Meet the monument man
A stone monument sculptor in Peterborough – one of only a handful in Canada – is in the final stages of a piece he’s been working on for more than a decade.
Andrew Hammond, 58, is nearly done carving the 7-foot, 2.2-tonne granite monument tthat he started 13 years ago.
The sculpture portraits Green Stockings, a historic Indigenous figure from the Northwest Territories who assisted Sir John Franklin in his overland expedition in the 1820s.
On average, Hammond said a piece of that magnitude (it was 5.5 tonnes when he started) should take about four months to finish – if a team were working on it with all the proper tools.
“It’s too physically demanding to work on it constantly on your own,” he said.
But Hammond has been plugging away at it alone, when he has the time, tools and cash, while raising his two children with his wife.
“It’s a real joy. It’s a real labour, but it’s a real labour of love.”
The London native started carving wood when he was 12, under the direction of a veteran carver.
Hammond worked alongside the man for about five years, until moving to Whale Cove (now Nunavut) on a cultural exchange.
That’s when he switched media to work with stone.
“It was easier and cheaper to get good stone than good wood,” Hammond said.
Eventually, he left northern Canada to pursue an education in archaeology – but he always found his way back. He’d study in Saskatchewan throughout the school year and work in the north during the summer.
After graduating, Hammond ultimately started his own archaeology business, sculpting and substitute teaching on the side.
It wasn’t long before he found himself immersed in the sculpting community and realized how competitive it was.
“That’s when I started stepping up in size, doing more complex pieces,” he said.
Up until that point, Hammond was creating sculptures – distorted fish or birds, for example – that weighed between 60 and 100 pounds.
Thanks to a grant from the Northwest Territories Arts Council, Hammond travelled to Montreal to learn how to sculpt monument-sized pieces.
During that time, Hammond purchased the 5.5 tonne Laurentian, pink granite for $800 – it’s the granite he’s still working on today.
He chose to depict Green Stockings because she was an important historical figure in the Yela lowknife area, where he’d been living.
Eventually, he packed her up and moved her to Lindsay when he, his wife and son relocated to the Kawarthas.
Then Green Stockings moved again when Hammond and his family (including a baby girl) bought a home in Peterborough.
The sculpture is now down to 2.2 tonnes, and about 7/8 finished, Hammond said.
He’s been working on her in the backyard of his home in The Avenues, while also crafting a few smaller pieces on the side in his garage or shop in the basement.
Nothing’s ever final, Hammond said. Although Green Stockings is nearly done, there’s chance she might be reworked and transformed into Hammond’s great-aunt, a Holocaust survivor.
“Not to shock people but to remind people that this actually happened.”
Whatever the result is, Hammond hopes his piece will end up on display.
The longevity of stone sculptures is one of the main reason Hammond was drawn to the craft.
“The idea that this something that’s going to be around far past my time on this planet… I find that very interesting and very satisfying.”