San Antonio, Texas O C T O B E R 2 - 5 , 2 0 2 1

AICA MileStone Spring 2021 issue San Antonio, Texas O c t o b e r 2 - 5 , 2 0 2 1

Planning for the AICA 70th San Antonio International beautiful area this coming Annual Meeting in San Anto- Airport is located just north of September. Registration and nio, TX, is well underway. San Antonio making for easy Design Contest forms will be travel for those who will be electronic—like last year. We The Menger Hotel, is an his- flying in. For those driving in, will be sending links for those toric hotel, located right near major interstates go through forms soon. We have im- the Alamo. The Menger is a San Antonio. proved the Design Contest great facility with good meet- entry form from last year and As always, our Design Contest ing space, good food and ex- you will be able to send more will play an important part of cellent rooms. San Antonio is than one image of an entry on our meeting and it is not too a fun town to visit with the the same form. Below are a early to start collecting photos Alamo and the Riverwalk. few photographs of the histor- of your work to enter into the Plans include educational ic Menger Hotel. We look for- Contest. sessions on Sales and Mar- ward to seeing all our mem- keting plus hand-drawn Please begin making your bers after the pandemic can- lettering. plans to be with us in this celed last year’s meeting.

Inside this issue:

Executive Director’s Remarks Page 2

Member Happenings-birthdays Pages and more 3, 6

Samanid Mausoleum Pages 4-5

Design Traditions for Today Pages 7-8

Previous Designs of the Month Pages 9-10

Composting Human Remains Page 11

More information about San Anto- Page nio 12 Page 2 MileStone Spring 2021

Executive Director Comments Dear Friends—2021 is bring- wedding (who says you can’t The MileStone ing better news for Covid-19. get married after being di- Many restrictions are being vorced for over 30+ years!). Published by The American Institute of lifted and with the vaccine The flight experience was OK Commemorative Art now available, there is hope except for the masks and 3 N. Milpas St., at putting this pandemic our flights were less crowd- Santa Barbara, CA 93103 behind us. 805-966-7373 ed than normal and the air- Cell 805-886-8384 During the pandemic, many ports were certainly quieter of our AICA members have than in past years. Jed A. Hendrickson, CM, AICA reported they are busy (and Executive Director & Editor Air travel is working and some too busy!) which is a flying to our meeting in San Deborah C. Hendrickson great sign that our industry Antonio this fall should be Institute Secretary and Assistant is making it through all this safe and relatively easy. Editor difficulty. Manufacturers I have spoken to also report For those that prefer to The AICA Board of Governors brisk orders. All good news drive, San Antonio is well considering a year ago, it located for many of our Executive Officers Bill Boone, CM, AICA, President members. seemed as if everything Brent Sears, AICA, Vice-President would grind to a halt and We are looking forward to Steve Sanderson, AICA, Treasurer many worried about the fu- our gathering in San Antonio Mike Murphree, AICA, Past- ture of their businesses. President and in the meantime, we Our members have also hope you all have a good been busy helping the indus- Spring! Directors Monica Johns, CM, AICA try—please see the update on page 3. AICA membership Terry Joy, AICA Jon Reece, AICA provides a way for us to Jed & Debbie Harvard Wood, IV, AICA share thoughts and ideas Dustin Anderson, AICA, Associate and I am pleased that our Member Representative members also reach out to the memorial industry in general to share knowledge. AICA Mission Statement: Debbie and I have missed To Promote Excellence in meeting with members last Commemorative Art and to En- hance Design and year and are looking forward Professional Knowledge Through to our annual meeting in the Exchange of Ideas Within an San Antonio. Planning is Atmosphere of Trust coming together and we will have high quality education and training. San Antonio is a great city and we will enjoy our stay there. Mark the dates Oct. 2-5, 2021. Debbie and I recently flew to Salt Lake City, Utah, to participate in my oldest sister’s Page 3 MileStone Spring 2021

Member Spotlight

AICA Birthdays John Scott Mar 2 Dobby Grossman June 25 Dustin Anderson Mar 5 Josh Bell July 9 Dave Pace Mar 6 Jim Peterson July 15 Dave Anderson Mar 26 Jason Campbell Aug 9 Jim Peterson Mar 30 Maria Schlitzberger Hall Aug 22 Jon Reece Mar 31 Kevin Laird Aug 27 Harvard Wood May 1 Tony Watson Sept 2 Kimberly Schlitzberger May 27 Mike Murphree Sept 15 Troy Caldwell June 13

MBNA Convention Highlights AICA Members

MBNA’s recent virtual convention highlighted a number of presentations done by AICA members.

Our AICA President Bill Boone, CM, AICA, Logan Monument Jon Reece, AICA, Quiring Monuments Bran Oswalt, AICA, Brown Memorials Monica Johns, CM, AICA, Johns-Carabelli Co. Terry Joy, AICA, Joy Monument. Jim Gast, AICA, Gast Monument Michael Johns, CM, ACIA, Johns-Carabelli Co. Craig Hall, spouse of Maria Schlitzberger Hall, CM, AICA, Schlitzberger and Daughters Monument Jonathan Modlich, CM, AICA, Modlich Monument Co. Colleen Scott, daughter of John & Julie Scott, AICA, High Cross Monument Drew Bott, CM, AICA, Bott Monument Tony Watson, CM, AICA, Watson Signs and Monuments Jed Hendrickson, CM, AICA, Santa Barbara Monumental Co.

It is wonderful to see the skills and talents of AICA members helping to teach and elevate our industry.

I should mention that MBNA’s immediate past president is AICA member Ken Reeson, AICA, Summit Memorials; Jonathan Modlich, CM, ACIA is MBNA’s President-Elect. Serving as Vice-Presidents are Katie Gast-Crook, AICA, Gast Monuments and Sean Longstreth, AICA, Longstreth Memorials. Serving as MBNA Trustees are Nathan Lange, CM , AICA, Northland Monument; Aaron Fraehle, AICA, Design Memorial Stone; Nick Gast, Gast Monuments and Jason Campbell, CM, AICA Campbell Monument.

The Founders of AICA hoped that AICA would influence the memorial industry and help it grow and progress. I think they would be very proud of what AICA members are able to do.

Thank you to all AICA members who influence our industry in many capacities!

Page 4 MileStone Spring 2021

Masterpiece: Samanid Mausoleum (AD 943) A Final Resting Place, Both Beguiling and Beautiful MARAUDING THROUGH Central Asia in the archaeologist rediscovered it and began exca- 13th century, Genghis Khan either failed to vating. notice or ignored a small, squat structure in The walls of the symmetrical structure he un- Bukhara, an ancient Silk Road city in what is earthed, nearly identical on all four sides, are now Uzbekistan. Even as he destroyed Bukha- faced with a basket-weave pattern fashioned ra, he left standing the little mausoleum built from baked brick-in contrast to the stucco for the grave of Ismail Samani, a member of surfaces that were prevalent at the time. The the Samanid dynasty (819-1005)-a Persian cube is surrounded at the top by a decorative clan that made Bukhara a celebrated center (and therefore in- of Islamic culture accessible) arcade rivaling in glory of 10 arched nich- the caliphate in es per side, each Baghdad, from one flanked by col- which it was large- umns and set in a ly independent. rectangular frame. From a distance, The niches match Samanid mausole- in shape the large, um does seem un- recessed arches derwhelming. below, at ground Beige in color, it's level, that pierce a slightly tapered each side of the cube-a reference mausoleum like to the Kaaba at doorways-though Mecca-measuring about 33 feet on each side only one functions as an entryway to the in- and topped by a dome, which symbolize the side. The small niches follow the design of heavens. But up close the tomb’s exquisite the arches, but in a simplified version. brickwork, both inside and out, is unusually At each corner of the mausoleum is a three- beguiling. The building, probably begun quarter column, also covered in the bas- around 892 and completed by 943, breaks ketweave pattern and slightly tilted inward to architectural and engineering ground, too: it’s act as a buttress. Above the gallery arcade, also a prototype for later Islamic tombs. And hugging the inset dome, are four little bee- it is “the best surviving example of 10th cen- hive-shaped, cupolas, one near each comer. tury architecture in the whole Muslim world,” UNESCO says. The exterior walls are punctuated with decorative designs. Most notably, a row of brick Luckily, in addition to surviving the Mongol circles frames the arched portion of the four invasions, the mausoleum withstood the ar- recessed "doorways" and surrounds the top of ea's numerous earthquakes. Over the centu- the arcade. Scholars have suggested that ries, it had gained protection from flooding they refer to the sun-a symbol common in Zo- and other shifts of nature that buried most of roastrianism, (continued on page 5) it in dirt and sand until 1934, when a Soviet Page 5 MileStone Spring 2021

(from page 4) structure grows upward with even more which was the religion practiced by much of sides until it becomes a circle. the local population before the Arab con- Brick squinches, here decorated with win- quest of Central Asia in the seventh and dows and patterns mimicking those below, eighth centuries. For Zoroastrians, the sun are not unique to the Samanid mausoleum. was the visible manifestation of their high- But this form, with its fractured spaces, est god, fire was a symbol of purification, would later evolve into the often gloriously and paradise was a place of light. The cir- gilded or brightly painted, three-dimensional cles thus may represent a weaving of two honeycomb building corners that are known religious cultures and perhaps a slightly as muqarnas. Sometimes called subversive reference to earlier times. "stalactite·vaults," muqarnas embellish Compared with the many palaces, glittery insides of madrassas and many later Islamic mausoleums in the mausoleums, such Muslim world and as the Taj Mahal, do seem to be the Samanid tomb's unique to Islamic interior is re- architecture. strained. The brick- Inside the mausole- work is patterned - um, Ismail Samani, plain basket-weave who died in 907, is up to the top of the not alone in eterni- door frame, then ty-in fact, no docu- incorporating circu- ments have been lar and diamond-shapes. But it's all cream: found saying that his remains actually rest no color, gilt or inlays. there. The tomb, which contains three una- Yet this interior is noteworthy for its engi- dorned graves, was possibly conceived ini- neering and architectural features. This was tially for his father, Ahmad, and finished by the age of Al-Khwarizmi (c. 780-c. 850) and his grandson, Nasr II. But Nasr's is the only Al-Farabi (c. 870-c. 950), renowned Islamic body identified as being there, by a wooden mathematicians whose work helped to beget plaque. the first major school of mathematicians in Today the mausoleum, spanking clean with the Islamic world. Their algebraic and geo- no sign of its buried past, sits amid a park metric advances found practical applica- in Bukhara. It can't help but charm visitors tions in the work of contemporary engineers (who remain scarce) with its harmony and and architects. grace. Here, they used that knowledge to gradually By Judith H. DobrzynskiI, WSJ May 5, 2018 transition from the cube space into the Ms. Dobrzynski writes about culture for dome above. First, atop the cube sits an oc- many publications and blogs at tagonal structure with arched squinches an- www.artsjournal.com/realcleararts. gled across each corner. From there, the MileStone Spring 2021 Page 6

Member Spotlight

For those that missed it on Facebook, Schlitzberger and Daughters Monument is celebrating 60 years in business! Here is a selfie of their staff.

Congratulations to Nathan Lange for being elected the new Chief of the Longville Fire Department!

Jeff Anderson doing the annual cleaning and waxing of the Mayo Brothers bronze statues at the Mayo Clinic.

■ ■ ■ ■ Page 7 MileStone Spring 2021 Design Traditions for Today

The following excerpted speech was presented by John- ny Johns during the Annual AICA meeting in St. Peters- burg, FL, November 1983 There are two schools of thought today, and some con- troversy, about - "contemporary" and “traditional" design. However, I don't think you can divide design so neatly into two categories. I believe today's monuments really fall into three categories: traditional, contemporary, and ultra-contemporary. But, regardless of the style, good design shares certain things in common. The "traditional monument" I refer to isn't the polished two- or three-die with serpentine top but what I call the "classical form." This has its roots in Egyptian, Greek, and Roman architecture and was developed extensive- ly during the Victorian era. At this time, we began re- flecting these classic architectural forms in memorial art. Proportion When I studied architecture in 1926-1930, a great deal of time was spent on form and proportion used by these ancient civilizations. From this study, I conclud- John I. Johns, FAICA ed that correct proportion is the most essential ingre- oped the three orders: Doric, Ionic and Corinthian. The dient in good design. Doric was six diameters tall, the Ionic was seven or The study of proportion began with the Egyptians and eight diameters tall. Still later, the Romans refined and was improved and refined later by the Greeks and Ro- embellished these Greek orders and changed the pro- mans. Proportion has been studied and used success- portion. They used eight diameters high for Doric, nine fully for two thousand years with little change. What is for Ionic and ten for Corinthian. good proportion? Simply, it's the correct relationship I mention these diameters because I've seen column between height and width of an object. For design to photos in trade magazines that certainly do not follow be good, certain basic rules of proportion must be ob- these proportions. It isn't every day that we build a served. spire or colonnade, but we must be concerned with For example, since it was introduced by the Egyptians, proportion on every monument we build. the spire, or obelisk, has remained virtually unchanged I'm sure there are times you're tempted to forget pro- in its proportion. The proper proportion is ten to one. portion and cut off a few inches on a design to save a That is, a spire should be ten times as high as it is few dollars. There's nothing wrong with changing the wide at the base. The Washington Monument is the size of a monument as long as you maintain the prop- most familiar example of this: it is fifty-five feet square er proportion. at the base, five hundred and fifty feet high. Almost exactly ten to one. Rules of proportion also apply to lettering, symbolism or any embellishment added to a design. If it's an im- Columns follow similar rules. The Egyptians started portant element of the design, it must be in proper with heavy, massive columns. Later, the Greeks devel- Continued on next page Page 8 MileStone Spring 2021

continued from previous page proportion to the other elements. It shouldn't be too The Future of Memorialization . . . large or too small. Changes in the economy of the country, customs and Developing a 'Good Eye' . . . habits of people, the mode of living and other things have created radical changes in many industries. Ours To determine the best size, I find it helpful to make a is no exception. full-size outline of the monument and then rough out the lettering. Many times, it looks different at full-size We must continue to keep the memorial ideal before than it did in a scale drawing. The final rule is that it the public. The best way to do that is with good memo- must be pleasing to the eye. However, you must devel- rial art, whether traditional or contemporary. op a good eye. We cannot forget that our future is tied directly to tra- The next time you're tempted to change a design from ditional cemeteries. Traditional monuments continue its suggested size, or to make a change in some unu- to be sold to this generation because the elderly cling sual shape, get it down on paper to scale. Then study to this style. However, the public accepts cemetery it and play with it to see if it really looks best. restrictions because they limit the monotony of polished two- or three-dies with serp tops. The public will The elaborate monuments of the Victorian era, stand- also accept contemporary and ultra-contemporary de- ing on large estate lots, are awe-inspiring and demand sign. Let's make it as good as we can. an emotional response from today' s cemetery visitor. They are responsible in large part for the success and Whatever the style, we'll assure a place for future me- survival of our business. Will what we build today in- morialists if we continue to create monuments that spire people fifty or a hundred years from now to con- adhere to basic classical design techniques. tinue erecting monuments? The lots we put them on Regardless of the style of design, if we keep in mind are smaller, the monuments smaller but they must these timeless rules of design-like proper proportion- speak to future generations if the tradition is to con- we cannot go wrong. If A.I.C.A. supplies the know-how tinue. and supports programs for better memorialization, we The poet John Keats said, "A thing of beauty is a joy can stay abreast as design changes from the tradition- forever." This quotation applies to many monuments al to the so-called contemporary. of past generations. One of the major things that This program will be successful if our members make makes them so beautiful is their adherence to good it successful. proportion. A beautifully executed monument with this classical look will always be admired. Today, a lot of people think you can do anything you From 1983: John I. Johns, vice president of Johns- want in art. Looking at some of today's art, I guess you Carabelli Company, is past president of the Monu- can. But will it endure the test of time? ment Builders of Ohio and a fellow of the AICA. In 1959, he served as a judge in the MBNA National De- Due to my schooling, my designs have remained basi- sign Competition. cally architectural. However, despite this, I'm com- pletely in favor of designers that are experimenting A 1930 graduate of Cleveland's Western Reserve Uni- with ultra-contemporary design. versity School of Architecture, Mr. Johns began his career as a designer for the Joseph Carabelli Compa- Despite the drastic changes I've seen in my fifty years ny. In 1942, he left Carabelli to found Mayfair Memo- of designing, certain elements have remained the rials. In 1972, he purchased Carabelli to form the same. I believe I've become contemporary in my old Johns-Carabelli Company with his son, Michael, an age, kept pace with the times. However, the one thing MBNA past president. I haven't been able to change is good proportion. Proper proportion is essential to all good design- Mr. Johns has devoted his fifty-one years of profes- traditional or contemporary. sional life exclusively to commemorative art. Page 9 MileStone Spring 2021

Design of the Month from previous issues of the MileStone Page 10 MileStone Spring 2021

Design of the Month from previous issues of the MileStone Page 11 MileStone Spring 2021

The Newly Legal Process for Turning Human Corpses to Soil Reusable eight-by-four-foot steel cylinders, packed with wood chips, straw, and alfalfa, present an eco-friendly alternative to traditional burial There’s an empty warehouse 20 miles south of Seattle that, if everything goes as planned, will soon be full of dead people. The facility belongs to Recompose, the first U.S. company to compost human bodies indoors, through a process known officially as natural organic reduction. Washington state became the first — and so far, only — U.S. state to legalize the practice in May 2019. Recompose opens in November. It’s designed to hold the bodies of up to 10 recently deceased people at a time, each of them quietly decomposing into a loamy, nutritious soil, just as their previous owners wanted. At the most basic level, decomposition is not a new technology; microbes have been doing it extremely well for just about as long as organic matter has existed. But it’s a part of death that Western funeral practices have tra- ditionally gone to great lengths to evade: Embalming a corpse in chemicals with the goal of preserving a “natural” (that is, not dead) look; hawking expensive caskets that claim to seal out nature’s corrupting forces. Recompose takes the opposite approach. Against an attractive millennial pink background, the company’s website plainly explains the eco-friendly setting in which clients will decay. Instead of in a single-use casket, bodies rest temporarily in a reusable eight-by-four- foot steel cylinder, packed snugly in a cocoon of wood chips, straw, and alfalfa. For 30 days the dead human and living microbes stay in the vessel together, lying alongside fellow Recomposers in the warehouse’s hexago- nal wooden frame, while the microorganisms slowly break down the corpse. At the end, after a brief turn in a curing bin to cool and dry out excess moisture, what once was a human body is now about a cubic yard of fertile, nutrient-rich soil, which can be returned to loved ones or scattered according to the decedent’ wishes. (The company will deliver all or part of the soil free of charge to Bells Mountain, a protected wilderness in southern Wash- ington.) The service costs $5,500 — more than a typical cremation and service costs in the U.S., but about half the cost of burial. Some 275 people have already signed up for the service since reservations opened a month ago, said customer and communications manager Anna Swenson. “There are a lot of signs and signals that are somewhat apocalyptic that kind of turn you back to your mortality.” Why hack death? Cremation releases more than 500,000 tons of greenhouse gases annually in the U.S. alone, along with significant levels of mercury emissions. Traditional burial shoves truckfuls worth of metal, concrete, wood, and formaldehyde beneath the ground each year. Cities around the world are running out of traditional cemetery space, and preserving any unmolested open space is hard, even if you’re not trying to get permission to plant corpses in it. Human composting and its kindred green death technologies distill the body from a large, unwieldy, decomposition-prone state to one that is smaller, shelf-stable, and portable, with negligible environ- mental cost along the way. There are existential reasons as well. As a pandemic rages and wildfires burn and a general feeling of doom per- vades the air, “there are a lot of signs and signals that are somewhat apocalyptic that kind of turn you back to your mortality,” said Jeff Jorgenson, who owns green funeral homes in Seattle and Los Angeles. “We look at what we’re doing and how disconnected we are from the earth and realizing that we’ve created this mess. We’ve allowed this to happen. And I think that informs decisions and perspectives on death.” By Corinne Purtill, September 2020, OneZero Online Blog

Page 12 MileStone Spring 2021

AICA 2021 Annual Meeting —San Antonio, Texas October 2-5, 2021

In 2021, AICA heads to historic San Antonio! We will be staying at the Menger Hotel, a great historic hotel near the Alamo and the River Walk. Our meeting will be begin on Saturday, October 2 with our President’s Reception in the evening and end on Tuesday night, October 5, 2021 with our Gala Banquet and Awards Presentation. The Board of Governors will meet on Saturday morning, October 2, 9am for those who wish to attend—any member is welcome to participate in our Board meetings.

We have an attractive room rate of $145.00/night with a limited number of suites available for $209.00/night. Please mark your calendars now—more information will be coming soon.