'Round Town

Richmond man slips a little character into stone walls

Publish Date not available.

DIANE RANDLETT, Staff Reporter

Whimsical faces will inspire passersby for generations. Boothbay Region YMCA is the lucky recipient of this stone face creation by artist and mason Bill Jacobs from Richmond. One of several of Jacob’s faces incorporated into the dry laid or without mortar wall, gives the onlooker a fun reason to take a double and see the charming flare for detail that highlight the beautiful rock wall. Below, Jacobs and son William Thomas sit in front of one of several comical stone faces that Jacobs has carved and placed into the rock wall at the YMCA. Jacobs created these caricatures on his own time while employed by Jorgensen’s Landscaping. DIANE RANDLETT/Boothbay Register

Bill Jacobs and son William Thomas sit in front of one of several comical stone faces that Jacobs has carved and placed into the rock wall at the YMCA. Jacobs created these caricatures on his own time while employed by Jorgensen’s Landscaping.

Appearing quite like any other stone wall at first glance, the wall in front of the Boothbay Region YMCA’s new Emery Family Pool is anything but ordinary. Tucked among the stones are faces carved into round granite rocks.

Bill Jacobs, a subcontractor for Jorgensen’s Landscaping Company out of Bath, is a stone artist. He decided while building the rock wall at the Y to embellish it on his own time with his signature stone faces. His efforts have received a great deal of interest.

(Following publication of this story, Jacobs requested clarification that he was working for himself when he built the wall at the YMCA. Landscape architect Bruce Rydell designed the YMCA wall. Rydell and J.C. Stone donated most of the basic rocks that were used in the wall.)

Jacobs attended Brunswick High School while his father served at Brunswick Naval Air Station. After he attended art school, Jacobs decided he would seek his fortune outside Maine. He has now returned, and is raising his family in Richmond.

He’s happy to be back. “Maine is hard to stay away from,” Jacobs said.

A few years ago, he started working for Jorgensen’s, creating stone walls for, among others, the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens and the YMCA.

Experimenting with round stones at his home gallery, Jacobs started carving faces into stones. He’s accumulated more than 50 pieces of stone ranging in size from 3 inches to 3 feet in diameter. After searching for the perfect stone, he chooses various expressions for them. Whether happy, sad, silly or perky, his is a unique product that he makes using rotary power tools and grinders with diamond embedded blades.

He has donated six face sculptures to the Botanical Gardens’ Rose Garden and one to the Alfond Children’s Garden.

“They were a lunchtime project,” Jacobs said. “I didn’t ask anyone if they wanted me to do them. I just snuck ’em in.”

When personnel at the Botanical Gardens discovered the faces hidden among the stones of their wall, they were pleasantly surprised, Jacobs said.

While building the Y’s stone wall, Jacobs again surprised his client by incorporating his faces on his own time.

“The Y is special. I appreciate what the Y does for the community. They are great with my children, William Thomas and Maya Rhys, in the childcare program. It was easy to doing something in appreciation,” Jacobs said.

Who knows where his faces will appear next?

Jacobs has a studio and gallery on his “front yard” at 95 River Rd. in Richmond. For more information, call Sharmon Provan at 380-4402.