While some artists hope to infuse their art with some form of historical significance, Craig Quirolo has done that and more. Each of his Chinsegut pieces are literally part of the history of Brooksville and Hernando County as a whole.
Over the past few years, a number of renovations at Chinsegut Hill have been carried out. “I discovered the, ‘wood pile,’ at Chinsegut Hill Manor,” Quirolo says. “Dead, dying, and diseased trees were felled at the Manor when the county took control of the property a few years ago.”
The wood that has been cut down from the Chinsegut property includes red gum, longleaf pine, and camphor trees, each with their own story to tell. According to Quirolo, Chinsegut had such detailed record keeping, that you can find out when many of those felled trees were planted, why they were planted, and who planted them. The red gum trees that were at the property, were planted by Raymond Robins as a windbreak, as the house had been all but destroyed due to wind damage a few years prior. While the red gum is very difficult to work with, Quirolo admits that it’s beautiful at the same time.
“The historical significance of Chinsegut Hill Manor, the Robins family and their contribution to mankind makes the wood kind of sacred to me,” explained Quirolo.
Because much of the wood is so diseased and damaged, Quirolo often incorporates that into his work, by letting those spots influence the shape of the finished product.
“I try to give my pieces of turned wood a sense of movement and expression accenting the organic nature of the wood. I also do abrasive blasting on some of the wood in order to exaggerate or raise the grain, creating a lot of visual movement.”
However, working with these damaged materials is also very time consuming and incredibly difficult, requiring a number of specialized tools and techniques. The wood that he uses has to be soaked in a glycerin resin for several days and then baked in an industrial microwave oven, in order to stop the process of the wood rotting, kill bugs, and make the wood a bit easier to work with. This process can take anywhere between about a week to eight months.
Quirolo explained the piece he created called the Suffragette Bowl, "Elizabeth Robins was a suffragette although she claimed not to be because of her journalistic career. She wrote the first play about the movement Votes for Women... a three act play she later turned into a book The Convert. She purchased the Chinsegut Hill Manor for her brother Raymond in 1905. So in a sense she is responsible for the red gum trees being planted. My idea was to have drips coming out of the natural cracks in the bowl which later I thought might represent sweat for all of the hard work in the Suffragette movement or blood for those women who lost their lives demanding equal rights."
Quirolo added that in a 1980s freeze the red gum trees standing about 100 feet tall all died. They had been aging on the trunk for about 36 years before they were cut down. Quirolo expressed that "natural aged wood, red gum, planted by the Robins," was just an irresistible combination.
In order to take advantage of all of the wood from Chinsegut Hill, and not waste anything, Quirolo has been using pieces that would generally be unsuitable for carving, to create stands that complement his work.
Quirolo hopes to find other artists and collaborate with them in setting up a tent at the Saturday Market in Brooksville on Main Street, and would like to see the Hernando Art Council and Nature Coast Art League set up tents in order to display local artists’ work too.
Quirolo also carves glass, but is primarily focused on working with the Chinsegut wood at this time. To purchase some of Quirolo’s artwork, you can head over to Chinsegut Hill Manor House where he has a few pieces for sale. You can also look forward to an Etsy shop that should be up and running by September. To view Quirolo’s private gallery, you have make an appointment by calling 352-277-3330 as gallery viewing is by appointment only.
Be sure to take a look at his website and online gallery at http://www.studioquirolo.com/ and https://studioquirolo.culturalspot.org/home where you can find a great deal of information about the materials Quirolo uses and Chinsegut Hill. You can also follow Studio Quirolo on Facebook for the latest updates and announcements.
If you’re an artist, art related business, or have an interesting lead for an art-related story, be sure to contact Elizabeth Dentato at edentato1@gmail.com.