The Distracted Wanderer

Should you find yourself wandering in the Midcoast Maine region and you'd like to take in some art of a different nature, a short drive off of Route 1 as it passes through Thomaston will lead you to the Langlais Sculpure Preserve in the town of Cushing at the former homestead of Maine-born artist Bernard "Blackie" Langlais.  Langlais,  an oil painter for many years before putting down his oil paints and brushes in 1958 to begin creating art from wood instead as he felt it was a more intuitive medium for him,  is best known for his sculpture the " Skowhegan Indian " which stands 62 feet tall atop a 20-foot-tall base. Dedicated to Maine's Abenaki Native American tribe - "... the first people to use these lands in peaceful ways" - the sculpture is located on High Street behind a local Cumberland Farms about 45 miles north of Augusta in the town of Skowhegan. During the summers of 1949-51, Langlais  attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and S...

Now that I've covered the Washington Monument, the architecture of the buildings in the vicinity, and the Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church it's finally time to move on to the park squares that surround the monument in the shape of a Greek cross. I thought perhaps an aerial view might give you a better understanding of what I'm talking about but not having had access to an aerial balloon which would have been the best method to get a good picture, I used one from Google Maps. This picture was taken from the direction of downtown Baltimore and the Inner Harbor heading north; the Mount Vernon UMC, which sits on the northeast corner, can be easily spotted and serves as a good indicator of direction.  Truth be told, were I a smarter woman, I would have looked at this aerial map before I went to Baltimore but live and learn I guess! Anyhow all lamenting aside, as previously noted, Colonel John Eager Howard died in 1827, two years before the completion of the Washi...