The Holiday season conveys many different themes in our diverse culture, but to most there is some sort of consensus that it is a time of reflection backwards to the old year and a look forward to the new. As artists the reflective process is inherent in our art. We look back and are inspired by the Masters and thus seek in looking forward to sculpt new identities in our stones.

 

As stone sculptors, we carve the bedrock beyond our human existence; it is a time of quest, upheaval, and flux. Is there any question therefore that our medium embodies the elements of our art and of our lives? Upheaval and Flux. There are much easier mediums, faster, cleaner and less taxing.

 

It’s easy to become a lapsed stone sculptor, and I miss the familiar faces on the field of dreams. I also note the lack of new, young, impassioned stone sculptors on the field of dreams. What to do? Is it merely a conundrum or a failure to diversify and embrace others who love stone?

 

I came to this organization in 1996 to cut sink holes in a piece of marble, hardly an artist, but with a passion to make my home reflective of my love of stone. It is now an ongoing art project and if I am fortunate I will draw my last line on a stone -showing a new idea.

 

As this season unfolds, I will end with a quote from Nagare’s book, Life of a Samurai Artist. I think it a fitting reflection on why it is that we do what we do - or not!

 

Regards,

Elaine M. Mac Kay

 

Stone

“I am drawn to stone because it is stubborn; an opponent that frightens for it cannot be bested. Granite will last though he who has shaped it may be a mere memory some years down the road. My longing to work in stone is akin to the need for love: an emotion that endlessly burns within.”

-Masayuki Nagare