20 / Symbolizing Lodge Builders: Metal Work
Take the stairs (or main elevator) up one floor to the Mezzanine, home of the Ram’s Head Bar and Restaurant. (Please ask the Host for access around the Mezzanine during Ram’s Head business hours)
As you enter the Mezzanine, look closer at the massive Douglas fir wood table made by WPA woodworkers. The bottom table supports are ram’s heads and were carved by Melvin Keegan. This open balcony-style view begins almost eye-level to one of the large hexagonal ceiling light fixtures. More of the andesite stone chimney’s charm is revealed, such as a petroglyph design of a figure holding a staff and standing next to an elaborate X-pattern. Chipped into the surface of the stone, this is one of three figures that were most likely done when the scaffolding for constructing the chimney was still in place. The Mezzanine is a terrific balcony gallery that features the Art Deco era’s paintings from the Federal Art Project FAP.
Throughout the country, and in fact the world, in the 1930s labor and workers were favored themes especially for public art. Though the times were tough, it was also a stimulating period for artists, whose work was valued, sought and used by the federal government post-Depression era, particularly the FAP. The Mezzanine’s display of oil paintings are the direct result of Burt Brown Barker, FAP director, Joseph Danysh, FAP regional director and Margery Hoffman Smith, assistant art director, working together with Emerson J. Griffith, director Oregon WPA.
Howard Sewall’s paintings pay homage to the crafters and builders of Timberline Lodge. Following counter-clockwise, Sewall’s Symbolizing Lodge Builders: Metal Work is displayed across the host stand.
Ram’s Head table, top by WPA woodworkers; carved table supports by Melvin Keegan, 1937-38.
Oil painting, Symbolizing Lodge Builders: Metal Work, by Howard S. Sewall, 1937.
LOCATION: MEZZANINE (WEST)
WOOD- STONE- PAINTINGS- LIGHT FIXTURES