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Sculpture Blog

Carving Onyx

   I put together a video of the steps involved in creating an abstract sculpture in onyx and marble.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZG8olENz-Q

   The stone is a type of travertine. The difficulty with carving this stone is that the density of the material is inconsistent. It varies from very hard crystalline areas to soft streaks. Since the bright colors and random patters in the stone are so prominent, the sculptural forms need to be kept simple.
   In short, the nature of the stone dictates what you can do with it. The nature of the stone becomes part of the subject matter.

Taliesin West


The petroglyph that became Taliesin's logo. Wright's interpretation - clasping hands.	I went on a tour with the Arizona Artists Guild, Sculpture Group, to Frank Lloyd Wright's winter studio/school, Taliesin West in north Scottsdale. The buildings were constructed by students under Wright's supervision. www.franklloydwright.org	While gathering boulders for the construction, they brought back many petroglyphs found in the desert.


Heloise Crista studied with Wright. While at Taliesin she was encouraged to take up sculpture.	Her bronze sculptures are on exhibit throughout the campus. Heloise gave a very generous and informative talk to our sculpture group, describing her inspiration and the sculpting techniques involved in the creation of her sculptures.

de Young Art Gallery


On a trip to San Francisco, I spent an afternoon at the de Young art gallery, located in Golden Gate Park. In the sculpture garden was a Isamu Noguchi sculpture that I had never seen before. The untitled sculpture was carved from Shodo-shima granite, and had been finished in 1978, a year before his death. Noguchi is my favorite sculptor and I am always excited to see one of his stone carvings. Near the center of the courtyard stood a Louise Nevelson assemblage (Ocean Gate, 1982). Inside the gallery was a beautiful mahogany carving by Elizabeth Catlett (Stepping Out). It was the first of her carving I have seen in person.


The largest sculpture in the exhibition was a cast stainless steel piece by Zhan Wang, titled Artificial Rock (2005). It is a spectacular piece with the polished surface reflecting the surroundings in a dazzling array of color. After dabbling a bit with adding glass to my sculptures, I couldn't help but be impressed by Howard Ben Trè's large cast glass sculpture (The Lightness of Being #4, 2008).

Carving a Marble Sculpture

Watch the step-by-step video about carving a sculpture in Colorado marble.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BknPB6kcg_E

I acquired a triangular piece of marble. Usually I start with a square block shape, so for a while the triangular shape had me stumped on what to carve. I drew a number of thumbnail sketches to work up ideas, then made a maquette out of urethane foam.

Stone Formations at Arches National Park


Monoliths sailing through the sky.	The council of rocks.	Egyptian figures?

Visitors from outer space?	A Henry Moore sculpture.	The Three Graces?

I participated in the Loveland Sculpture Invitational Show in Colorado. On the way home after the show, we visited Arches National Park. For a stone carver, the huge rock formations were inspiring. The raw sculptural power of the natural rock formations, with their rough fractured and weather-worn textures, were a reminder to me of Henry Moore's admonition of "truth to materials". Keep stone looking like stone. We also made a side trip to see Newspaper Rock, a petroglyph etched on the stone wall by prehistoric peoples dating back some 2,000 years.
Di Rosa Sculpture Park

On a trip to California to visit art galleries, I toured the di Rosa gallery and sculpture park in Napa. www.dirosaart.org	It is the art collection of Rene di Rosa and contains one of the largest private collections of paintings and sculptures by Bay Area artists.

Sprinkled around the 200 acre landscape of vineyards and gardens is an eclectic assortment of sculptures.

Commission