"The Outer Battery"
The "Outer Battery" was my very first carving. Adjacent to the Narrows and seemingly carved into Signal Hill, the Outer Battery is a one-of-a-kind place. My second novel, "Temperance Street" is largely set in this location.
"Cape Spear"
Cape Spear is the most easterly point in North America. The following is a poem that I wrote to accompany the carving.
Cape Spear
Kneeling to the sea, the primordial face of bog and rock, of "truth and dare." Forever watching. A fair and empty Graceland where graves are marked by icy giants, silent in the ghostly fog. Forever watching. And stir. the tuckamore from its fearless hollow whilst the flirting gales and waves play songs on the granite edge. Forever watching. A nation stands beyond your place, oblivious to your call, knowing not your stories of whales and ships that know you. Forever watching. You are the barren and the beautiful, the greeting and goodbye, the beginning and the end, you are Cape Spear. Forever watching."truth and dare" from Ron Hynes
"Martin's Porch"
While walking up Hamilton Avenue I was taken by the back yards of Patrick Street. It was a perfect St. John's scene. A few months later year I had finished the carving and showed the work to a good friend, only to learn that the dormer bedroom in the foreground was his bedroom. My friend's brother, Martin would hang out in the small porch when fish was being served. How peculiar, I thought, a Newfoundlander allergic to fish. I couldn't help but name the piece, "Martin's Porch."
