After bitter cold all week, suddenly on Friday the temperature shot up to fifty degrees. The ice carvers, who were scheduled to carve on Friday evening, couldn’t work.  They had to wait until 3:00 A.M. Saturday morning to put their 300 pound  blocks of ice outside, for fear that they would melt.

On Saturday the temperature dropped below freezing again — and the carvers were back in business, ferociously wielding  power saws and carving phantasmagorical creations of great beauty and delicacy.

Twelve ice artists participated in Saturday’s exhibition and fourteen participated on Sunday.

Local businesses and organizations sponsored ice sculptures like this artist’s palette from the ceramic studio,  All Fired Up (below, left) and the old fashioned sleigh from the Medina Community Design Committee (below, right).

Despite the bitter cold, the crowds (which included many small children and large dogs), came out in great numbers.  They admired the artistry, sipped hot chocolate and enjoyed yet another event in Medina’s elegant Public Square Park.

Saturday's first place winner.

Whipple and Sipher's old pulley

Every restored Victorian building surrounding the greensward of Medina’s Public Square has its story.  And occasionally, some remnant, some souvenier from the past, hidden away in an attic or a dusty corner finds the light of day, and it too has a story to tell.

Gramercy Gallery

There is, for example, Gramercy Gallery at 221 South Court Street, one of a row of buildings erected in the aftermath of the devastating 1870 fire.  It is a chic and elegant shop decorated in lush Victorian style and filled with gifts, original art and antiques.  Most of the well-heeled customers who shop here have probably never seen the huge wheel pictured above.  But  proprietor Pam Miller might take you up the the attic — if she’s of a mind to — and show you the large pulley with rope and hook still intact, still ready to raise and lower boxes of glassware and crockery through the trapdoor in the ceiling, as it did the the late 1800’s when the store belonged to a couple of local merchants named Whipple and Sipher.

Their shop was a Medina institution and it supported the Whipple and Sipher families quite handsomely.  (Mr. Sipher’s very large safe remains in the back room — although it is no longer filled with money.) Both men built imposing Victorian homes during those heady days of the Gilded Age when growth and prosperity abounded in the village of Medina.

Pam Miller points out another remembrance of the past — a white fireplace surround in the main room of the shop. “I was told that it came from Doc Strong’s house on the Square, where the new courthouse stands today,” she says. The elaborate wood piece is distinctly Victorian in style — but the house it came from was built before the Civil War.  It was one of several gracious, Western Reserve-style homes that stood on the eastern side of  Public Square before the leading citizens chose to move to quieter, less commercial neighborhoods. As a result, the homes were torn down or moved.

Around the turn of the century, the Whipple and Sipher store was acquired by the Cannon family who sold groceries for two generations. The Cannons left something behind as well — several display cases (like the ones pictured below) that sit forlornly on the floor of the attic, surrounded by seasonal decorations and boxes of wrapping paper.

Ida Cannon stands at the counter.

Ida Cannon was the daughter of the family and an iconic figure in the 1930’s, 40’s and 50’s. Senior citizens who grew up in Medina remember her presiding behind the counter like a crusty deity, wrapping purchases in old-fashioned brown paper and tying them neatly with string.

Cannon’s grocery store also delivered.  Ida owned a 1930’s-era station wagon with wood-paneled doors dubbed the “Cannonball” by irreverent delivery boys who, (unbeknownst to Ida), raced it up and down the village streets.

Those were the days when — if a family was not at home — the delivery boy walked into the kitchen and left the groceries on the table, taking care to put the perishables into the ice-box.  (Doors were never locked and “refrigerator” was still an unknown term.)

Today the shop — founded in 1984 and owned by Pam Miller since 1989 — is filled with original art by noted Medina artist Cindy Allman, cards and stationary, jewelry, pillows and throws, Byers Choice Christmas carolers, and framed inspirational quotations. However, like Whipple and Sipher, Pam Miller also  sells “crockery” — that is, hand-made platters and vases by local artists Elaine Lamb and Bonnie Gordon. And, like Ida Cannon, she sells groceries too — the kind that cater to more modern tastes, like gourmet jellies and chipotle dip mixes.

So, to paraphrase a worldly French quotation, the more things change, the more they remain the same.

Victorian elegance

South Court Street in days of yore. Note Whipple and Sipher sign on far right.

Oh, Christmas Tree!

To see more photography of the Medina Public Square decorated for the holidays by Medina lawyer Denis Kucharski (Medina High School class of 1995), click here.

A Holiday Open House at the home of Mud Mothers Pottery owner, Elaine Lamb featured the work of several area artisans.

For the slide show of offerings, click here.

Elaine Lamb founded Mud Mothers Pottery in 1975.  It remains a Medina institution…

“The name Mud Mothers is so seventies,” Elaine observes.

But at the time it was very appropriate.  She and a friend, Sarah Jane Ingraham, were both mothers of young children and were both drawn to the delights of turning mud into beautiful pots.  Eventually, the friend moved on to other interests, but pottery became Elaine’s passion and life’s work.

“Even as our world moves to a global economy with ever-advanced technologies, our spirit is still moved by the hand-made piece. The mark of the hand remains essential to our personal expression,”  Elaine says.

After studying at the Penland School of Crafts in Penland, North Carolina,  her style evolved into a carving process called “sgraffito”.  The clay, after being carved, is painted with ceramic underglaze stains and bisque fired.

“I tell stories in clay,” she says.  “There are images I carve over and over again — things that have significance for me, like books, wine glasses, coffee cups…”

For many years Elaine owned a successful studio/gallery in Medina’s historic district.  Currently she divides her time between a sunlit studio behind her restored Victorian house, and her North Carolina mountain retreat where she has a second home and studio.

She can be reached at enlamb@verizon.net.

The Largely Literary Theater Company’s performance of  “A Christmas Carol” on Sunday December 6, in  St. Paul’s Episcopal Church lacked the 3-D pyrotechnics of the version currently running in the cinemas, but was undoubtedly closer to Charles Dickens’ original vision. The 1884 Gothic Revival church with its arched ceilings and stained glass windows was an appropriately Victorian setting for the British writer’s tale of the evils of selfishness and greed transformed into a Christmas Day redemption

The Largely Literary Theater Company consists of three actors –Tom Stephan (Scrooge), Sarah Showman (15 different characters) and Mark Dawidziak (Charles Dickens).  They perform  on a stage equipped with a minimum of props, and remain faithful to every word in Dickens’ short novel.

The performance was a benefit for the Scholarship Fund of the American Association of University Women (AAUW). The organization awards two scholarships annually to non-traditional women students.

For more information about the performers, click here:

left to right:

Tom Stephan (Scrooge) is a retired English and drama teacher who has appeared in numerous productions with the Akron Weathervane Theater and the Ohio Shakespeare Festival at Stan Hywet Hall.

Sarah Showman (15 different characters) is the general manager of the group and holds a degree in acting and directing from Kent State.

Mark Dawidziak (Charles Dickens), the artistic director of The Largely Literary Company,  is also the television critic at the Cleveland “Plain Dealer”.  He is the author of several books and  plays Mark Twain in the troupe’s “Twain By Three”.  He is married to Sarah Showman.

AAUW has awarded two scholarships annually since 1991.  The requirements are as follows: the recipient must be officially registered at a college or university, and must be older than a traditional college student.  Awards are given on a basis of financial need.  Since most applicants must make considerable sacrifices to attend college, it is frequently difficult to select only two.

The Largely Literary Company features Mark Dawidziak, the T.V. and Entertainment critic for The Cleveland Plain Dealer who plays Charles Dickens as well as a number of secondary roles.

His wife, Sara Showman, and local performer Tom Stephan are the other two actors in this 90 minute, faithful adaptation of Dickens’ classic tale.  This production is performed with minimal props on a simple set that never changes.  The skilled actors, playing multiple roles, allow us to “see” everything – from Marley’s face on Scrooge’s doorknocker to the terror Marley’s spirit creates in Scrooge when he wraps his ghostly chains around Scrooge’s wrists.

The Company has toured this program in Northeast Ohio for the past nine years, but this is the first performance in Medina.

An outstanding art show is on exhibit at the Medina County District Library during the month of November — the Ohio Watercolor 2009 Exhibit.  This exclusive travel exhibition is comprised of 40 paintings by Ohio’s foremost water color artists and can be viewed on the third floor of Medina’s spacious new library on Public Square.

In addition, painting demonstrations by northeast Ohio Water Color Society (OWS) artists are scheduled for each Saturday and Sunday throughout November.

Saturday, Nov. 21    1:00 P.M. – 3:00 P.M., Cathy Welner: Richfield will present “A traditional Wintern Landscape Using Color”

Sunday, Nov. 22    1:30 – 3:30 P.M. , Sally Heston: Broadview Heights will present “A Transparent Watercolor Landscape”.

Saturday, Nov. 28   1:00 P.M. to 3:00 P.M. , Sharon Borror: Medina will present “A Still Life Watercolor Painting.”

This exhibit is sponsored by the Medina County Art League and made possible by grants from the Medina Community Fund, The Medina County Arts council and I.O.O.F. Morning Star Lodge  #26, Medina.

The cover art is by Fred Graff of Medina

Don’t miss it.