The Sistine Chapel Gets A Charleston Brush Stroke

24-7 - Painted 12,000 square feet onto the ceiling of The Sistine Chapel is the depiction of famed Italian artist Michelangelo's biblical scene of God's Creation of the World, God's Relationship with Mankind and Mankind's Fall from God's Grace. Michelangelo's fresco tells a story to the world that words couldn't explain, that only he as an artist envisioned putting in pictures. For over five hundred years the painting has become a spectacle worthy of seeing time and time again. However time has left its trace upon the famed images that one Charleston S.C. artist is putting his artistic stroke to revamp The Sistine Chapel.

If the restoration in 1984 wasn't e enough to raise questions, many scholars believe that attempting to restore the immaculate works of art once more will tarnish the uniqueness of the Michelangelo masterpiece once in for all, while others may deem the idea improbable.

When The Sistine Chapel underwent a drastic make over it caused such a controversy, that historians and scholars differed on opinions as how to save the ailing work of art from losing its distinctiveness. That they fought to keep the history in tack from losing its original luster painted by Michelangelo.

Well we can only imagine what they are saying today, now that The Sistine Chapel is undergoing yet another monumental restoration process. But this time, on a scale un-parallel to what they can imagine.

Six months ago a Charleston native and artist had an idea. That idea was to recreate The Sistine Chapel and add a more contemporary appeal to it without tainting the story line or ruining the novel conception illustrated by Michelangelo. August 22nd, Kermin Middleton makes the attempt as he unveils The Sistine Chapel "Converted Gems: The Michelangelo Remix" at Castleberry Hills in Atlanta, and all eyes will be waiting to see what he's completed to restore what the world has come so amazed with each time it is viewed.

-----
Georgia Front Page
www.georgiafrontpage.com
Fayette Front Page
Community News You Can Use

University of Georgia Helps Restore Historic Athens Town Spring

As part of the Athens Town Stream Restoration Project, the University of Georgia is helping to reveal a historic stream located at the intersection of Fulton and Spring streets.

Scheduled to be completed by the start of fall semester, the project aims to restore the spring—thought to be the namesake of Spring Street—to be more reminiscent of what it used to be: a rock outcropping providing water to UGA students and Athens townspeople. The project also will help in the broader goal of making campus more green.

Physical Plant employees have mucked out dirt and decades worth of debris out of what was previously a grassy shoulder behind the business services building to reveal old cobblestone streets, railroad ties and a rock outcropping thought to be the very one John Milledge mentioned in his letter to the search committee responsible for finding a location for the University of Georgia.

With its “copious spring of excellent water,” the stream is heralded as the reason UGA stands where it does today. It served as Athens’ primary water source for decades, and its water was later pumped into a cistern in the mid-1800s. Eventually covered up by a lumberyard, the stream still is only partially “daylighted,” or exposed to the open air, while much of the stream, which flows into the North Oconee River, is piped underground.

The spring may become further exposed to celebrate the university’s history. Danny Sniff, associate vice president for facilities planning, said he’d like to see the stream head, thought to reside under the Central Duplicating Services building, exposed one day. While there is no time frame on that project, the university’s master plan eventually calls for the elimination of the building and the small parking lots in the area—replacing them with two smaller buildings and extending green space east of North Campus into the new northeast precinct. Sniff said he’d also like a historical marker for the area.

The restoration has been a collaborative effort between facilities planning and the grounds department at UGA and the Athens-Clarke County Public Works Department and its stormwater team.

Dexter Adams, director of UGA’s grounds department, said the restoration has been a good project for the landscaping crew to work on while other water-dependent landscaping projects have been put on hold due to the drought.

Because the stream provides its own water source, Jennifer Perissi, a landscape designer, has stocked the area with water-loving native plants including spikerush, Juncus, Carex and Hydrocotle, all of which grow in the gaps between old railroad tracks.

An old brick wall has been restored with wood beams and even some authentic old railroad hardware. Adams said he wants the entire project to look as authentic as possible, and thus has left the old building footings that were uncovered.

“I wanted to leave the artifacts that were here—the tracks, the cobblestones—and really do as little disturbance as possible to the stream,” said Adams.

That mindset falls in line with UGA’s master plan, according to Sniff.

“One of the things we’re trying to do with our planning is to keep as many of the indigenous materials as possible,” he said.

In the future, the area might even include picnic tables and an old rail cart. Though those plans aren’t yet certain, the historically significant stream will play a major role in the planning and development of the area, according to Sniff.

Sara Freeland
University of Georgia