Sculpture Prep for Public Space

Dear Art Lover,

     On Sunday, several of us sculptors from this past July’s symposium returned to Cava Nardini [cava means ‘stone quarry’ in Italian].  The sculptures were lifted with either cords of metal or heavy-duty fabric straps and laid on their sides on top of a wooden pallet.  Then holes were drilled under the bases to secure the sculptures in their new home.

Sculpture by Silvio Viola

     Yesterday Marco Nardini loaded the sculptures onto a truck and they were all taken to the Parco di Pinocchio in Collodi, Italy.  All but one of our symposium works were of the theme of Pinocchio and will now find their place in the Park of Pinocchio.  Collodi is the Tuscan town where the story of the world-famous puppet who became a real boy was born.  [The exception was a bas-relief giant stone postcard view of Vellano by Roberto Politano and that was mounted for all to see at the entrance of that village back in August.]

     Today I am on my way to this park with Silvio Viola, the sculptor who organized this whole project with Marco Nardini and the Mayor of Pescia and others.  It will be my first time there and I am curious to see it after the various reports I have heard.  The installation should be completed by tomorrow, but last I heard, they may wait for a spring dedication ceremony.

http://www.pinocchio.it/

Peace,

Kelly

P.S.  Please check out the “Raccolta e Regalo” sale I am having on selected artworks.. good through Dec 31, 2016.  http://www.borsheimarts.com/SaleArt2016-LaRaccoltaeIlRegalo.htm

http://BorsheimArts.com

Castelvecchio Italy Stone Carving Symposium

I am writing to you from Castelvecchio di Pescia, in northern Tuscany.  This is my first real stone carving symposium.  Many exist around the world.   We have seven sculptors here from the following countries:  Bulgaria, Germany, Japan, The Slovak Republic, Spain, Thailand, and USA.  The symposium is a way for a place to gain a sculpture garden for perhaps less money than if they outright bought sculpture suitable for outdoors.  What happens is that an organizer works with his community.  They supply the stone, the transport of such, the carving sites, usually air compressors, with hoses, electricity, and tables, etc. for the creation of the art.  Artists are given their own working space, although usually they are together on one site.  Often it is a place in which tourists and locals alike can watch the progress of the sculptures being created. 

Artists are also given places to sleep and freshen up, as well as provided all meals.  When possible, the community also gives artists a stipend to cover travel expenses and money with which to live and pay bills.  In any event, during the event, artists are taken care of and allowed to do what we do best.  We are often happy because it is fun to work in proximity to other artists and art lovers.  And we get to travel to new places! 

You may remember my friend and street painting colleague Kumiko Suzuki from my book "My Life as a Street Painter in Florence, Italy."  She is also a sculptor of stone.  She and  I came by train from Florence to Pescia and were greeted by Rita and Maurizio, who drove us to Castelvecchio.  Yesterday, the sculptors were driven up into some nearby mountains in the same valley, near a town called Vellano.  There at the quarry, we chose our desired stones to carve.  We will be working with "Pietra Serena," a stone native to these parts.  It is grey, with a light brown closer to the surface, but is sometimes confused with concrete.  You may see it in most of the construction in Tuscany, including Firenze (Florence).

Well, the wonderful sons of some of our hosts set me up with this laptop so that I could work on this blog writing while my stone was being delivered from the cave (Italian for "quarry").  My stone is in place at my work site now... I must go.  The last day of the symposium is 3 August... come on over if you can! 

Flossing Marble

Cari Amici (Dear Friends),

On occasion I wonder if there is something wrong with me. Today there was one such occasion. I always seem to push myself to the point of “why are you making this more complicated than it has to be?” or, at least, more complicated (read “costly”) than other professional artists would bother with. And yet, I have decided that it is this extra detail that makes the art perhaps worthy of awe and keeps me challenged and intellectually engaged. [Most often, the reason is about how the light falls on the form, such as in the space around the legs in “Eric” and the deep hole between the figures in “Together and Alone.”] I also am learning something new, although sometimes I think the lesson is “Boy, I never wanna do THAT again!” [No, seriously, I am happy when I pull off the complicated part and think the idea works how I intended.]

In this case, I am speaking about my current work-in-progress, the “Gymnast” in Colorado Yule Marble. The female figure is sitting in a pike position, feet reaching to the sky, as she tucks her chin close to her chest, her forehead pushed up against her shins. Her head will be in profile and yet there is enough air space between the folded up body parts that my hope is to carve a beautiful face that I can barely access.


I received some wonderful measuring tools last Christmas. The one shown is a depth gauge. I have drawn (and redrawn as needed each time the marble gets removed) the centerline for the face and legs. And I work out from this line to shape the face. I recently bought a die grinder with a 3-inch extension and this helps me reach inside amazingly well. It is slow going, but I prefer more thinking to wrong cutting. In stone carving, I only get one chance, after all.


While I do focus in one area of an artwork for a good amount of time, I also step back and take a look often at the entire composition. It is not long before I start creating other lines from other viewpoints than strictly working the profile (image # 2).

Many years ago at the MARBLE/marble Sculpture Symposium in Marble, Colorado, I saw a diamond-coated rod that was designed to be added to a hacksaw. It looked cool to me, so I bought it. A couple of years ago, I saw it lying there unused in my toolbox and chided myself for my enthusiastic, but misguided decision.

That said, today I realized that ”flossing marble” is the very thing I need to do! And of the tools that I have, this diamond wire might be the safest one to use for this task. How else can I remove a long and narrow portion of marble between the nose and legs of the “Gymnast”?

I just wish that it did not take so long . . .

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