to fill in the details that were sculpted into the cement, and then you got to cross your fingers and Mother Nature has to come here and laugh at me, you know, but yeah.

Cynthia Nikitin  14:55  
We started our nonprofit about four years ago and we've had a number of fundraisers to raise money for this; we're currently fundraising for it now on our ... on our website: brunelpark.org/support. So, we kind of use the funds that we have (sort of) saved and collected over the years to fund it, and then my husband and I are (sort of) underwriting of the rest of it, but we continue to fundraise.

Anthony Mennella  15:20  
So, every day, you know, we're like ... I do a foundation. I'm like, "Yeah, I did a foundation today like, you know, but I think in life." Everything you do with no matter how mundane it might seem, leads to something that maybe helps you out down the road. My experience is been wide. I felt comfortable in doing this, you know, and ... and said this has been wonderful and I'm glad that she entrusted me with this precious project. Twenty years from now, I can, you know, if I'm still around, I'd be like, you know, I ... I worked on those sculptures up there and the funny thing is I lived in Saugerties most of my life. And now, I moved to Greene County, but I driven by this totem about hundreds of times, right? But then, I was born in Brooklyn and walked up the Statue of Liberty either. You're right. That's just the way it is, right? So, I'm like ... if I didn't have the job here, I never would. I never knew these were up on the hill and I think there are hidden wonder that more people should come and check out and I've been trying to illuminate people on social media that I know. Say, "Look ... this is what I'm doing a picture and everybody's like (oh my god) I gotta go there." So, that's we're hoping that with your help (too) that more people come and enjoy this natural and manmade wonder that you're pacified all the time, you know.

Cynthia Nikitin  16:50  
We're hoping that seeing the restoration and transformation of the totem in the Brunel totem will (sort of) entice people to come in and (sort of) send the message that this is no longer (sort of) like a delightful ruin though there was a lot of charm to that. But that this ... the sculptures have (sort of) been reborn and taken on new life and hopefully that will intrigue people enough to (kind of) ... to want to come in and to donate to. We are always open to people that want to do an event here (a lecture, a workshop, a concert, a poetry reading). We want the space to be used and enjoyed by the public and we just think that, you know, bringing the sculptures back to life is a ... is a wonderful way of (sort of) sending out a welcoming invitation to the community to join us here.

Anthony Mennella  17:41  
If the restoration doesn't bring people in, I suggested we've thrown (one or another) spike strips across the road, so that cars get flat, and then they got to stop. But nobody's really picking up on that. Change the tire for free, donate a hundred dollars.

Cynthia Nikitin  17:58  
I love the way your mind works, Anthony. I really do.

Brett Barry  18:01  
Don't make Anthony resort to spike strips to make you stop, just plan a visit and experience Brunel's refurbished sculpture garden for yourself. Get involved, make a donation, and check out a list of upcoming events at brunelpark.org. Kaatscast is a production of Silver Hollow Audio. You can find out more about us at kaatscast.com. I'm Brett Barry. Thanks for listening and we'll see you next time.