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The art of remembering!

Project: Captain Sanchez Monument

Work In Progress: Memorializing Captain Sanchez, a fisherman who built his own fishing boat named Smilyn


A Work in Progress

Long months of design and meticulous handwork will give way to a timeless monument. 

Artist, Rob Gill is currently at the studio carving away a half hull motif on a 2 ton rough-cut, piece of granite. With each tap of the chisel, the work approaches its final form. The stone is a memorial for the parents of client, Lynn Paquin. It will be installed on Block Island, RI in June.

The featured half hull used for the stone’s design was made by Lynn’s Father, Captain Edward Oliver Sanchez. Sanchez was a fisherman and built his own fishing boat named Smilyn after his daughter Lynn. For those unfamiliar with shipbuilding, a half hull is a wooden, scale model of a ship’s hull mounted to a plank. Before computer design, a half hull served as a proportional model for shipwrights. The chamfer-edged plank to which the half-hull was mounted is also included in the stone monument’s design.  

Paquin’s monument is among the largest to enter the Karin Sprague Stone Carvers shop. The fine aggregate piece of gray granite was carefully selected from Chester granite quarry in Massachusetts and rough cut leaving a raised block for the motif. On the opposite side will be the names and dates of the family.

To know more about this project or to start your own, please call us at 401.934.3105 or click here to email us.

With deep gratitude,

Karin Sprague, Stone Carver