Seeking Calder: Riding in Roxbury

In my travels around the internet one of the rabbit holes that I recently fell down was reading about the sculptor Alexander Calder.

Somewhere along the line, I learned that he lived and worked in Roxbury, Connecticut. That’s a little town that is less than an hour from Bridgeport where the ferry drops me off when I cross the Long Island Sound.

I also learned that his home and studio are still owned by the Calder family and that there are still sculptures on the grounds. Though the homestead is private property, you can see the pieces from the roadway without trespassing.

Seeking Calder seemed like as good a reason as any to go for a ride:

His studio was in the building there on the left. Some of his mobiles were visible through the window.

Not a bad view of the valley rolling away.

Roxbury is a great area for riding rambling backroads. There are lots of dirt roads in the vicinity as well. Some of my travels later in the year took me back past Calder’s place again rather unexpectedly. Funny how that happens.

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Side Notes

This is a photo I snapped a few years ago while walking around in Manhattan.

“Saurien”
590 Madison Avenue at 57th Street, NY

I thought this was kind of neat, too. While digging around online trying to find where Calder’s former home in Roxbury is, I read a blog post that featured a few photos from the 70’s of Segre’s Iron Works where his work was fabricated.