Orono - The third week of the Schoodic International Sculpture Symposium is underway.

It's held every two years at locations around Maine.

This year, it's at the University of Maine in Orono.

It's beneficial for the community and the artists.

As the artists and their assistants chip away at the stones, their visions are taking shape from huge blocks of granite.

"And this is doing exactly what I wanted it to do," said Andreas von Huene, a sculptor from Arrowsic, Maine. "We have so many different people entering the hospital with all kinds of different ailments, I can't speak to any one of them. I should speak to as many as I can so to rely on their imagination, let me put it another way, the visitors imagination is the strongest tool in my tool box."

Visitors can watch von Huene use those tools to create the sculpture that will stand at The Acadia Hospital in Bangor after the Symposium is complete at the end of the month. Not only can you learn from the artist, he expects to learn from you. "Many people have not had the experience to watch manufacturing let alone this kind of manufacturing, so it's a sharing but they all have stories and insights they can share back, so in a sense it's a dialogue with a larger world."

One the things making the Symposium unique is the eight artists from six different countries working side by side. They are normally alone in their studios. It creates an atmosphere, they all can feel. "We all have our own individual energy, we're all able to start projects on our own, we have the initiation energy built in," said von Huene. "But a scene like this, the energy just builds and builds and builds so everyone is just racing along. It's not a race, but it has almost that feel to it."

The Symposium ends on the 31st when the eight sculptures will be ready to be placed in Orono, Old Town, Bangor, Husson University and at the University of Maine.

For more information visit their website here

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