Thursday, March 4, 2010

Sculpture Challenge


Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

This Saturday sculptors from around central Texas, including myself, will be helping Philip and Michele Hoggatt of Carved Stone in Dripping Springs raise money for PAWS – a local animal shelter. The event is titled the “Sculpture Challenge” and you can come out and stroll through a garden full of 3-dimensional art and chat with the artists who created most of the works there.

You may also cast your vote for your favorite sculpture and 20% of all sculpture sales this Saturday benefit PAWS. Voting concludes by 4 p.m., but the grounds are open from 10 am to 5:30 p.m. You do not even have to buy art to help out the shelter: The small entrance fee goes directly to PAWS.

CARVED STONE, INC. – Sculpture Challenge March 6
5300 Bell Springs Rd.
Dripping Springs, TX 78620
Phone: 512-858-5665

For more information and directions, visit:
http://joomla.sculpturechallenge.com/

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Hate, Fear and Love

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

It is funny that knowing my process in making art does not give me much comfort when I am in the “suffering stage” of it. I know that there will be a light at the end of that tunnel, I just cannot seem to see it until I turn that mystical corner.

I started about five good-sized charcoal and pastel drawings some time ago, in preparation for my Open Studio in early February. Along with my efforts in marble, I knew that I could not get that many works finished in the time that I had, so I set my goal to develop each of the works to the point that others could have a pretty good idea of where I was headed.

The cold and rain have returned (so I carve less now) and I am able to get back to those Italian-inspired pastels. The basic idea is there for each of them, and now I work on creating the details that put a certain level of quality in my art that appeals to me (and I hope to you).


It is at this stage, when I see the work finished in my mind, but I have still the work to do, that I begin to hate the work. This is when I start dusting. Or working on taxes. Or writing my blog (ha). Or eating more than I should. Anything to procrastinate on my approach to the easel or the stone.

I know, I know, most artists want to speak of the joy in their efforts. Sure that is there, or it would be madness to continue. But there is a time during each creative effort in which the vision is mentally done, but the work is not. For a relatively short amount of time that feels like forever, I get bored with the doing. And I hate it. And I hate the work for making me feel that.

The hatred comes from fear. The fear is that I cannot create that which I envision; that I cannot live up to my hopes. Should I want to lose that kind of fear? Absolutely not! That fear is my strength. It keeps me learning. However, I must learn to face this fear, again and again. My faith that I can turn the hatred into love now comes from experience. I know that each time that I approach the easel when I feel this hatred for the task and work through it, I am one step closer to my goal.

Today, I plodded along and then … finally . . . , I got lost in the shapes and colors I was applying on a small section of the drawing. And later, it dawned on me that I was turning that corner: that glorious and familiar corner. And now, I am once again in the infatuation stage that will grow and grow until I realize that love has entirely replaced the hatred. Love has replaced fear.