“Voyage,” a stone sculpture by Joseph DiMauro of East Boothbay, became a new addition on the Sculpture Boothbay trail May 5. The work, composed of Englishman’s Bay and Oak Hill (base) granite, was installed at Ocean Point Inn in East Boothbay.

DiMauro has long been fascinated by the medium and the artists who work with it. His chance to begin learning the art form came last September through stone sculptor and Maine Stone Workers Guild board member Dan Ucci.

Joseph and his brother Anthony work with their father Jeff in the family business, East Boothbay Landscaping. The company and Ucci often collaborate on projects. While working on a hardscaping job last year, Ucci invited DiMauro to be part of the first Hallowell Granite Symposium as an apprentice. During the event, he found Maine’s stone working community very welcoming.

“It was a good opportunity to learn from other people about techniques and how to work with different tools,” DiMauro said. “The number one thing I learned is no two stones are the same. It’s hard to be repetitive; you can have a style, but not replicas. This medium is extremely hard to work with. Dan and Andreas (von Huene) have helped me a lot and gave me the confidence to do it.”

DiMauro worked on “Voyage” well over 18 months in his spare time, except last summer when he ended up in France working for a winemaker whose product he enjoys, mostly harvesting and doing cellar work. 

“I thought about (“Voyage”) a lot while I was there and came back with a simpler perspective on it – starting with making it one-third smaller,” he said. “I think I bit off more than I could chew when I first started it ... Why did I pick such a big stone?”

He may have made it smaller than first conceived, but DiMauro still wanted to create something with lots of curvature – and it has that. The “V” shaped sculpture possesses a subtle movement both visually and tangibly.

“It took a lot more tool work to do this one than the one at the Symposium! The stone was a block without much beauty … a blank canvas in its purest form.” Laughing, he added, stone sculptor Bill Royall of Southport strongly encouraged him “because he wanted me to be on the trail this summer.”

DiMauro still has two more large pieces of the Englishman’s Bay granite – and one of them will be his next sculpture.

Helping with the May 5 installation were Royall and Patricia Royall (co-founders of the Region’s sculpture trail and current board members), along with Anthony DiMauro operating the boom truck.

More new sculpture will be added to the trail over the coming weeks and existing sculptures will be relocated. The new Sculpture Boothbay trail maps will be available at Boothbay Harbor Region Chamber of Commerce and other spots,  to be determined.