Seeing ‘beyond what’s there’
Pawtucket man’s creations have spruced up Slater Park
PAWTUCKET — If you enjoy taking walks or riding a bike through Slater Park, you’ve undoubtedly seen the tree with a door painted on it and window attached, reminiscent of scenes in author J.R.R. Tolkien’s 1937 award-winning classic “The Hobbit.”
You’ve probably also noticed the “chairs” carved out of tree stumps (one includes a hassock or foot rest) and other artwork across the park.
At the same time, you’ve probably wondered who was responsible for such creations. Well, it happens to be city resident Tom Rogers, and he claims he will soon unveil another beautiful, natural design – though not until all this snow disappears and the temperature warms a bit.
The 65-year-old photography buff and East Providence native has made a standard 16-inch x 16-inch checkerboard/chessboard, one he will attach to a stump he has already spent hours upon hours renovating.
“It’ll be by the playground; the stump is 19 inches (in diameter), so I can just screw on the checkerboard, which is all done,” noted Rogers, who loves spending time each day walking through the park and reminiscing. “The stump is done, too – all sealed. I used marine-based polyurethane to preserve it (from the elements).
“I asked people to donate chess and checker pieces, and I felt those with (Parks & Recreation Director) John Blais inside his office,” he added. “If people want to play, all they have to do is ask for the pieces.”
Rogers indicated he wanted to carve the checkerboard right onto the stump, but chose not to.
“I was working on the stump and it was getting ruined every night,” he stated. “I wouldn’t say it was being vandalized, but people were scratching it, doing whatever they wanted to it, so I figured I’d use that marine-based polyurethane to protect it. It’s much thicker.”
When asked why he does all this work not only at the park but other sites around the city, state and region, he shrugs, “I like to keep busy. I see something I feel needs work, so I do it. I like to do it. The people that I’ve seen seem so happy; there’s one lady who when the weather was nice used to sit in the stump chair every afternoon reading a book with her feet up on the foot rest.
“She spends an hour, maybe an hour-and-a-half there, and that makes me happy. The people I’ve seen who are enjoying what I do makes it all worthwhile.”
Rogers admits he’s always had an interest in, and flair for, the arts, and that it began years ago as a child growing up in East Providence.
“I’ve always liked photography; I started out taking pictures when I was probably 9 or 10,” he recalled. “My first camera I received from my grandmother and grandfather; you had to put a flash on it back then. Then I moved on to a Minolta.
“Photography just came naturally to me; I had a natural draw to it. I think (photographers) see things differently from how people see them. A lot of people will look at things and just see what’s there; I look and see something totally different. I see something to create; I see something that’s beyond what’s there.”
It comes of no surprise that when Rogers graduated from East Providence High School in 1974, he enrolled at the Community College of Rhode Island-Lincoln to chase a Bachelor’s of Arts in Photography.
Ironically, though, it didn’t become his career. After earning his Associate’s in Photography in 1976, he went to work as a welder for Electric Boat at Quonset Point.
“I started in welding, which was more of an art to me than a job,” he said. “I loved it.”
He spent years there, then in construction, then working in sales for LePage Bakery in Maine, though it had a satellite in Pawtucket. He indicated he retired in 2009 from that sales job, but soon found he needed an outlet, something to get him out of the house, something that piqued his interest.
He decided to do volunteer work at St. Mary’s Cemetery on the corner of George and Pine streets.
“I took care of that cemetery for 10 years; I needed something to do,” he said. “I started out first cleaning headstones; I did 40-50 that dated back to the early 1800s. They were made of limestone, and a lot of them were Civil War soldiers’ headstones. I’ve cleaned and renovated stones and monuments from all over the state, and in Massachusetts and Connecticut.”
He claimed he started walking through Slater Park for exercise about five years ago, and – slowly but surely – his eyes picked up on things he believed needed some improvement or creativity.
“I started doing work at Slater probably two, three years ago,” he offered. “I started in the spring and ended in the fall. I did the big white shell (at the Veterans Memorial Park) on Armistice Boulevard; I cleaned and painted that, and I cleaned all the little monument stones along the sidewalk, got all the mold and mildew off those.
“Then I went on and did all of the monuments around the park,” he continued. “Everything I did was on me; there was no charge to the city. I just liked doing it. One day I decided to walk into John Blais’ office (at Parks & Rec) and gave him all of my ideas and asked if it was OK, and he said, ‘Yes, go ahead.’
“I also took care of the Korean War Memorial on the corner of Newport and Monticello. I plant flowers there every year. A friend of mine, John Scolaro, I used to walk with him, and he used to tell me, ‘Nobody ever does anything for the Korean War vets.’ So I went over and looked at it, decided to clean it up, so I took that task on. He passed away three years ago, but I know he was pleased.”
Last year, he decided to paint that “Hobbit” tree, then later attached the window, one children can open and see a gnome inside. Also while strolling through the park, Rogers decided to carve stumps into chairs.
He’s done all that despite having back issues since 2009.
“I had back surgery in August, and I finished my rehab, but I still like to keep walking,” he said. “I’ve been doing that for four or five years now. I’ve had a bad back for a long time, but I always put off surgery because I didn’t want a bunch of screws and rods in my back.
“When I couldn’t stand it anymore, I went to a doctor, and he told me, ‘OK, it’s time.’ Walking has helped a lot.”
Apparently, so has his artwork.
“Like I said, it gives me something to do, and it’s something I enjoy.”