Howard County native James Macgill is most widely recognized as "Your Honor" -- a man with the gavel seated on the bench, presiding over his Howard Circuit courtroom in his judge's robe.
But the former chief judge of Maryland's 5th Circuit Court, who died last year of cancer at 80, also spent a great deal of time in knock-around work clothes, kneeling with chisel and mallet in hand in his rustic, garage-like workshop pursuing another passion -- stone and wood sculptures.
The Foundry Street Gallery in the Owen Brown Shopping Center is presenting a commemorative exhibit of Judge Macgill's wood carvings and stone sculptures, representing 35 years of his work. A reception is scheduled from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, and the exhibit will run through March 6.
Exhibit coordinator Mikki Saar, a member of the Foundry Street artists cooperative, said she developed the idea for the show at Judge Macgill's memorial service last July.
"I put two or three of his pieces in the lobby at the memorial," said Ms. Saar, a sculptor who worked side-by-side with Judge Macgill through the 1980s at Savage Mill, where they shared models. "People who knew him socially and professionally probably weren't familiar with his art work, so I thought they'd enjoy seeing it."
Sally Tuttle, another member of the Foundry Street cooperative who also worked alongside Judge Macgill at Savage Mill, described the Mount Airy resident as a Renaissance man who enjoyed expressing himself through his art work, a storyteller who appeared "very proper" on the surface yet would spin "bawdy" tales.
"When I first met him soon after he retired, he was studying Greek," Ms. Tuttle said. "Because he was an intellectually curious person, he wanted to read his favorite Greek poets without translation."
Judge Macgill's curiousity about other cultures is evident in his sculptures, said the Foundry Street artists, noting that he was fond of Egyptian and Mayan cultures.
"He liked the solidness of Egyptian sculpture. It's very architectural," Ms. Tuttle said.
Ms. Saar said many of Judge Macgill's sculptures have sensual qualities.
"I think the female form was significant in most of his work," she said. "He thought the female form was beautiful shapes."
Judge Macgill worked on his craft in a bare "sculpture house," a small building on his property with finished pieces stacked around the edges, a few benches and stands, a rocking chair and an open space in the middle, where he knelt on an old piece of carpet, said Ms. Tuttle. He'd move to an outdoor bench overlooking the countryside during pleasant weather.
