California State Capitol
Parget was common throughout the California State Capitol, but like much work throughout the ages it was lost due to remodeling for new amenities such as electricity and air-conditioning, as well as adding desks and finding more space for an ever growing government.
A painted fragment was found when workers removed a duct and the decision to replace much of the parget was made. The problem was, how? There were many theories tossed about, but eventually, Michael H. Casey, a chef at the Black Pearl in Newport, Rhode Island, prior to becoming the Artist-in-Residence at the California State Capitol realized that the most intelligent, and simple solution was pastry tubes.
Michael originally sketched the pattern that was found. It was decided to recreate the parget in seven of the rooms, but the time involved in hand drawing the patterns for this would have been cost prohibitive. It was finally decided to send the drawings to a large printing company. The drawings were then perforated and black chalk was sprayed through the perforations, placing the patterns on the ceilings.
Michael eventually hired, Diana Durand and Robert Dunham to aid in the work. Diana went on to establish herself as one of the pre-eminent people doing parget in the country.
After having done this work for quite a long time, Michael often was heard to say that Michelangelo NEVER laid on his back to paint the Sistine Chapel, only Charlton Heston did. Michael said it would have been physically impossible to get the proper range of motion and have an area large enough to properly see what you were doing if you were laying on your back.
He would happily repeat that story with an “I told you so” when it was proven true after the Japanese restored the Sistine Chapel and found Michelangelo’s scaffold drawings.
Parget is a very labor intensive, and therefore, expensive art form. For that reason, there is very little call for it. Michael had the opportunity to do it on just a handful of homes, this one, in Marin county was a recreation of marsh birds found in the area.
This was for a client in the Bahamas.