Ben Cabot

“The beauty is in the stone. I just give it a form to express itself.”
- Ben Cabot

 

Hawk on a Granite Post was purchased by President Trachtenberg on a visit to Martha’s Vineyard from The Granary Gallery, where Cabot is exclusively represented. The sculpture stands at 5-1/2 feet and was installed in October of 2001. This became the first of four, unique works by the artist to be purchased by President Trachtenberg for the University. The second, an eagle, bears the inscription ‘91101’ memorializing the significant date and the lives lost. Purchased at the same time was a hawk that was placed on the Mount Vernon Campus. Most recently installed was the work designated “The Raven.” It was dedicated on, January 19, Edgar Allen Poe’s birthday, and sits in the yard in front of the Old Main Building on F Street, NW. Cabot’s works like the ones owned by GW tend to weigh upwards of 500 lbs.

President Trachtenberg considers these “avian landmarks” as modest works of art that provide aesthetic stimulation to people as well as create locations where people can meet as they walk around the campus.

Ben Cabot currently works full-time as a stonemason. The Raven’s surface is highly polished, and perhaps reflects a more refined treatment of surface contrast such as that of modernist sculptors Constantin Brancusi. The more pitted surfaces of Cabot’s earlier works bear a resemblance to those of William Edmonson; whose Rabbit (1940) is held locally at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. He is self-taught in the art of stone carving, and his interest in hunting and decoys informs the subject matter of his sculptures. A significant revival of direct carving in stone occurred in the United States in the 1930s and continues today. Cabot holds degrees from Wyoming Seminary in Kingston, PA (1986) and Bates College in Lewiston, Maine (1990). He resides in West Tisbury on Martha’s Vineyard.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Artist: Ben Cabot
Title: Hawk on a Granite Post, 2001
Granite
66” high; 9” x 7” base
Purchase from The Granary Gallery, West Tisbury, MA; 2001
Location: SE corner of University Yard

Eagle bearing inscription “91101”
70” high; 9” x 10-1/2” base
Purchase from The Granary Gallery, West Tisbury, MA; 2003
Location: On Eye Street in front of the West End Apartment

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hawk Post
96” high
Purchase from The Granary Gallery, West Tisbury, MA; 2003
Location: Mount Vernon Campus

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Crow Post “The Raven,” 2006
69” high; 6” x 6” base
Purchase from The Granary Gallery, West Tisbury, MA; 2006
Location: 1922 F Street, in front of Old Main Building

 

 

 

 

 

 

________________________________________________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________________________________________