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Barbara Hepworth 1903 - 1975

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Last Updated: Thursday, 03 May 2018 02:21
Without a doubt, the foremost woman sculptor of the 20th century, Barbara Hepworth is responsible in part for the emergence and acceptance of Abstract Art.Barbara in her studio circa 1950’s, with white marble sculpture and black cat.

Even before I started working in stone I was interested in sculpture and was inspired by a book I found in 1988 at our local Library used book sale, titled “Barbara Hepworth, a Pictorial Autobiography,” published by the TATE Gallery, 1970.

The very next summer on a boat trip to Canada I meet a stone sculptor on  Salt Spring Island. He was kind enough to give me my first two pieces of stone to carve, which resulted in thirty plus years of discovery and joy as an artist.
View of her Trewyn Studio (just as she left it.) Barbara died here of smoke inhalation from an accidental fire on 20 May, 1975 at the age of 72. (Photo by Arliss Newcomb.)
Six years ago on a trip to the UK with my husband Mike, we traveled to see her Museum and studio in St. Ives, near Lands End in Cornwall. It was a most moving and profound experience for me walking in her sculpture garden and seeing her working studio with all her tools just as she left them to stop for a tea break. While she dozed off for a short nap, the hotplate warming the tea water started a smoky fire which resulted in her death from smoke inhalation, May 20, 1975. She was seventy-two years old. A very great loss to the art world.

Born in 1903 in Wakefield, UK, she was a budding artist at a very young age.
At 17 seventeen she was accepted as a scholarship student at the Leeds School of Art.
Henry Moore was a fellow student. At nineteen she received a traveling scholarship
to go to Italy and study. There she meets many of the young leading names in the new movement of Abstract Art: Arp, Picasso, Brancusi and John Skeaping, whom she married at age twenty-four. Their son Paul was born two years later. Together they held several shows in both Europe and England which brought them public notice as artists of note. In 1931 she meet Ben Nicholson and in 1934 she gave birth to triplets, Simon, Rachel and Sarah. In 1938 they married. Because of the oncoming of WW2 they moved from their studios near London to the small town of St. Ives in Cornwall, where they both contributed to the war effort. Barbara’s Trewyn studio showing some of her projects under way at the time of her death in l975. (Photo by Arliss Newcomb, seen in the wall mirror.)

A sculpture she was working on at the time of her death. (Photo by Arliss Newcomb.)Hepworth was a very prolific sculptor, and produced over six hundred works of art over her lifetime, including many works of public art in England and across Europe. Most notable was "SINGLE FORM" installed in the courtyard of the United Nations in New York on June 11,1964 in honor of Dag Hammarskjold, the UN’s first president.

She is also noted for many of her sculptures being pierced (with a hole.) In 1931 she sculpted "PIERCED FORM." She said "the hole connects one side to the other, making it immediately more three-dimensional." (Henry Moore's first sculpture with a hole was carved in 1932.)

Three years ago, on a second trip to the UK, Mike’s son James organized a trip for us to go to the city of Wakefield, her place of birth just south of the Scottish border, to visit the Hepworth-Wakefield Museum. On display is a large collection of both finished work and rediscovered working models for her bronze sculptures. A short drive away is the beautiful five-hundred acre Yorkshire Sculpture Park with her multi-figure "FAMILY OF MAN," along with pieces by Henry Moore and Andy Goldsworthy.“Pierced Form” of pink alabaster from 1932, thought to be one of her first iconic hole sculptures.
Arliss with a Hepworth sculpture in the garden of Trewyn studio.
I recommend this trip if you are traveling in that part of the country.
A recent photo of Hepworth’s “Single Form” in front of the United Nations Secretariat building.

Women As Sculptors

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Last Updated: Friday, 26 February 2021 01:52

Introduction: Women as SculptorsFemale Sculptors

Who knows when the first woman picked up something sharp and decided to use it to carve an image in stone? The studies of many early ethnographers and cultural anthropologists indicate that women often were the principal artisans in the cultures considered as Neolithic, creating their pottery, textiles, baskets, and jewelry. However, no mention is made of stone carvers at this point.
The earliest three-dimensional public artworks made by women were wax figures. These were life-size clothed effigies for which women modeled the hands and heads, hyper-realistically, in wax. (The clothes were, probably, made by women too, but there is hardly any research on this yet.)
Women built a specialist tradition in wax modeling, going back at least as far as the middle Ages, when nuns made candles, flowers, and statues of saints in wax. In America, Patience Wright (1725-1786), who had not only a talent for art but a talent for self-promotion as well, is usually credited with being the first professional woman sculptor.Patience began modeling in bread dough and local clay. Widowed early, she turned her hobby into a means of support. Wax was readily available from candle makers and required no tools or training to use. Capitalizing on her talent and forceful personality, she began a traveling wax works show, moved to London, met Benjamin Franklin, was received by and modeled portraits of the king and queen, and became a legend in her own time.
During the eighteenth century, a number of enterprising women, took up wax modeling, among them Marie Grosholtz (1761–1850), later known as Mme Tussaud. These women specialized in waxworks of prominent contemporaries, and some even traveled from city to city in order to show their homemade, but very popular collections of waxworks of prominent contemporaries to the local public for a fee.
 Such work, which continued through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, all suggest the sculptural back doors through which eighteenth-century women artists entered the domain of public sculpture.  In wasn’t until the mid-1800s that a new generation of women stone sculptors emerged. Going against the accepted role of wife and mother, these women were often ridiculed and ostracized. The lucky ones had the financial and emotional support of their families and the private means to afford materials and formalized training. In America, women could attend academies such as the National Academy of Design and the Art Students League in New York, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, and the Art Institute of Chicago. However, many chose to study in Italy and established studios there, taking advantage of the company of stone carvers and craftsmen as well as the ready supply of white statuary marble. These artists worked in the prevailing neoclassical style for their monuments and commissions. The first “school” of women sculptors arose around Rome based Harriet Hosmer (1830-1908,) Anne Whitney (1821-1915) and Edmonia Lewis (1844-1911.)

Six of the many women who broke through the gender ceiling

1856 marble Beatrice Cenci by Harriet HosmerHarriet Hosmer (1830-1908)
began her life in Watertown, Massachusetts and from an early age was often to be found in a clay pit near her home “modeling horses, dogs, sheep, men and women.” Her high spirits and strong will earned her expulsion from school not just once but three times. After school she decided to pursue sculpture in earnest. Although her father encouraged her, the rest of Massachusetts was not so understanding. Even her friend Nathaniel Hawthorne despaired over her unmarried state and her “jaunty costume” which consisted of a “sort of man’s sack of purple broadcloth, a male shirt, collar and cravat and a little cap of black velvet.” Fortunately, she came from a supportive family who enabled her to go to Rome and study. Even though her “Beatrice Cenci” (1857), was a triumph at the 1857 Royal Academy exhibition in London, she nevertheless still had to deal continually with rumours that one or another of her male associates did her work. Slander and prejudice dogged most of her career. Anne Whitney (1821-1915), also from Massachusetts, was driven by a passion for social justice and many of her sculptures reflected her social sympathies. Her colossal “Africa” (1864, destroyed) embodied antislavery sentiments in an idealized neoclassical form. Sometimes her work proved too controversial—for example, Roma (1869), a realistic depiction of the city of Rome as an impoverished old beggar woman, which with its irreverence caused a sensation when it was exhibited. Experiencing much of the same prejudice that Harriet Hosmer faced, and with a similarly supportive family, Anne too went to Rome where she was one of several young American women sculptors who went to work there among their male colleagues. In 1875 Whitney won a national commission to portray abolitionist Charles Sumner, but, when it was discovered that the designs were by a woman, her submission was rejected. 

Marble 1867 Forever Free. Edmonia LewisEdmonia Lewis (1844-1911)
had not only to struggle with prejudice against women sculptors, but also against her mixed black and Chippewa heritage. After school she went to Boston, the center of liberal thought at that time, and began studying with Anne Whitney. Eventually, she too went to Rome to study, there creating life-size marble works celebrating emancipation and her Indian heritage. Although some feel that her work lacks the conventional polish of some of her contemporaries, her passion, expressiveness and ethnic content have great appeal. Her life-size marble “Forever Free” powerfully symbolizes the emancipation of black people. Lewis said that she was expressing her “strong sympathy for all women who have struggled and suffered.” Refusing to be stopped by racism or the patronizing attitudes of her times, she became the first major black sculptor in America.

3 Youth Taming The Wild by Anna Hyat HuntingtonAnna Hyatt Huntington (1876-1973)
 In the early 1900s, although it was still considered odd for a woman to choose sculpture as a vocation, more and more women became accepted. One of the most respected and influential, was the renowned sculptor of animals, Anna Hyatt Huntington, who broke new ground for women sculptors. Her bronze “Joan of Arc” (1915) was the first equestrian statue by a woman. Independent of spirit, her formal training was short and she could often be found at the Bronx Zoo, “a tall young woman in a tailor-made frock and red plumed hat, doing a clay study of a bison.” She did not attend art school aside from studying briefly at the Art Students League in New York City. Huntington was a self-made success with a natural talent for modeling detailed sculptures of animals and enormous equestrian sculptures portraying the likes of Joan of Arc (New York City), El Cid (New York City and Seville, Spain), and Andrew Jackson (Lancaster, South Carolina.)
Although she had no plans to marry, she finally accepted the repeated proposals of wealthy philanthropist Archer Huntington. Now, with unlimited financial resources at her disposal, she was able to work on a larger scale and support the work of other artists. The Huntingtons were responsible for the founding of fourteen museums and four wild life preserves. The most famous of these being the 9,000 acre Brookgreen Gardens in South Carolina founded by Anna and Archer in 1931. Originally intended as a setting for her sculptures, she soon commissioned works from her friends and it eventually developed into this country’s first public sculpture garden and has the world’s largest collection of figurative sculpture by American artists in an outdoor setting. This award-winning sculptor lived to be nearly 100, making art until the year before she died.
Abraham Lincoln by Vinni Ream

 
Vinnie Ream (1847–1914)
Ream is the sculptor of an iconic marble Abraham Lincoln that stands in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol (unveiled 1871.) A virtually untrained 18-year-old, Ream was the first woman to win such a commission from the federal government. She completed a plaster model for the statue in her studio and then, accompanied by her parents, took it to Rome in 1869 to translate it into white Carrera marble. In 1875, up against better-known male sculptors, Ream again won a major commission from the U.S. government, this time for a bronze of Civil War hero Admiral David G. Farragut. She went on to create portrait busts of other military and political figures of that era. Two later sculptures—Samuel Kirkwood (1906) and Sequoyah (1912-14)—are displayed in the U.S. Capitol’s National Statuary Hall. Ream abandoned sculpture for many years in deference to her husband’s wishes, but in her later years she executed a statue of Iowa governor Samuel Kirkwood (1906), as well as the model for a statue of Sequoyah (1912–14), both for Statuary Hall in the Capitol.

The Three Bares 1931 By Gertrude Vanderbilt WhitneyGertrude Vanderbilt Whitney 1875-1942
Bearing the surnames of two notable families, Gertrude could certainly have gotten by as a socialite, but she became a highly influential art patron (cofounding the Whitney Museum of American Art in 1930) and pursued sculpture, finding that she had a natural talent for it. Whitney created numerous dramatic memorials throughout the country and the world. Some of her better-known works include The Titanic Memorial (1914–31; in Washington, D.C.), The Scout (1923–24; in Cody, Wyoming), and the Peter Stuyvesant Monument (1936–39; in New York City).

But ironically, the prevalence of stone sculpture by women during the Suffrage Movement of the latter part of the19th Century and the early 1900s began to take a downturn in post-war America. Around the 40s, the image of woman as homemaker seemed to take over and it wasn’t until the feminist movement of the 1970s that acceptance of women in new fields began to be seen again. Little by little, prejudice against women as sculptors grew less adamant and by the late 20th century there were many successful women stone sculptors. Cleo Hartwig (1911-1988), Barbara Hepworth (1903-1975,) Jane B. Armstrong (1921-2012) and Anna Mahler (1904-1988,) to name only a few. It has been a long slow ascent for women as sculptors. Starting in caves making household crafts and goddess worship paraphernalia, they were denied anything much more than that until a few began modeling figures in wax to make a living with traveling displays. With a few lucky breaks and access to some money, a handful of women began producing world-class art, allowing them to finally force their way into what had been man’s domain and produce their own renaissance.

Here’s to women everywhere, past and present, who have worked hard to follow their muses and create their magnificent art that we see throughout the world today.

Exotic Peru

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Last Updated: Sunday, 25 March 2018 01:12
Dear NWSSA, Vic Picou and Alfonso Rodriguez Medina

I’m listening to Peruvian music and it takes me zooming back 4,500 miles to Exotic Peru. The clock went too quickly, yet I tried to take in each every awesome moment. Images of antiquity and mystery, the faces, and hugs of gentle people, the haunting flute music, bromeliads growing at 10,00 feet, the magnificent clouds over the snow laden Andes, the current art of the children and the mastery of stone work. Ahh, these deep impressions on my soul. Like being transfused with cells of granite, bright colors and the pulse of real life.

Machu Picchu Inca stoneworkThanksgiving was spent with Alfonso Rodriquez Medina and his three loving sons, at their home and marble factory in Lima. Visiting him in his homeland was unforgettable. If you don’t know Alfonso, he attended Camp B several times. This master craftsman danced while he forged tools. He sang as he carved stone as gifts to the auction.

On this visit, he gave me a lovely 10” marble carving of ‘mother and child.’ Alfonso would like to attend Pilgrim Firs 2018. (Maybe we can arrange a teaching appointment for him. You’ve got to know this fine gentleman.)
David Webb at Machu Picchu
Traveling with Dave Webb (NWSSA friend) and his partner Gene, plus meeting new friends in our small group of sixteen, was fun. Being south of the Equator for the first time was a big hit on this trip arranged by Friendly Planet.com/Exotic Peru.

Machu Picchu Granite hitching post The stone edifices of hundreds of years ago brought up many questions. How were these multi-ton boulders of granite, andesite and basalt moved uphill, precisely carved and installed without mortar? They remain in place, but when earthquakes occur, they “shake, rattle and roll” back into place. I think the Inca people had help from “galactic travelers” who knew stone and tools to create this engineering marvel.

At Machu Picchu, (7th wonder of the world) on November 27, I contemplated Inca life, and their mysterious disappearance, the Spanish invasion/colonization, and the clash/assimilation of cultures. I tried to grasp the tale of their history, but the “tales” are conflicting. I saw remnants of their toils and their obvious loss. How was life for the five hundred people who dwelled there? That night, I “astral projected” back to Machu Picchu, an experience not to forget. (I didn’t climb the Inca Trail, but I saw the crystals in the granite and the green of the grass.)

Vic PicouIn closing, I strongly suggest going to Peru. Consult your MD about Rx for high altitude sickness prevention, and enjoy the coca leaves and tea!

Ve A Peru!'Mother and Child" Carrara Marble, Alfonso Rodriguez Medina, Peru    Stone walkway of Cusco

You might want to check out some of these amazing places on the web.Salt Works of Maras
  • Larco Herrera Museum, Lima (45,000 Inca ceramic items) and impressive figurative stone collection, and a fine restaurant.
  • 15th-century Franciscan Monastery of San Francisco in Lima.
  • Cusco, the ancient capital of the Inca Empire.
  • Pisac, the ruined mountain city with its marvelously terraced hillsides.
  • Ollantaytambo, an Inca site.
  • Maras Salt Works
  • The iconic Machu Picchu at 8,000 feet
  • Chinchero in the Southern Sierras at 12,200 feet.

'Crossing Point' Finds a New Home

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Last Updated: Sunday, 25 March 2018 01:15
IN LA CONNER, WASHINGTON“Crossing Point” in its new location in Conner Waterfront Park on the Swinomish Channel.
By Tracy Powell

Editors’ note: The day was bright and sunny; the kind of day that can draw stone carvers out into the open air to work and then drive them back inside when their hands and feet go numb. It was the end of the first week in December in La Conner, Washington and the outside temperature hovered around the 40 degree mark with a chilling breeze blowing up the Swinomish Channel.
A La Conner city work crew, dressed for the weather, was using a big forklift to transport two granite boats, a large wheel/drum and a reader board from the Skagit County Historical Museum, up on the hill, down to the new and still under construction Conner Waterfront Park. A half mile of boardwalk, now about half built, will connect the city center to the new Park, with shops and cafes on one side and the Swinomish Channel on the other.

A La Conner City employee steadies the canoe as the forklift moves it to its new channel side pad. Tracy Powel watches from a safe distance.CROSSING POINT is the name Kalia Gentiluomo gave to her original project after a, now gone, pioneer swing bridge over the channel. In its final iteration, it included three pieces: a Native American canoe, a tugboat used by the settlers and a commemorative wheel/drum with inscription.The canoe coming to rest in full view of houses on the Swinomish Indian Reservation, Fidalgo Island

The initial carving work was done at the 2005 Camp Brotherhood Symposium by a host of NWSSA members using granite provided by Marenakos. It was a joy to behold the crowd of carvers, who spent the week joyfully drilling, wedging, hammering and grinding, to rough out all three pieces at once. When the symposium wrapped up, the sculptures went their separate ways, for their final carving and finishing. Kirk McLean took home the Tugboat and Dan Michael took the Canoe, and with the help of half a dozen heroic NWSSA carvers, finished them beautifully in the next several months. Lisa Ponder completed the third piece, the Wheel/Drum), by sandblasting the lettering, which reads “Welcome Friends and Relatives” in English and Lushootseed, the local native dialect. An interpretive sign was made by Marenakos, of Wilkeson sandstone.Conner Park with “Crossing Point in place as viewed from the Rainbow Bridge in La Conner.

This ambitious collaborative project was presented to the Town of La Conner in 2008 as a tribute to the shared marine traditions of the Swinomish Tribe on Fidalgo Island and the pioneer settlers on the mainland. It was installed in Gilkey Square, at the west end of Morris St in La Conner, adjacent to the east landing of the old swing bridge. CROSSING POINT stayed there for a few years, and became a part of community activities such as concerts and holiday celebrations during that time. Access to “Crossing Point” is now over and through this pedestrian, stainless steel “Salmon” bridge designed and built by Ries Niemi. Tracy Powel and Oliver (Ollie) Iversen, one of the Park Commissioners, officiating at the relocation site.

Then in need the year the Town decided to renovate the square, and so the sculpture group was moved a few blocks away, to the parking lot of the Skagit Historical Museum on top of the hill. They patiently waited there until this year, when the La Conner Park Commissioners discovered them there and decided they would be fine additions to their new Conner Waterfront Park.

Now their journey is complete. On December 7th they were all hauled back to the shore, and carefully placed together on the sand, within sight of their previous location, up the channel. They will once again become integral parts of a popular gathering spot where they can continue to remind residents and visitors of the shared marine heritage of the two neighboring communities, Swinomish Reservation and Town of La Conner. It is also appropriate that the name of NWSSA is back in public view.The tugboat and the canoe resting easy, framed by the Rainbow Bridge, another crossing point between two cultures.

The Wisdom Seeker in Olympia

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Last Updated: Sunday, 25 March 2018 01:15
Wisdom Seeker, Leon White Wisdom Seeker
Hi all, I recently installed a Sculpture in the City of Olympia for the 2017 exhibit on the downtown waterfront. My piece "The Wisdom Seeker" is four 4 feet high x with a nine 9 inch diameter. I carved it from Sandstone with and then added the Gold Leaf gold leaf. 

I didn’t win the “People’s Choice” award so the city did not buy my sculpture, but if you want to swing by the waterfront in Olympia, you can still see “The Wisdom Seeker” standing tall and looking for any wisdom that might happen by.

- Leonardo White

Where Are They Now? Michael Naranjo

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Last Updated: Sunday, 25 March 2018 01:17
WHERE ARE THEY NOW…….
Michael Naranjo
Michael A. Naranjo grew up on tribal land in Northern New Mexico. His mother was a potter, and it was through experimenting with her clay that he began the creative journey that would become his life. Ever since childhood, Michael had dreams of becoming a sculptor.

In 1967, at the age of 22, Michael was drafted into the US Army, and sent to Vietnam. On January 8, 1968, Michael’s platoon was caught in an ambush in an open rice field. Michael was hit by a grenade and would never see again. Both eyes were enucleated and he lost most of the use of his right hand. Rather than deter Michael, however, his injury made him more determined to fulfill his childhood dream. He began sculpting again while lying in a hospital bed in Japan, waiting to heal. Michael began simply, by “creating” a worm — basically, starting over.

Some of you may remember Michael when he came to teach at Camp Brotherhood in 2002 He is a gifted teacher and impacted many of us who had the opportunity of working with him.

“...Regarding ‘tools’ or ‘things to bring’, I always have my ‘tools’ with me, as I basically use my fingers and sense of touch; I rarely use conventional tools because I can’t always tell what the tool “sees”. I need to be in constant contact with my material, and though I encourage participants in my workshop to join me in this experience, participants are certainly welcome to use whatever else they are most comfortable with. Things that you need to bring to my workshop: your thoughts, your memories, your feelings, and, of course, your creative energy are all we really need to create.” - Michael


Michael’s daughter, Jenna, is making a feature film about Michael and his life as a sculptor working against-all-odds. To view a five minute preview, go to: http://www.DreamTouchBelieve.com 

Googling Michael turns up many links, including:http://www.collectorsguide.com/fa/fa116.shtml

Email Michael directly at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The Disappearing American Rock Shop

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Last Updated: Sunday, 25 March 2018 01:17
Rose Quartz
By Michael E. Yeaman: NWSSA Roving Reporter

When was the last time you wandered into a Rock Shop?
You know what I am talking about…or do you? Perhaps you have never been in one of these places of dying Americana. If so, this confirms yet another aspect our 21st century, increasingly digital world. There is much to lament about this vanishing institution of the American West. For many stone sculptors, these lost shops provided us childhood introductions into the world of stone and ultimately sources of carving material when we picked up our first hammer and chisel. Often these places would be found in the smallest of towns, especially in the West, and be owned by former miners, rock hounds or just old fogies out to make a buck. The rustic ambience of these stores was usually somewhere between mystic temple and junkyard. Yet, we always seemed to find something we couldn’t leave without. And although there will always be the Tucson Gem and Mineral Show (the TGMS), Marenakos, Neolithic Stone and whatever Pat Barton shows up with next year; where will we be without these sources of divine geologic inspiration?

Richardson Rock RanchThe Richardson Rock Ranch

The glorious past is not quite dead yet, as demonstrated by my recent visit to the remarkable Richardson Rock Ranch. Located just north of Madras Oregon, off an abandoned spur of highway 97, this place is ideally located in the middle of nowhere. Besides having a classic rock shop, this site is surrounded by a yard of rough dimension stone as well as being a favorite site for do-it-yourself geode digging. It has been owned and operated for over 43 years by Johnnie and Norma Kennedy Richardson. I met Norma directing hordes of parents and their fanatical geode/thunderegg-hungry kids one afternoon this last August during my visit there. She was courteous but direct in describing where I could find what I was looking for and how much it would cost per pound.

As I walked outside, I knew I was in the right place…acres of stone and most of it in carving dimensions. This was no ordinary, dusty mom and pop rock shop back-water. Over the decades Johnnie and Norma have built an oasis of stone far from the distant annual show lights of the TGMS. From boulders of smoky quartz to endless piles of black obsidian, the Richardson Rock Ranch seemed to be a lost world of carving potential. Long after I left, I have continued to wonder just who do they sell these remarkably diverse raw materials to? During my visit there I saw only the geode-hunting masses barely stopping to look over these Elysian Fields before rushing to the outcrop with pick-axes in hand. Oh well, all the more for me! Michael Yeaman holding some treasures

I took my time surveying what seemed like endless possibilities of sculptural potential. Most stones had the heavy rind of transport/abrasion which required me to use my geologic imagination to picture what might lie beneath the surface in a final polished piece. In the end, I decided on four very different pieces; a finely layered piece of banded iron formation from Australia, a fascinating blue boulder of apatite from southern Madagascar, a cored fragment of highly silicified petrified wood from eastern Oregon and finally a beautiful shard of rock crystal from central Brazil. Stay tuned for the sculptures that will come from these remarkable stones.

ThundereggsAnd what about digging for my own special treasure of thundereggs in the red, dusty, 100 degree outcrops of the Richardson Rock Ranch? Why bother when the biggest ones have already been found and put in a take-away bin for my pleasure.
Long live the American Rock Shop!

Bob Leverich’s Schoolyard Commission in Granite

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Last Updated: Sunday, 25 March 2018 01:17
Bob Leverich’s Schoolyard Commission in Granite Bob Leverich
By Bob Leverich


Hi NWSSA friends, Lane and Penelope have asked me to write a short report on the big boulder split I did with help from several of you last June, along with some background and an update on the project it’s part of – a sculpture on the grounds of Vashon Island High School, commissioned by the Washington State Arts Commission.

ConceptBackground – After interviewing and being awarded the job at the end of 2015, I went to work researching the island and the school and developing concepts. The selection committee chose a concept centered on the metaphor of drawing out or educing – the root meaning of education. I presented dimensioned drawings, a large model, stone samples, and budget in October and selection committee approved unanimously. I told them I’d be using Cascade Granite. With lots of help from Rich Hestekind and Kentaro Kojima, I identified and tagged three large pieces of talus at Marenakos Stone to use for the horizontal stones in the piece. Finding just the right boulder proved to be a real challenge, particularly at this scale. At their suggestion, Rich and Kentaro and I visited a large gravel pit quarry with lots of boulders in Ravensdale, southeast of Seattle on a glorious October day. I looked far and wide for other sources but ultimately chose a large granite boulder at Ravensdale.
Ravensdale Quarry ready to split
After lots more work on the budget, I signed the final Commission Contract in March. Marenakos cut flat bottoms on the three stones in the yard and delivered them to my work site in Olympia. Because of its size, we would have to split the boulder in the Ravensdale quarry. I got lots of good advice from NWSSA members, particularly George Pratt, and sculptor Jesse Salisbury, about boulder selection, grain structure, bedding planes, and splitting tools and strategies.

The Split – Very early on a Saturday back in June, we loaded up my pickup with a generator and lots of supplies and headed to the Ravensdale gravel quarry. We had a good group of helpers and onlookers: Pat Barton, Ken Barnes, Kentaro Kojima, Sue Taves, and Bill Gallagher from NWSSA, my assistant Grant Walker, four Evergreen State College students, the quarry watchman Walt Schorno, and several friends from Olympia. Ravensdale Quarry Split

The boulder was about 6’ high and shaped like a chubby equilateral triangle, about 9’ on each side. Our first strategy was to go from one flattish face of the stone to the opposite corner. We drilled 36 holes 5 inches apart along our proposed split line, each about 6 inches deep. We inserted the feathers and wedges and hammered them in, waiting between each round of hammering. Several broad thin pieces cleaved off along the split line. The splits headed sideways through the weathered and more friable surfaces – a shorter, easier path – instead of down through the mass of the stone. One large corner of the stone split off from top to bottom – now the stone more oblong than triangular. We were all a little nonplussed, and I was flat out bummed. We took a break.

We asked Walt to get out his big Case tractor with a bucket and backhoe, and he dragged away the big corner piece, so we could consider our next move. It was around 2 PM, and we decided to try again, going perpendicular to the freshly split surface and across the now oblong stone. We drilled our holes, hammered in the feathers and wedges, and timed ourselves carefully this time, waiting 15-20 minutes between each round of hammering, and watching for minute cracks to appear, which they eventually did, moving from hole to hole and then through the entire stone, now a little more than six feet thick. We were careful to work the sides more than the more friable top. After five or six rounds of this, we heard the distinctive crackling as the stone gave way. Suddenly hammer blows on one side were causing the other side to split as well, and we knew we were through. We were all pretty excited and happy! That was right around 5 PM. I was, and still am, very grateful for all the help and good wishes from NWSSA members that day. The energy was with us!Texture
FretCutWe all learned some things to consider the next time around - take account of surface weathering, consider carefully how both the mass and the form of the stone will constrain (or not!) the splitting plane, take plenty of time between rounds of hammering…. We might have intentionally taken off a corner at the start, to get a more oblong shape, and to tell us more about the grain direction of the stone. I’d say our first split line was running somewhat perpendicular to the bedding plane. It’s worth noting that the grain direction of the boulder became much more obvious to me recently when I began doing some final pointing by hand on one of the split faces. As with wood, hand tools tell you things about a stone that power tools simply don’t!Crane

Update – Marenakos cut flat bottoms and drilled pin holes in the boulder halves and delivered them to the work site. I worked hard on the five stones all summer with three part-time student assistants and several others who filled in here and there. We did our roughing out with angle grinders rigged with water feeds to keep down dust from cutting and grinding. We made time to visit the Pilgrim Firs Symposium for a day, to set up my work in a show at the Vashon Center for the Arts and to host lots of visitors, including Ken Barnes who brought Uchida-san, Maori sculptor Barry Te Whatu from New Zealand, and Kentaro Kojima with Ida-san and his two Japanese colleagues (Makiko Nagano and Mitsuo Saiki) from Suttle Lake, as well. We pushed hard to get the stones substantially complete by the start of October and set them up in their final configuration. I took final detailed measurements and made full-size plywood templates. Then I staked out the site with the site contractor to start his work. I hope to schedule installation later in November, and a dedication sometime after that. You’ll all be invited!  13covershot

A Frog is born.. obstetrics by George Pratt

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Last Updated: Sunday, 25 March 2018 01:16
George, they said, we need a granite frog for Haller Park.Frog1

Frog? Hmmmm. Yeah, I guess that’s my thing, I said.

So it was that for three of the harshest months in memory, I crouched shivering in a cloud of dust over a granite block that had langished in my yard for twelve years, chips a-flying to expose the heart, soul and body of a frog that I had long suspected was harbored therein.

The avocation of granite carving is the quintessence of those old expressions ‘labor of love’ or ‘bed of pain’ as you may wish to choose. To prevent my brain from entirely turning to jelly during the unceasing 12-week ordeal of manhandling a screaming diamond-grinder, I took to mentally composing a farcical account of my progress as I beavered away. I recorded that bizarre narrative every few days in my journal. Bizarre? The following will illustrate:

frog2March 15, 2017 - Today as I worked, I drifted into concerned speculation as to what might be the gender of this frog. At first, I concluded it was surely male because although it’s ultimate home will be Arlington, ‘way down there in Washington State, it stubbornly exhibits a stony reticence in asking for directions how to get there. It’s been said that’s a male thing— though mainly by my wife, mind you. But now I’m not so sure. Here’s why: You see, each spring I’m overtaken by an annual hankering to head out salmon fishing. Invariably, this yearning occurs just as the early grass needs cutting and our property begs for yardwork after a soggy winter. Naturally, I opt for the salmon fishing; I mean, what man would not?—but for some reason, this causes my wife to take on that silent, thin-lipped, granite-chinned look, familiar to all married fishermen. Today, prompted by sudden appearance of the sun, I summarily dropped the hammer and started boatward, when I perceived that was exactly the look the frog had taken on. So I’m now suspecting it might be female.

Well, I just don’t know what the truth is and I don’t have the energy to just turn it bottomside up and inspect the evidence in the time-honored way. I think the good folk of Arlington will have to work this out for themselves.frog4

For me, for now, it’s just ‘The Frog.’

March 28, 2017 . . . a Tuesday. A solemn, rainy Tuesday. How do I begin to relate what happened? All I can say is ‘O frabjous day, calloo, callay . . .!!’ —for this was the day when the Haller Park Frog exhibited the first definite sign of life—when it was born, so to speak.

frog5I knew the time was close, for I have been intimately connected to this frog for months; and you can’t be that close and not sense the stirrings within. When I absolutely knew, on this auspicious morning, that the frog’s time had come, I prepared very carefully. Oh, I wasn’t expecting a frenzied wiggling to begin, or peeing all over the place like an excited puppy. No. I knew it would be a more dignified moment than that. I made careful preparations. I shed my mask and glasses and tossed off my tattered gloves, revealing the earth-person underneath for the momentous occasion I knew was upon us. I stood resolutely in front of the frog, looking straight into its freshly carved eyes. It looked back in typical stony silence, its countenance one of stoic expectancy. I had carefully rehearsed my lines to make this magic moment happen.
Summoning up my gravest stentorian voice, I rested my hand firmly on the frog’s forehead, and barked sharply ‘STAY!” . . . and omigod! The frog stayed! No hesitancy, no reluctance—just pure, simple understanding and unquestioning obedience! And so the Frog announced its arrival. Oh, it was a moment. Thinking back these weeks later, I am still beset by the emotion of it—and sadly feeling the first pangs of loss, for I know it must leave me soon as it migrates south to its new home in Arlington.frog6

Goodbye, dear Frog. I love you. G.

If you arbitrarily put a line where you think the backbone should be—and don’t ever lose sight of it, you’ll be able to locate and rough out the components on both sides. Here, the centreline is telling us the eyes are not balanced . . .

It starts by guessing what is excess and busting it off with shims and wedges . . .

Judging where the extremities should be is also only by estimation at first. Fortunately, at this point there’s still stone enough to make adjustments . . .

Incubating an embryo frog in a nice cool blanket of snow will contribute to a healthy birth :-)

. . . a few weeks of assiduous fretting and all parts are organized. Keeping that backbone in sight ensures that both sides develop equally balanced.

By the time this issue is published, the Frog should be installed in Haller Park in Arlington. It will be on the grass with a cobblestone surround to about 6” up the waterline. Kids will be invited to clamber. . . and I gratefully invite all NWSSA members to hang around and tell the passersby ‘I helped George learn how to do that . . . ‘

Start Them Young

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Last Updated: Tuesday, 04 September 2018 19:06

Curious by NatureWe often hear it said “We need young people in NWSSA.” I was asked by the Greater Gig Harbor Arts Foundation to create an art piece with 18 four-year-olds to be auctioned as a fundraiser for the Curious by Nature pre-school in Gig Harbor.

For this project, I cut a 1 inch to 2 inch fish shape of soapstone for each child to sand, polish and buff. Each picked the fish shape they wanted to work. We used foam sanding blocks flat on the tables so they could take the stone to the sanding pad. When ready, we gave each child a tiny dab of Tenax Creama Wax and a little terry rag for buffing. Each child also chose a colored glass bead for their fish eye. We requested two things of the children: No blowing the dust and the use of a wet wipe to clean their hands and space. In a couple of sessions and with the help of two teachers, the shapes were done.IMG 0352


As a “frame” for their work, I cut a cedar fish approximately 2 feet long and made a divot for each little fish to rest. The children also painted the tail and fin grooves. To avoid any child contacting epoxy I took the work back to my studio where I epoxied each little fish into the large fish frame. Next, I printed a chart showing which little fish was created by which child so parents could identify their child’s work. Three other media artists also made group art with the children. The auction of the art was a success!

- Sharon Feeney

Doratti Sculpture Studios Cuts Two Gargoyles

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Last Updated: Tuesday, 04 April 2017 21:30
Pat Doratti has his stone studio in Nelson, British Columbia a small arts city in the Rocky Mountains above Spokane Washington. The Cutting Begins - Patrick Doratti Sculpture Studios

One of the interesting things he has there is a six axis robotic stone milling machine. Carl Nelson has worked with Patrick and this wonderful tool to create computer generated voids in some of his Dunite sculptures. 
Well Along with the Work
This article describes a commission Patrick has been working on. The client lives in a medieval style stone house near Calgary, Alberta. The job was to cut twin four foot high gargoyles from a five ton block of Carrara grey Bardiglio marble. No problem for Patrick and his magic cutter.

Patrick started by splitting the marble block into two equal pieces with wedges and feathers and a ring saw. He then scanned a plaster model with his in-house 3-D laser scanner, cleaning up the scan with his CAD software. The finished scan was then put into his CAM software which details the milling instructions for the robotic cutter.


Another view of the Robot at Work
After the bottom of each stone was leveled with the robot, a large cutting head was used to remove the blocky, excess stone. 
Then the intermediate milling was done to clean out the undercuts and hollows. The third pass was for the fine, detail work done in a zig zag pattern to finish the piece. The milling for each Gargoyle took about five days.

Since the client wanted a pitted, old bronze look, the finished stone was sandblasted, then sanded with 400 and 800 grit, but leaving some rough spots. Making the Stone Look Ancient

The required aging process uses a mix of black ash, oil, grease and a few other things. It was then wiped-down with a hand pad to achieve a matt finish with a very old weathered look. This takes some time, so it’s the gargoyles are still sitting in Pat’s shop being finished.

As you can imagine, technology comes with price tag. The shop rate is $100/hour but can be a big savings in time for large projects and also allows the artist to do small multiples like you would with the bronze process. Patrick is open to working with the artist’s budget.

You can reach Patrick Doratti through his email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Carving Complete on the Gargoyle Pair

The Sculptor's Funeral

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Last Updated: Tuesday, 04 April 2017 21:29
sculptorsfuneralWelcome to the podcast!

The Sculptor's Funeral is the podcast dedicated to strengthening the ties between today's figurative sculptors and the sculptors of ages past. Art history, interviews, discussions on techniques and practices, tools and materials, and more, hosted by Jason Arkles, a practicing sculptor living and working in Florence, Italy.

Hooked on Basalt

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Last Updated: Friday, 02 December 2016 01:11
By Bruce Richardson
Bruce working on "River Otter" 42"x12"x12", columnar basalt

Back in the last century I started carving soapstone with my pocket knife when you could find all you wanted along the Skagit River up above the small community of Marblemount. My first big “Aha” moment came when I finished sanding and rubbed my little frog with linseed oil! Where did all those colors come from?

At Camp Brotherhood for my first time three years ago, I took the plunge and with the help of Ruth Mueseler and Tamara Buchanan, learned about working granite with diamond tools and angle grinders. Although the actual carving process took a lot longer, that same excitement was there as polishing revealed unsuspected depth and patterns in the stone. That granite whippoorwill was only 12” long, but she convinced me hard rock was music I was destined to dance to.
“Pika”, 18” long X 12” high X 12” wide
Next summer when some barely manageable-sized pieces of columnar basalt showed up at the auction, I bit. How could I resist after seeing what Tom Small and others were doing with basalt and how they transformed it into black glass. A dull six sided grey column does not exactly generate a lot of instant ideas in one’s mind from its looks. Being a realistic sculptor who likes to carve animals I tried to imagine the most flowing and plastic creatures lurking inside with bodies that could be manipulated to minimize the amount of rock to be removed. In the end my artistic muse saw a river otter, so I started to fret my way into unknown territory. After three days of chips and dust clouds a number of wandering spectators asked if I was carving a slug.

“Porcupine”, 30” long X 12” high X 12”wideWith basalt the learning curve is steep. How much detail is realistically achievable? Curves need to be polishable. Small projections aren’t a good idea. And then there was always that pushy muse in the background repeating, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained.”

Camp B, year three, otter and me. After four long days in my bathing suit wet polishing I got my reward; a slippery, glistening, curvy otter, just out of the river wondering where she came from? That first assault on basalt got me hooked for life. (And should keep me fit for life ….)

“River Otter”, 42” long X 12” high X 12” wide, columnar basalt As I waited for the ferry back to Lopez Island on my way home that year, filled with wild excess energy from seven days with seventy other stoned fanatics gathered on “Planet Granite,” I noticed the black long necked cormorants drying themselves on the dock pilings. Wet, black, shiny and plastic! There had to be a way to find one in that other basalt column in the back of my truck that didn’t have a foot long neck and a narrow beak waiting to be snapped off by an unplanned encounter with a vacuum cleaner. Like otters, they are amazing contortionists and before long one showoff twisted his neck around to preen the back of his wing and I was a witness. The deal was sealed and the rest history …. and chips and dust and pools of water.“Cormorant”, 28” high X 12” wide, columnar basalt

Two otters, a cormorant and a porcupine later as I pondered a scarred and broken chunk of the other “black gold,” a high mountain pika let out its characteristic warning cry. Yes, they are rabbit relatives, but with short mouse-like ears, no tail, no skinny legs, but fat bodies …. hmm. I scratched my head. She scratched hers. I gave in. She posed for her portrait and the writing was on the wall, or chips were in the scrap bucket, as the case may be.

Come to camp next summer for chapter six, “Marmot Meets Maniac,” and maybe chapter seven, “Squirreled Away for a Million Years.”

Something of a Shearing

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Last Updated: Tuesday, 04 April 2017 21:36
SOMETHING OF A SHEARING
By Cyra Jane Hobson
Cyra Jane's Studio
In late 2013, I found myself lost. I was carving outside a metal sculptor’s studio in downtown Seattle, but it wasn't mine and I knew it was time to start searching for my own workspace. I had a place to live in a building downtown, but I had never wanted to be there and while I didn't want to stay, I also dislike change and find it very hard to tear away from security. On a work front, my paying jobs were mostly about how much stress one person could hold, and I was putting every last bit of energy left into a large burning man collaboration with an awesome, but too small, crew. And the very last bit of my innocence was being destroyed in a bare-threaded and desperate relationship on its last strands. This all culminated in a serious breakdown in August. I went underwater, my light extinguished. And so, in September, I began moving.

And so I carved the foundation of the lighthouse, quit all my jobs, and began ripping myself off the ground to start wandering in search of home. I was hurt, I was stressed, and blindly determined.

With legs of stone, especially so unformed, I moved very slowly. I was invited to help set up a bronze foundry on Vashon Island and began commuting from my apartment in Pioneer Square, Seattle. I left the downtown studio. I started carving outside the Quonset hut destined to be the foundry. I worked a little on the lighthouse. I tried risky job propositions, each a lifting of feet. I joined NWSSA and began attending stone carving symposiums, and the light started to shine again, just a little. I began to carve the structural details

At the Silver Falls symposium that summer, I spent five days straight shaping the lighthouse itself (it's a separate piece from the base). I lost myself in the rhythm of filing down the body and rebuilding this form anew among new friends. I liked the focus I found in that group, and the ease of character. They felt like what home could be.

In late 2014, I started a business that allowed me to rent my own studio space at the same complex of abandoned greenhouses turned artists’ studios where the foundry will be. The business promptly failed, but I had that studio and I loved that studio. And I kept that studio. I started the detail carving of the lighthouse face. Slowly that year, plans began to come into focus. Progress was slow, as I was stretching thin, still tethered to that old apartment and unable to break away entirely.

The stone carving almost finished2015 found me wading in the river. I finally pushed off the foundation, relinquished the apartment and went peripatetic. Homeless. The day I found out that was to happen, the day after returning to my studio from Camp B, Rubble was cast as the foundation broke off entirely. A fit of ink projected the lighthouse onto a studio wall.

Splashing forward, I crashed on couches in a constant state of discomfort with the unknown, traveled to Arizona to work with a lapidary crew and there tackled the toes and the meaning of mobility. There, in the depths of isolation and in, by all accounts, terrible circumstances, I missed home, dreadfully. Not just my studio but my communities.

I came back to my studio for just a few days before a next journey to Vancouver, BC to be the artist in residence at Studiostone, a carving studio with a vibrant community. Touching ground so briefly in my own space was powerful and I did not want to leave, and I had to leave again, so soon! In B.C. I was homesick. Not that my experience there wasn't wonderful, it was. And in many ways, I was at home among other stone artists. But my own lens had finally focused, and though I had a whole studio full of stone and tools to play with, I worked diligently instead on the lighthouse carving its lens, sanding and painting, brazing the river, assembling the pieces, making plans, yearning for Seattle and for the island and the chance to pull in my feet and let down the walls. This was the seventh workspace I and the lighthouse had worked in together and by the end of March, all that I could do outside my own studio was done. All that was left to make was a wooden oval base and to have the light turned on.

At last, the lighthouse painted with bronze river and wooden baseI wanted to have the base before returning to Vashon, so I detoured for a few days to visit a friend on another island with a studio surrounded in forest. I took the lighthouse out into this eighth workspace to cut and laminate a solid base of old, repurposed mahogany. By now I was savoring the last drops of my homesickness. I still had no plan and no specific place to lay my head, but that didn't matter so much. One foot, a few toes, were still in the river, and the rest of me had pulled up onto a new land.

And so the return to the island and the finishing work. Lots of little details and readjustments that fell into place swiftly. A shearing of reality as the chronicled character of the monomyth became someone else, an entity unto itself and no longer an aspect of my internal visualscape. And now he ambles over there, quite alive. His path remembered in a wash of golden light. His lens bright with intent and determination. He delights me. I never thought he would exist; I never thought the feeling of home would again either.

I did not necessarily intend for the sculpture to be so literal, and there is a lot of backstory about the quest for home that began far longer ago than this particular lens. But that is how it works and I'm grateful to have been awake for this part of the journey.


Something of a Shearing first appeared on April 28, 2016 in Cyra Jane’s Blog: The Spaces in Between 

Fat Phobia

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Last Updated: Tuesday, 04 April 2017 21:42
Venus in Two Views for the Fat Phobia Gallery Show
By Jonna Ramey (All photos by Jonna Ramey)


The Venus of Willendorf is an iconic Paleolithic image of woman. To anyone familiar with the female body, this small sculpture is not a fertility goddess per se, she is young and she is fat. Gloriously, unabashedly fat. Roughly 4.5” tall, she was carved from oolitic limestone 28,000 to 25,000 years BCE.
Clay Maquette

As a feminist, this figurine has spoken to me for decades. She is a primal, strong, personal image of women—fat women. As a direct stone sculptor, I have both yearned for and shied away from the possibility of making my own Paleolithic figurines. Recently, for the exhibition Fat Phobia shown at Art Access Gallery in Salt Lake City, I carved two stone Venus figurines, but on a larger scale. My works are each approximately two feet high, carved in African or Utahan stone. One piece is my fairly literal take on the Venus of Willendorf, the second is a more abstract portrait. Together, they frame a conversation on body image and celebrate large women’s bodies from earliest humans to our present society.

‘Venus at Middle Age’ reflects on the Willendorf figure, envisioning her as a woman a few decades older. Older, wiser, still strong and vibrant. Of the two sculptures, I carved her first, using a piece of Zimbabwean opalstone.

I started the process by studying all the images I could find of the original Willendorf figurine online. The figurine has been photographed in many angles through the years and the source material was rich. Studying these images, I came to some personal conclusions and observations. First, the original sculptor loved his subject. Yes, I think the Venus of Willendorf was carved by a man and he was smitten. He loved her breasts, her vulva, her fat, her youth. But he posed her with her face cast down or hidden, and he rendered her arms as a late afterthought. To survive 28,000 years ago, a woman needed strong arms and she needed to look directly at the world. My sculpture, I decided, would show her in a different light.

Sketching on paper, I found I was creating an older, more mature woman. Her breasts would have fallen with age, and her arms would hold them up to relieve pressure on her back. She would look out at us, but like the original, her face is not detailed, making her everywoman. Her hair thinned with age, her hairline receding. While I roughed in a shape (a cocoon really) in the stone, I also worked on a small Sculpey maquette. Clearly, my sculpture was not going to be a replica of the figurine. I worked the stone entirely with hand tools in some quirky homage to the maker of the original. She was hand-sanded to 2000 grit and finished with Butcher’s wax. The piece took about 120 hours to complete.

‘V Kicks Up Her Heels’ imagines the woman who may have inspired the original Venus figurine in a playful manner. From the beginning, I knew she would be sculpted with Utah onyx (honeycomb calcite) to provide a strong counterpoint to the opaque blue-green opalstone. Honeycomb calcite’s translucency and vibrant color dictated that the sculpture could not incorporate subtle or fine detailing. It would have to be created with bolder gesturing. Where ‘Venus at Middle Age’ had a solid, composed dignity to her, ‘V…’ was always an active, dancing figure in my mind. A quickly composed maquette led me in a direction, but the stone had other ideas and I was willing to compromise. Instead of both arms flung out akimbo, one was raised and the other just dropped by her side. One leg is planted on the ground, though we only see the thigh, and the other leg is kicked back. Honeycomb calcite does not take hammer and chisel well. This piece was created using angle and die grinders. Finishing included diamond pad hand-sanding followed by buffing out with Italian Craftsman Polish. This piece took half the time of the other to produce.

The exhibition Fat Phobia was the brainchild of artist Carol Berrey and was curated by her and Sheryl Gillian, Executive Director of Art Access. Fat Phobia has been a great success. The opening drew 400 people. The audience was receptive to all the work shown, discussing the pieces, asking each other questions, commenting. Connected to the exhibit has been a series of talks and workshops ranging from author Jasmin Singer speaking on ‘Body Positivity’ to a writers’ workshop and subsequent poetry reading in the gallery. All events were well-attended. High school and college art students have paraded through the exhibit to look at the art, complete onsite assignments and then talk about body image and art. And, the artists have met each other, spoken about what they do and the content of their work.

Jonna Ramey with Venus (middle aged)For an in depth critique of the show, go to Scotti Hill’s article in 15 Bytes e-magazine.

For me personally, these two pieces have pushed my work into new realms. Exploring a playful, active form has kindled an interest in making more active figures in stone. The physical sculpting has for some reason made me more fearless when approaching a stone. And as a Euro-American woman, it’s been empowering to artistically embrace my paleo roots. How this all plays out in my sculpture… we’ll see. But, it’s given my work a fresh perspective and verve that is personally appreciated.


I sculpt stone. It gets me up in the morning. Every day. My work is often abstract, sometimes figurative but rarely literal. Making sculpture is a way for me to examine thoughts, emotions, cultural concerns, myths and taboos. I live and work in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Keith Philips: Tools of the Trade

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Last Updated: Tuesday, 02 August 2016 18:40

Page from the Past...

Keith Philips: Tools of the Trade by Terry Slaton

Dressed as a 19th century instructor in a trade school he explained many things about the conditions when stone work was the major building method. Then he quick-changed into the garb of a turn-of-the-century stone cutter, or banker mason, with black coat, vest and derby, as a play on words. A banker mason worked on quarry blocks supported by big benches called "bankers", possibly from the French 'banquette', meaning bench. (Possibly not.) Lots and lots of tools were shown and demonstrated. My favorite was the pneumatic tool of choice of Scotsmen; Bagpipes! Keith pulled some from an un-toolbox-style case and proceeded to demonstrate them for us. Quite adequately, I might add.Page From The Past May-June 2005

Terms were defined;
A stone cutter makes the basic geometric shapes;
A stone carver puts on the filigrees;
And we sculptors do the crazy stuff.

Other terms from the quarries:
'Oiling the rooster' referred to the necessity of greasing the pulley block on top of the rigging pole, or rafter space of the shed. The young and fearless apprentices got this job.
'Ringing of the square' was the foreman banging on a carpenter's square to get the yardworkers' attention.
The striking faces of a 'penny face hammer' were the size of an Irish penny. And a man's tools were highly respected and guarded.

Extractions from Keith's notes: Take pictures with a tape measure or other device to define the scale of the subject. When moving stone, plan ahead for where it's going. Pad the edges. Use momentum to carry the rock past neutral and onto another level of support. A plank and rollers can work well; and sand on an inclined plank can get big stuff out of a truck.

We were awed with the precision demonstrations of tool work. Broken surfaces become smooth, smooth ones became scored, grooves and leaves appeared, fan shapes spread across the surfaces. Many examples of the styles and types of column caps and facings were on hand. He must have had a big truckload of tools and samples to pay for on the ferry.

Other bits of info passed on to us
Tool marks generally indicate hand carving, and undercutting definitely does, as moulds can't be removed properly from an undercut form/ Make several light passes when undercutting, and direct your strokes into the bulk of the stone. Keep your tools sharp. Use a red pencil for marking, as magic market can soak into the stone. Make patterns and guides with weather proof material, in case of rain, or a spilled cup of coffee. Patterns on transparencies can be used for mirror-image reproductions. Copyright-free patterns can be enlarged at Kinko's to use on any sized stone. When high in a structure, features can be less defined, should be larger than grade-level features, and tip out from the vertical surface.

Carvers on YouTube

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Last Updated: Thursday, 19 May 2016 23:33

To view video, go to: getty.edu/art/collection/video/142930


Attribution

Original footage from “La Sculpture: Techniques De La Taille.” © 1980 Neyrac Films

Music courtesy of Moby Gratis. Narrated by Sculptor Gilham D. Erickson.

© 2008 J. Paul Getty Trust


CARVING A MARBLE FACE BY EDMUND SULLIVAN
Uploaded on Aug 24, 2008
Sculpture of a face from beginning roughing out with a point chisel, followed by refinement with tooth chisels and then finishing with rasps. The marble is a pure white large crystal Greek Marble from the Island of Paros.
See other carving videos by Sullivan and others on this page go to Sullivanart.com, 

Carvers on YouTube

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Last Updated: Tuesday, 05 April 2016 22:53
YouTube’s Living Room Symposia for the stay-at-home carver

Dressed in sweats and relaxing in the privacy of our homes, rain pelting at the windows, our own Workshops, for many of us, are but a distant memory. Nevertheless we can, with a click of the keyboard, have small private stone carving tutorials brought to us at any hour, thanks to YouTube and the generous souls who share their processes and work.

Here are a few to get you started. Warning: Watching these videos can become habit forming.

Joey Marcella carving MANTIS from a 500 pound block of Carrera marble





Carving Marble by Mark Carroll


(Mark Carroll Copyright 2010, all rights reserved)

Five Sculptors, Five Stones, Five Days

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Last Updated: Friday, 25 September 2015 23:30
By Ken BarnesKen Barnes

It was July and I was starting to get worried. I had a show scheduled for December and no work yet finished. One piece was started. I had zero time for a week of socializing at Camp Brotherhood, no matter how much I loved these people and this event. My home studio is set up for efficient work with my tools at arm’s length, just like a good kitchen layout. I have piles of stone to choose from. My wife, cats and comfortable bed were a 30-second walk from the studio. “What would it take” Camp Director Ben Mefford asked, “for me to make room in my schedule for Camp B this year?” I said the event needed to be different for me. I needed to be productive and I wanted to be challenged. Ben pushed further, “Give me an example.” A spontaneous phrase rolled off the tip of my tongue, “Five sculptors, five stones, five days.”I fleshed it out further as collecting five sculptors on one part of the field, give them each a stone and require that they complete the sculpture entirely in five days. This conversation started in July 2014, and there was not enough time to arrange this for the 2014 camp, but it could ramp up in 2015.

Rom SmallIn discussing the idea with Tom Small he suggested that it be 5 pieces in 5 days for each sculptor, and I thought that was a better challenge. That would also allow me to rough out a piece and let it sit for at least a couple days so that I could look at it and think about the necessary refinements without the pressure to polish a form that wasn’t necessarily ready. I was also excited about loose-form sketching in stone.

The sketching really pushed my skills – forcing me to be efficient in my design and blocking. I had to visualize the completed piece thoroughly and mark the cuts without hesitancy. I have in the past taken a millimeter at a time off a stone to see if the resulting form pleased my eye. This week I couldn’t take a thousand passes with a grinder cup wheel – I needed to decide how deep to cut and push the blade into the stone to just that depth, so it forced me to make definite design decisions instead of delaying them until I had taken another millimeter.

I typically welcome the happy accident but am still fearful of ruining a stone with a wrong cut. I am learning to leave that fear behind and literally plunge forward. A big part of losing my hesitancy was in dropping the idea that each stone, either in its raw or partially completed state, was precious. The more precious the stone is the more difficult it is to cut. I needed to view the stone as just a raw material until it is complete.

Four other sculptors joined me in the 5/5/5 quest in 2015.Sue Taves

Tom Small thought it was an intriguing idea. Tom wanted some play time, the chance to flesh out several different ideas. The 5/5/5 format gave him the excuse to start small and try out several new concepts. He brought several pieces to work with, some of which he had done preparatory work on and others that were a totally new exploration.

Sue Taves accepted the challenge as an opportunity to work on a series that she had long-conceived but not had the opportunity to achieve. Sue’s work was a group of heads from the same stone. It was nice to have the first head present when she was working on the second, and to have the first two staring at her as she worked the third. By the time the fifth arrived she had a small party of four heads waiting. The heads got to talk to each other as the week went on. It would have been difficult to stay on the same project for a full five days back at Sue’s studio.

Tom FrancisTom Francis wanted the opportunity to work with several different types of stone. Tom warmed up with stones that he was comfortable with, but then dove into some conglomerates and other challenging stones that he wanted to try. The shortened time format required him to dive into the stones and just,“do it”.

Therese KingsburyTherese Kingsbury was a first-time stone sculptor. She jumped into carving with great gusto, making five pieces over the course of the symposium. Therese did not start out to achieve five pieces, but just kept carving until the first one was done and then started the second. It was curiosity about how to carve combined with a desire to keep going until completion.

All of the participants thought the sub-event was a worthwhile pursuit and looked forward to trying it again.

At the 2015 Venice Biennale Art Show

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Last Updated: Tuesday, 04 April 2017 21:33
Why is the Kenya Pavilion Full of Chinese art?Dynamic Africa by Wangechi Mutu

In the last issue of Sculpture NorthWest, we showcased six of our members talking about what they thought made their art their own. That is, how much work must they do to sign their name to it?
In this issue, we are expanding the question to the international scene by covering what is happening at the 2015 Venice Biennale Art Show. Can it be called the Kenyan Pavilion when it is filled almost exclusively with Chinese art by Chinese artists?
The Venice Biennale is one of the oldest and most import exhibitions of contemporary art in the world.
This year Kenya is part of the exhibition. NPR's Gregory Warner reports that there is something odd about the artists who've been chosen to represent that country ....almost none of them are Kenyan.

"Why Are Chinese Artists Representing Kenya At The Venice Biennale?"
There's something sketchy at this year's Venice Biennale — the international art exhibition sometimes dubbed the Olympics of the contemporary art world.
When you come to the Kenyan pavilion, almost all of the artists will be ... Chinese.
The Biennale, one of the oldest and most important exhibitions of contemporary art in the world, takes place in Venice every two years. Thirty countries, including the U.S., have a permanent slot.
Wangechi Mutu from KenyaAbout 50 other countries have applied for their own exhibition space, called a pavilion. The East African country of Kenya hosted its first pavilion in 2013 and plans to host another this year, featuring mainly Chinese nationals. None of them have apparently ever been to Africa or reference it in their work.
The controversial roster has provoked outrage among Kenyan bloggers and artists. It's also provoked a sense of deja vu — the same thing happened in 2013. 
In Nairobi, where the Kenyan contemporary art scene is gaining traction with serious art buyers, the news is being felt not just as an artistic flop but as a colossal missed opportunity. "It's a kick in the stomach," says Sylvia Gichia, director of Kuona Trust, an artist's collective and residency program in Nairobi. Organizations like hers work hard to bring Nairobi's artistic renaissance to a global audience via art fairs and art auctions.Zhengjies portrait workFeng Zhengjie from Beijing
Needless to say she is dismayed that the 370,000 art lovers who visit the Biennale will see none of the work that's driving the contemporary Kenyan scene. "What," Gichia asks, "do the Chinese have to do with visual arts in Kenya?"
Nobody in Kenya's government will answer that question. Calls and texts to the personal cellphone of Nairobi's minister of culture, Hassan Wario, went unanswered. In most countries, the government either selects the artists or assigns that duty to a private gallery. In Kenya, the government apparently played no role other than to fob off the job to an Italian curator, Paola Poponi.
Poponi cannot say she has ever set foot in Kenya, but her official title is "commissioner" of the Kenyan pavilion, the same title she held in 2013. She defended the choice of artists in an email liberal with capitalizations, saying that the Kenyan pavilion ably expressed the international theme of this 56th Biennale, which is All The World's Futures.
Poponi wrote, "Talking about art FROM ANOTHER PART OF THE WORLD during an art exhibition can be useful for KENYA, always more able to create its OWN IDENTITY." She said that art should not be constrained by geography and explained in a follow-up email that "MEETING THE REST OF THE WORLD" would enable Kenyan artists to analyze their own experiences "more deeply."
But if Poponi's goal is to expand the vision of Kenyan artists and have them "meet" the rest of the world, what better way than to invite Kenyans to the Biennale exhibition?
Poponi wrote back to say that the pavilion does feature Kenyans. Two of them. The one ethnic Kenyan in this pavilion — Yvonne Amolo, who has won awards for her film about racism — lives in Switzerland and has no connection to the contemporary Kenyan art scene.
The other Kenyan citizen is a 72-year-old Italian-born painter, sculptor and real estate magnate who has lived in the Kenyan coastal town of Malindi for nearly a half a century. Armando Tanzini sits at the heart of this controversy, because he's the only artist whose work has appeared in both the 2013 and 2015 Kenyan pavilions.
Patrick Kinuthia from KenyaI sat down with Tanzini last week in a cafe in Nairobi to understand how the pavilion had come to be. He explained that if not for his efforts, Kenya would not have any pavilion at all.
"The government of Kenya, they don't know about this important exhibition, the Biennale," he says. "I try several times to help them to understand."
Finally, in 2013, with the government's approval, he paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to get Kenya a pavilion and organize the show. This year he says it wasn't solely his money. He had other private sponsors. But again, no funding was forthcoming from Kenya's government. "Unfortunately, if I want to bring Africa, or Kenya, I must compromise in some way," he said. "Compromise because we have not the money." Kinuthias portrait work
Tanzini wouldn't elaborate on what this compromise was, or where the additional money had come from.
A petition circulating on Change.org, titled Renounce Kenya's fraudulent Representation at 56 Venice Biennial 2015, proclaims that "a group of well connected persons, who lack neither the intellectual nor creative capacity to represent Kenya's contemporary art to the international arena, are posturing to the world as the Kenyan Pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennial in Italy."
The Biennale would not respond to requests for comment. When the exhibition opens on May 9, participants will have to contend with Kenyan protesters who say they'd rather have no pavilion at all than one that doesn't represent their country. Novelist Binyavanga Wainaina told me that [the] issue is not with the Biennale nor with Tanzini but with Kenya's Ministry of Culture — and it's dismissive attitude toward the arts.
"That this parody could happen two years ago was already far from excusable," Wainaina said. That it would happen a second time, without government comment, he says, is "farcical."

Excerpted from the full text of All Things Considered, March 30, 2015 by Gregory Warner

Who Were Those Masked People

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Last Updated: Tuesday, 04 April 2017 21:46
EXCERPT FROM THE PAST January 1995 NWSSA Journal

Who Were Those Masked People?

"Hello" from a new stone carver

Here we are, not even at the six-month mark between Symposia, and I wonder how I will make it until next July. The last Symposium was like the proverbial shot in the arm, but a lot more fun. For me, a person who is new to stone carving, and who lives in a relatively isolated area, (and as far south as possible and still be in the Northwest - if I sneeze in my living room in Oregon, they say "bless you" on my front porch in California). I found last year's Symposium to be a combination of a) several really great on-going classes, b) an unlimited chance to play with stone, and c) getting together with a bunch of old friends (for the first time).

I had heard about the NWSSA Symposium from various people at various times, but it wasn't until last year that I loaded up my air-hose and headed north. When I walked into Fisher Lodge on the Monday of the second week, it was the middle of breakfast and I experienced "that" feeling you get when you walk into a room full of people, all of whom seem to have known each other since birth, and you know no one.

That feeling lasted about one and a half minutes. As soon as I walked up to the registration desk I was greeted like an old friend who hadn't been seen in months. No sooner had I signed in, when Joyce Taylor (a friend I truly hadn't seen in months) came up to me and said, 'Have you had breakfast yet? Get a plate and come and sit down with us." (Us being the other 60- some people in the room.) I sat down and was in time for the 'meeting' part of breakfast ("Hello, Brian"), and by the time we left for the field, I was beginning to feel measurably more comfortable.

Down on the field, I realized that I had seriously under-packed. No work table (what was I thinking, I would hold the stone on my lap?), no shelter (and the temp. was on its way to the high eighties), and really no sense of what I was going to do (not that unusual). Within minutes Joyce had moved her stand to accommodate me under her shelter, (as well as Sandy Falcone who had a good excuse for not bringing a tent as she flew in from Minnesota), Vic had volunteered a work table and before I knew it, I had a "space" to work.

The whole week was filled with similar acts of generosity. The NWSSA has to be one of the most generous group of people that I've ever had the good fortune to come across. Generous with equipment, with time, with knowledge and support. Never, of the hundreds of questions that I must have asked during that week, did I get anything but a willing answer. Never was anyone too busy to help.

And so here I am, too far south to attend meetings (thank goodness for the newsletter), but not too far to say hello and thanks again. See you next year!
Penelope Crittenden

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