Forget the reference to chestnuts mentioned in American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem “The Village Blacksmith” — the one starting with line “Under the spreading chestnut tree the village smithy stands.” Blacksmith Alexander “Sasha” Parubchenko is more about cherry, as in Cherry Cavendish, the tobacco he stuffs in his pipe.
Also forget about the village. This smithy is decidedly urban, located at 334 North Olden Avenue in Trenton, across from a row of derelict factories.
But there is no forgetting that Parubchenko is a blacksmith who does more than stand. In fact he maintains a Trenton tradition and has forged the title of “Trenton’s Blacksmith.” Yet even that appellation doesn’t tell the full story because he is also the only full-time blacksmith in New Jersey and one of the few left in the nation.
Now Parubchenko is also the subject of an exhibition of 20 palladium prints by Trenton-born photographer CJ Harker. It opens at Artworks in Trenton on Saturday, December 5, and will remain on view through January 23.
“I’ve been smoking for 50 odd-years,” says Parubchenko, 72, a nimbus of sweet-scented smoke rising around him and mixing with that rising from the nearby forge. “My doctor says, ‘Sasha, you should stop smoking,’ but when I call the VA hospital for an appointment, they tell me the doctor is sick,” he says with deadpan delivery.
Parubchenko — who often refers to himself as “just a humble blacksmith” — is standing in the shade of his cavernous workshop next to a wall that bears a copy of the “smithy” poem as well as a sign that traces his business’ lineage to 1823 and Joshua Jones, the first in a continuous succession of smiths at the location.
Also on the wall is a collage of newspaper articles showing images of the ages of a man. “See here,” Parubchenko says, pointing to newspaper photographs that show him with various levels of facial hair. “My first wife says, ‘Get rid of the beard.’ So I go to a goatee. Another wife says, ‘Get rid of the goatee.’ So I do. Then another says, ‘Get rid of the mustache.’ And it goes. Then another says, ‘Get rid of …’” With a slow look down at his lower body, a quick astonished look up, and a slow shake of his head, he says with practiced comedic timing, “And I say, “Hey! That’s enough!”
With no prompting, Parubchenko then provides a lesson on his personal history. “We lived in Canada, Toronto. My parents wanted me to be a pianist. I loved the viola and learned to play. One day on my way to (music) school I heard a ‘click, click, click.’ It was a Russian blacksmith. I went in and found my love, my niche. I worked with the smith for three years. I didn’t tell my parents. When I’d come home they would asked how I got so dirty. I’d say, ‘The school hasn’t been cleaned.’”
Some of his background can be found in the articles on the wall and elsewhere. Other pieces come from his verbal accounts, offered with a mix of sincerity, eye twinkle, and puff of smoke.
Parubchenko — known to many by the diminutive of Alexander, “Sasha” — was born in Germany to Ukrainian parents who fled Europe after World War II and after living in a variety of countries they landed in Toronto. In 1958 the family came to Trenton when his tool and die working father landed a job at General Motors. His mother was a seamstress who worked at Switlik.
In Trenton Parubchenko married his first wife and began working with his father-in-law, Fedor Sirchuk, a master blacksmith from Ukraine. “My father-in-law was working as a blacksmith here, so I retrained under him,” he says.
As the Ukrainian Weekly newspaper reported: “Parubchenko and Sirchuk bought the shop, a one-story brick structure connected to several more buildings, when the former blacksmith and owner, Edward Grindeslade, died in 1974. Recently designated a landmark, the shop is one of the few blacksmith shops remaining in the northeast, and one of only a few hundred still existing in the country. “
A 2005 Times of Trenton article says Parubchenko “studied nuclear physics at Rutgers University, flew planes in Vietnam, played the viola for numerous orchestras, and tended a sheep farm in Hunterdon County.”
And a 2006 NJBiz article chronicles the more recent ups and down of the shop. “Business flourished as Parubchenko secured jobs that ranged from forging custom steering columns for Mack Trucks in Allentown, Pennsylvania, to making manhole-cover hooks for Public Service Electric & Gas. Other clients for industrial hooks included floor-coverings manufacturer Congoleum in Mercerville, a U.S. Navy shipyard complex in Philadelphia, and turbine maker Transamerica Delaval in Lawrenceville.
“But the demand for heavy metal work has been declining. Parubchenko said Congoleum ceased its orders in 2003 before the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The Philadelphia Naval Shipyard closed in 1996, Transamerica Delaval was sold to an owner that moved most of its operations to California, and Mack Truck relocated the facilities that Parubchenko had done work for.”
“Jobs are scarce, but that’s the way it goes. So I go with the flow,” Parubchenko says smoothly with a trace of his European accent and heading into his humble and dust-and-age coated office to pick up a binder that serves as his business portfolio.
On one page is the interior iron work he created for Trinity Church in Princeton. “Three architects came up with plans. (The people at the church) didn’t like it, but a simple blacksmith did it. I sketched it out in a few minutes. They loved it.”
Other pages show iron work projects for Jasna Polana in Lawrence Township, outside furniture for the late Princeton novelist Peter Benchley, and a gate for West Point. “Someone (at West Point) saw my work in Paris and wanted that blacksmith,” he says. Gesturing to his metal sculptures that line the opposite wall, he says he exhibits around the world and that “people know me a wee bit internationally.” A brochure for his Brooklyn Museum exhibition in the 1991 supports the claim.
Other business comes from Revolutionary and Civil War re-enactors seeking authentic repairs to firearms and weaponry, historic centers replacing cast iron wagon wheels, and other specialty jobs: iron work for the Trenton City Museum and clients interested in hand forged garden trellises. Then there’s the occasional odd job. “A guy comes in with a motorcycle and says, ‘Sasha, what I want is a basket on the side that cooks road kill.’ That’s why I love this work so much — every day is different.”
Parubchenko’s dying art has been a family affair but the future is unclear. “I trained my two daughters, but they stopped because they said they couldn’t tell their boyfriends they were blacksmiths.” However, two grandsons, ages 7 and 10, are showing an interest
Meanwhile other hands are carrying on the work. Alex Toledo from Trenton, for example, started working with Parubchenko when he was 10. “Look at his work,” says Parubchenko proudly pointing to a row of sculptures by Toledo, now 15. At other times Daniel Lapidow, an apprentice through the College of New Jersey, arrives at 6:30 a.m. to fire the forge and bring it up to the prerequisite 2,000 degrees. And then there is the hands-on instruction. In addition to being approved to teach blacksmithing to U.S. veterans since 1999, Parubchenko provides training for part-time blacksmiths coming as close as New Jersey — through the New Jersey Blacksmiths Association — and as far away as Ukraine.
“In Europe you have to apprentice four years and work under a master blacksmith,” he says about the importance of training and the difference between approaches. “In the U.S. it should be the same as being a plumber, but here you just get a business card” — as well as the $150,000 for liability insurance and overhead costs.
In addition to the trainees, another presence at the shop over the past few years has been photographer Harker. “I had always seen (the shop), but I’d never gave it another thought. I never had a reason to go in there. Then I got thinking there’s probably some cool that is going on here. So I decided to stop in one day without any specific goal. I popped my head in, met Sasha, and asked if I could hang out and take some photos. And he said, ‘Of course.’ He’s very welcoming. I would just pop in there on a Saturday and hang out. I didn’t have an end game in mind. I knew it was cool and had a ton of history and super rich imagery” says the 32-year-old photographer and technical assistant at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia.
Harker says the current Artworks exhibition was launched by accident during another Artworks exhibition. Thinking he may not have enough work for the allotted wall space in a group show, he arrived with the uncompleted blacksmith series as backup. Although he did not need them, the images caught the attention of Artworks exhibition committee chair Addison Vincent, who encouraged Harker to submit the series for a potential show.
“It made sense. I’m from Trenton. It’s of a Trenton blacksmith. And it’s in a Trenton community gallery,” says Harker. “I was beyond exited when Addison suggested the show. I probably wouldn’t have done it. I didn’t have it on my radar to approach them with a solo show. I was still working on (the series).”
About Parubchenko, Harker says, “He’s an awesome guy. He’s great to chat with. He’s got an amazing work ethic and outlook on everything. He’s humble and not. He knows he’s got his shit together and is talented, but he’s not running around saying, ‘Look at me!’ But he has a sly look that says, ‘You know I’ve got it.’”
“Seven days a week,” says Parubchenko of his devotion to his craft. “This is my love, my first wife. My other wives know that,” he says in front of the shop. Then his attention focuses on a lock on the entrance gate and then to his dog. “Dinka learned to open this lock, so I put this one up here. But now she’s figuring that one out. So I’ll have to add another,” he says with a puff of smoke and a sparkle in his eye.
“Trenton Blacksmith,” by CJ Harker, Artworks, 19 Everett Alley, Trenton, reception, Saturday, December 5, 6 to 8 p.m. On view to January 23.
Also on view: the annual “10X10 Red Dot” sale, featuring $100 works by area artists, and “Chaos and Calm,” Trenton-based Ruee Gawarikar’s examination of the conflicts between the “outer active” and “inner contemplative” self. Wednesday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. For more information call 609-394-9436 or go to artworkstrenton.org.
,
