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Date:    Fri, 30 Oct 2009 19:20:03 EDT
rom:    MSGuild@AOL
If the dongus was original to the sculpture ;but not in living memeory and not what the public is used to seeing 
 what decision should be made regarding its historic  replica ?
A similar project I am working on involves a well photogaphed ante bellum ruin  deep in the woods along
 the Mississippi river. 
The great hosue burned sometime after the war of Northeren aggression ;
and all that was left standing was 26 (yes virgina ) 26 ....30 ft high stucco flutted  masonry brick  collums 
with  decorative corinthian heavy  iron capitals still on top.
The ruin is well loved by the all the artists and tourists whocome to paint and  ooh and ahh over  Its subdued  colors
 and its mystical location and  their dramatic discovery of it hidden like a time capsual  
 Seeing it its as if it just  stepped out of the pages of  Gone with the Wind(or is it the wind done gone ?) 
One  can easily imagine Rhett and Vivian smooching it up over on one of the iron railings that holds on to the masonry 
 by a thread much like  the Titanics actual  chandelier.
The problem is (like the dongus) much of the patina and color that is so well loved  is coming from colors
 that are deteriationg the masonry . 
The white of the brick for instance  is from salts ; the deep shadows of gray come from a 1960's attempt 
at stabilisation with a smear of portland slurry   to  cover the deteriating lime (?)  stucco  bases and flutes.
 The dull reds are from the detoriation of exposed soft bricks and the blacks and greens are from mosses growing in wet masonry  enviroments
I can't in good nature recomend to resore this to keep those colors .
I could go on ; but the fact is the ruin ( as it appears now ) is what everyone expects  
 I will have to interpet the color of the decoratve stucco  masonry based  going from the color of the grey slurry 
to a antique white based  on a fragment that I found that hadn't been touched .
The slurry of 60 's  thin portland  grey sits over either a lime stucco or a natural cememnt stucco
( the lab will tell) The thin slurry in most cases chokes the stucco to pop off or blister off as  moisture
coming in from abovbe has no place below  to dry out  under the slurry 
However  in other cases  where the mositure is not getting in from above  the slurry 
is  holding up quite wel.l ...Thoughts of Removing  the slurry   of course will destroy the village in order to save it 
r i could just tighten and waterproof whats above and moniter the base for improvement ; 
but since  all masonry has to breath I am opposed to this as I have found evidence of brick deteriation from the choking 
and  its internal humidity as it holds up the collums
 Like the Dongus I am still dithering back anf forth ; if the dongus goes back i will be tarred and feathered by the Baptists 
not the first time mind you ...and if  I save and reinterpet the ruin as it once looked 
 I will be tarred and feathered by the locals and  tourists (many of whom are Baptists) 
My querry here is how should we look at history when it comes to strucure ? With the dongus as the artist intened 
or without as presumably the state (owner )intends it 
Both remind me  of a historic wall at Mills resevation/?) that was built wrong ; but that is how people rememberer it so it was put back wrong 
 I will be taking recomendations (if they aren't too graphic ) how I  should approach  the dongus and the ruin 
based on past experience  of those who have been tarred and feathered  /py 
 
  /Py     
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no 


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