Thoughts & Opinions

Living with Sculpture - Jan/Feb 2000

Details: Created: Sunday, 02 January 2000 00:58

I am so glad I was able to take the time to go see a beautifully crafted sculpture show. After following a wandering suburban road around and around, my partner, Mike, and I came upon a long driveway with a striking piece of sculpture by Mark Heisel at its entrance. “This must be the place!” Mike said. Sure enough all along the walk were more sculptures. At the entry way to this beautiful home was a very large fountain of granite by Rich Hestekind. Then we followed a walkway to a lower level garden and found more sculpture. One titled “Twisted Stele” by Kirk McLean was great! Inside the house were numerous nooks and spaces that seemed to be especially made to display fine art.

Since 1995, several sculptors from NWSSA have participated in the Open House and Sculpture Exhibit sponsored and curated by Nancy Jordan, also one of our members. In the past, the show was held at her home and sculpture garden in Ballard (which she calls The Haheim Gardens, named for her parents). For a change of pace, this year the exhibit was held at the home of Dru Jordan, Nancy’s nephew, and his partner Steve Galfano. Their home in Newcastle is a showcase for their interior design business, Galdan Design. The three sponsors and the artists hosted an outstanding sculpture event, which was called “Living with Sculpture.” This alternative venue, away from a formal gallery setting, offered a larger space and an opportunity to show a broad range of sizes of sculpture. The whole display of over 50 pieces looked as if it were part of an actual art collection and demonstrated how beautifully people can integrate three-dimensional art into their homes. Well-crafted pedestals, effective lighting, complementary paintings, thoughtful placement indoors and out—you can imagine the work that this team of artists and presenters put forth. It was an event that truly honored sculpture. Twenty sculptors exhibited this year. They were stone sculptors Sudha Achar, Reg Akright, Jim Ballard, Irene Hewins Bourgois, Meredith Earls, Vasily Fedorouk, Devin Laurence Field, Ron Geitgey, Linda Heisel, Mark Heisel, Rich Hestekind, Kirk McLean, Thomas Miller, Sondra Nice, Tone Orvik, Robert Roark, Steve Sandry, Verena Schwippert, Boris Spivak, and wood carver Lee Imonen.

Eight sculptures have sold so far: two of Steve’s, “Shard” and Emergence”; two of Rich’s, “ICON” and “Fountain”; one of Kirk’s, “Twisted Stele”; one of Linda’s, “Earth”; one of Meredith’s, “Earthly Aspiration”; and one of Reg’s, “Fun with Undulation #2". It is expected that more will be purchased as clients of Galdan Design and The Haheim Gardens visit both sites in the next few months.

The show ran for one weekend, Oct. 23- 24, and remains open by appointment. Call 206-782-0359 or 425-228-7133 for information.

I am so glad I did not miss this show. If Nancy plans one for the year 2000, I plan to be there.

Book Review: The Nature and Art of Workmanship - May/June 2009

Details: Created: Saturday, 02 May 2009 05:16

The word, “workmanship” in the title of this book may have raised your curiosity. If I then told you that the author, David Pye, was Professor of Furniture Design at the Royal College of Art, London, you might be scratching your head wondering, “What does this have to do with stone sculpture?” Let me explain. In addition to his role as Professor of Furniture Design, Pye was also an architect, industrial designer and master craftsman. During his long and illustrious career, he devoted a great deal of thought to process of design and the execution of those designs. In recognition of the corruption of the terms “craft” and “craftsmanship” over the years, he dismisses them, and proposes new (and probably more useful) terminology – the ‘workmanship of risk’ and the ‘workmanship of certainty,’ Workmanship of risk means a quality of work dependent on the judgment, dexterity and care with which one works, and workmanship of certainly involves predetermined results before a thing is made, such as in automated production. Risk carries with it the chance that any work piece could be damaged or destroyed at any step in its handling and does not matter whether the tool is a simple hammer or complex milling machine. Either a reliable process or fallible workman defines the result.

As Pye says, “Bad workmanship is a matter of making mistakes through hurry, carelessness or ineptitude, which thwart the design.”

Through many examples, photographs and theory, Pye explains how to judge the value of work – whether one’s own or that of others. In his down-to-earth writing style, he shows how to judge good workmanship from bad, Further, he distinguishes “regulated” from “free” fabrication where fine tolerances and precise geometries characterize regulated fabrication; whereas free fabrication allows the worker to vary the workpiece for aesthetic reasons.

Without mentioning stone sculpture directly, everything Pye discusses has relevance for our craft. His book might lead to some interesting discussions over the camp fire at one of our symposia. It would certainly generate thoughtful ruminations in our own studios.

How Much Arliss Newcomb Enjoyed Art City - May/June 2009

Details: Created: Monday, 02 March 2009 04:53

Driving directions to Art City are easy you say? Ha! They go something like this: Take the California St. exit off of the 101 freeway. Drive east to Main St. then go north on Main to Olive, turn east on Olive and go two blocks, now go left on Dubber St., only the sign says Rex St. Look closer, there’s a small arrow above the Rex St. sign that points up Rex St. 150 ft. to Dubber. Okay, now turn right.

But it’s a dead end street; keep going anyway. Pass an old VW auto yard and car body shop. And then, look over there: large basalt columns, naturally formed basalt bowls and Kansas limestone fence posts along the fence, and a big sliding gate. Art City, at last.

To any stoner worth their salt, the place is Fantastic. One can see huge blocks of marble in many different colors, piles of travertine and several types of limestone. I saw a lot of alabaster and onyx as well as many stones I don’t have names for.

There are work areas with roughed out and almost finished sculpture, and an open-air showroom with beautiful finished works of art. Naturally there is a layer of fine stone dust on everything. This is a working stone yard for a dozen or more sculptors.

Art City wasn’t really planned, it evolved. Paul Lindhard had been teaching stone art for some time at Santa Barbara City College and dragging his more than willing students along for field trips out to the desert and mountains of Arizona and California.

These trips were to find stone for carving. And, of course, all stone carvers end up feeling obligated to leave no good stone behind, so it wasn’t long before Paul saw the need for a space to store the surplus tons.

Real Estate growth in the Santa Barbara area being what it was he had to look farther afield. In l985 he and his brother leased an acre plus in a commercial area of Ventura, a town thirty miles to the south on the Coast Highway. That lot was the beginning of Art City.

At first ten or so students shared simple sculpting space. Then hoists were added, they found a forklift and installed a big air compressor. A couple of years later Paul leased another half block of property close by, and that became Art City II, providing room for more artists. In 1988 Joanne Duby came to work in a studio there. 1990 Russell Erickson came to work with Paul, and is now a partner. Alexandra Morosco arrived in 1994.

It seems to me that when good fortune was handed out, I must have been pretty close to the front of the line. For the second year in a row I have been able to spend two of our cold winter months at Art City, hosted by Paul and Russell and guided by my good friend and mentor Joanne.

My husband, Mike, and I lived in our fifth wheel trailer in an RV Park just a 15 minute walk to the studio. And other than a couple days of heavy rain, the weather was ideal for working. And work I did. Joanne is a no nonsense task master. We worked seven day a week from 9:30 to 5:00 most days. I was given a wonderful spot beside the water fountain display and under the shade of a beautiful blooming plum tree. Each morning, white blossoms lay on my work tables.

The project I decided to work on this year is an Art Deco style piece. I combined 4 different types of stone into one sculpture using pins and sleeves for ease of transport and assembly. Throughout the work I had help and guidance from Joanne, Paul and Russell.

When fully assembled, my stacked up sculpture will be over 4 feet tall. The base element is a core cylinder 18” across and 9” high made from 150 pounds of Saudi Gold limestone. Its color is like 24K old gold. The stem is a 30” tall 6” round core of black-gray and gold Portoro Marble. This is topped by a ten petal Lily of white with gray flecks, Ordenario Marble, 20” across by 9” high. In the center of the Lily will be a five pound, 8” bud of bright blue Lapis Lazuli.

At Joanne’s advice I have tried to keep a good photo history of the progress of the piece. I hope to complete the sculpture before my 72nd birthday this October.

For the last several years, NWSSA’s Camp Brotherhood Symposium has been the recipient of a lot of Art City stone. Unfortunately with the economy being what it is and fuel cost so high, they were not able to join us in 2008 and won’t be there this year either. We miss them.

So, if you are looking for a bit of Stoner adventure, give Russell or Paul a call at 805-648-1690 for space cost and more info. You DO need to bring your own tools. But my goodness, don’t bother to lug stone along; they have plenty to choose from at Art City.