We are excited to announce that local artists Stephen Hayes and Sherril Roland have teamed up with Durham-based fabricators Cricket Forge to create the Stagville Memorial Project Public Artworks at the Durham Rail Trail.

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ABOUT STEPHEN HAYES:

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Stephen L. Hayes, Jr. makes art—woodcuts, sculptures, installations, small and large—from found materials that draw on social and economic themes ingrained in the history of America and African Americans. He grew up in Durham with his older brother, Spence, and his mother, Lender, who were pivotal in shaping and sparking his creative approach. When Hayes was in the first grade, he broke a remote-control car. His brother took it apart and attached the motor to a battery, bringing it back to life. Amazed, Hayes began breaking all kinds of things to see how they worked and what he could create with the pieces. By second grade, his mother had given him a real workbench; she and Hayes’ brother would also bring home abandoned equipment for tinkering. By high school, he learned to crochet.

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Hayes earned an M.F.A. in sculpture at the Savannah College of Art and Design in Atlanta. His thesis exhibition, "Cash Crop," has been traveling and exhibiting for nearly a decade.

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ABOUT SHERRIL ROLAND:

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Sherrill Roland’s interdisciplinary practice examines the complex intersections of identity, justice, and memory through the lens of personal and collective experience. Drawing from his wrongful incarceration, Roland transforms the visual and material language of the American criminal justice system into meditations on truth, personhood, and resilience. His work reconfigures objects, numbers, and materials associated with confinement — from correctional ID codes and cinder blocks to Kool-Aid and commissary goods — into sculptural and conceptual forms that question how systems of power define, contain, and erase the individual.
 

Born in 1984 in Asheville, North Carolina, Sherrill Roland studied at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (2018). He earned his MFA and BFA from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (2017 and 2009). 

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ABOUT CRICKET FORGE:

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Cricket Forge was founded in 1999 in downtown Durham, North Carolina, by award-winning blacksmiths and sculptors Francis Vega and Neal Carlton. What began as a small studio devoted to handcrafted metal furnishings became known for bold form, expressive detail, and work built to last.

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Today, Cricket Forge operates with a similar but sharpened focus: creating sculptural steel pieces that balance imagination with structural integrity. The work remains rooted in American metalworking, with a forward-facing vision centered on expressive design, disciplined construction, and objects meant to live fully in real spaces.

 

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Aaron Earley
Co-Owner & Artistic Lead

Aaron is a sculptor by training, holding a BFA in Painting and Sculpture with a minor in Art History from East Carolina University. His work is driven by curiosity and a deep interest in form, structure, and how things are built. He is drawn to vintage and mechanical objects, often studying insects and natural systems for inspiration.

At Cricket Forge, Aaron leads artistic direction and creative development. Years of working with steel have given him an intuitive understanding of the material — its weight, its limits, and how it moves under heat and pressure. What appears rigid and unforgiving becomes something he knows how to shape and resolve through experience, balancing instinct and discipline at the forge.

 

Jonathan Paschall
Co-Owner & Client Experience Lead

A Durham native, Jonathan is deeply invested in the long-term health of Cricket Forge and the relationships that sustain it. A devoted husband and father, his commitment to family shapes the way he approaches both business and community.
 

While the sculptural work takes shape in the shop, Jonathan focuses on the foundation that allows it to thrive. He works closely with clients, guiding projects with clarity, transparency, and consistency. His leadership ensures that the experience of working with Cricket Forge feels steady, thoughtful, and built to last.
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