My Work Philosophy
There are two schools of thought on stone carving:
One view holds that it is best to be absolutely certain of the shape you are trying to create before you pick up tools to break any stone.
This can be achieved by putting all your creativity into modelling a sculpture in clay. When you have the clay model that you feel perfectly happy with, you can cast it in plaster and use very precise measuring devices to guide you in duplicating it exactly in stone. When this method is used, much skill and technique is needed for carving the stone, but the stone carving process is reduced to a purely technical, non-creative task.
The opposite view is that it is preferable to begin to shape the stone with far less preparation. This practice is named direct carving
because the sculptor goes directly to work on the stone without first working the idea out in any other medium. It has been my quest to become familiar with both these ways of working and to discover when one method is preferable to the other rather than slavishly keeping loyal to one method and ignoring the other. There is lots of room in the middle in which work can be done using a blend of both extremes.
Portraiture is considered by many to be a sort of ultimate proving ground for visual artists.
I don’t know whether or not that’s true, but you can view on this site some of my attempts to capture the physical likeness on the one hand and on the other, the spirit of the subject. It is a great challenge. A friend once observed that although the camera doesn’t lie, when one looks at a stack of snapshots of oneself, there are always some that look like me and others that do not. A photo can only capture a fleeting momentary view.
Often, people put on an expression when they pose for a photo that is very unlike any that they wear at any other time and the pictures of themselves that they like best are totally unlike the way other people see them. When an artist sculpts a portrait, it is optimally done after directly observing the subject for many hours and is therefore a composite of many fleeting expressions.
A skilled portraitist can give the final piece an expression that reveals the subject’s essential character. That is what I strive to do.
My training at the Cathedral’s apprenticeship program (1989-1991) profoundly shaped both my life and my work.
I discovered a job that I enjoyed, that I was good at, and that challenged me. The approach to stone working that I was trained in at the Cathedral naturally emphasized stone as a building material, not merely as a cladding or veneer but as a substantial, self-supporting material.
The geometry involved in shaping the individual units (blocks) that can be assembled to form arches, domes, and vaulting was shown not to be just the concern of a separate class of non-dusty-clothed workers, but an essential part of the knowledge of a competent stone cutter.
When it came to sculpture, decorative ornamental sculpture for architecture was naturally shown to have dignity and importance. The language and characteristics of Gothic ornament were obviously emphasized. Going through this experience enabled me to understand the relationship between ornament and architecture from a design point of view.
A friend once summed up the reason for his preference for machine tools over hand tools by saying, “Why walk when you can drive?”
I find this to be a perfect analogy because if you take it literally, there are many reasons why I would rather walk than drive. If I am going through a beautiful place, it would probably be nicer to walk. If I was searching for something, and had to pay close attention, it would be better to walk. If I was trying to do something healthy for my body, it would be better to walk.
I choose to do the majority of my stone carving work with hand tools not because I feel I have anything to prove (although I may have felt that way years ago), but rather for the same reasons I often choose to walk: it is often a more pleasant way to work, it is healthier, it is more fun, and in most cases, the work comes out looking better.
However, in many instances I do choose to use power tools because there are some jobs they can do much better than hand tools. Other times, I need to work quickly so I use the fastest techniques, often involving power tools.
One thing I hope I will never want to do is to use machines that shape stone without any human guidance, such as robotic computer-controlled saws and routers that you can set up and walk away from while they do the work for you.
I’m very thankful for the training I got at the Cathedral where hand tool skills were considered essential.
I appreciate the fact that the values and techniques I was taught were in total opposition to the dominant trend in the modern stone industry if not in all areas of the modern world.