The uniqueness of each piece of stone provides an opportune beginning for me to become progressively familiar with the material. This allows my imagination and the stone to merge in the crucible of time and contemplation. Through this collaboration, the sculpture emerges, rising both from inspiration and intention. This new piece derived from a massive, purely true white Yule Marble boulder. After selecting the stone at the quarry, and living together for more than two years, we (the stone and me) began a creative collaboration. After months of interaction, and my following the stone's lead as sensitively and patiently as a am able, the form emerged.
What resulted is a challenging form that required a gentle hand and abundant time to explore the negative space potential and organic curves in the stone. Of course, the separate arching wings that now crown the piece, suggest an emotional individuality as well as convergence to me. Collaboration does offer greater creative expression than a single intention driven process. I find "Purely Sublimely", the name I use for the piece, uniquely satisfying both emotionally and creatively. My wish is for all viewers to enjoy the finished form as much as I.
New work seems always to bring new satisfaction and challenges. One of the charms of natural stone derives from the unseen qualities to be discovered within each piece. What I call Breccia Marble, but better known as Picasso Marble, exhibits a complex random pattern of intersecting, crossing, emerging and vanishing lines, banding, tonal variation and the like. Such complex internal structural elements suggest the possibility of fracture lines in the stone which do exist, perhaps more frequently than most other types of stone. This makes Picasso Marble particularly challenging to sculpt.
Sculpting Wave Dance exemplified all of the problems Picasso Marble holds. This very satisfying piece emerged from a massive piece, ultimately forming a sweet expression of explicit exuberance with the implied motion in the stone striations seeming to amplify the exhilaration. The finished form is presented on a pedestal as a metaphor suggestive of free, strong emotion.
Because of the fracture potential and porosity of the stone, Picasso Marble exposed to the elements has a tendency to weather relatively quickly. The most durable material seems to be that with the darkest coloration. Such material also ranks higher on the hardness scale and works much more slowly than lighter colored Picasso. While the lighter colored stone cuts more easily than the darker stuff, because it tends to be more fractured and more porous, the imperfections present strength problems when sculpting with slows and complicates the process.
I find the darker Picasso Marble more desirable for working, not to mention it's aesthetic quality being finer. For bold forms with simple profiles it works nicely. Detailed forms with much nuance in texture or relief tend to be obscured by the complexities in Picasso.
Finishing Picasso Marble may generally be carried to as high a finish (polish) as desired. Bringing a high polish creates highlights that can add another level of surface complexity beyond the myriad striations with the stone. Personally, I prefer a less glossy finish, something short of buffing the finish.
Wave Dance is one of my wave inspired sculptures, I mounted the finished form on a black-steel pedestal as though rising in the moon light on the tip of a dancing wave. I find waves and wind of particular interest. It may seem a contradiction to express my inspiration of such ethereal natural forces in a solid medium. However, for me stone carries me though a process of simplification to reduce the essence of the expression to basic levels. The results are often exciting to me as I unlock or discover what the stone holds within.
I emphasize natural surrealism in both my stone sculpture and photography while engaging the emotions evoked by the natural realm. When working in stone, I use direct techniques in native marble, basalt, and limestone. Stone sculpture allows me to explore the substance I see with natural conceptual interpretation in a timeless medium. My pictures emerge through imagination and experience with the interaction between light and subject supported by a keen interest in natural history.
I have enjoyed a life long, burgeoning passion for working in stone and photography. Having a father with wide ranging interests offered me many opportunities to experience myriad creative outlets. We had a permanent darkroom in the house which provided early and often experience with the magical emergence of photographic image making. As a young adolescent, I began to discovered the myriad types of stone in the rich geologic fabric of Utah. This lead to collecting and then cutting and polishing the rocks I found most interesting. These interests have matured and overtaken my life as outlets for creative energy.
The uniqueness of each piece of stone provides an opportune beginning for me to become progressively familiar with the material. This allows my imagination and the stone to merge in the crucible of time and contemplation. Through this collaboration, the sculpture emerges, rising both from inspiration and intention.
What resulted is a challenging form that required a gentle hand and abundant time to explore the negative space potential and organic curves in the stone. Of course, the separate arching wings that now crown the piece, suggest an emotional individuality as well as convergence to me. Collaboration does offer greater creative expression than a single intention driven process.
