As someone who works primarily with a camera, computer, and sometimes paper and glue, dust is my enemy. I'm definitely not a neat freak since my studio floor can be a sea of colored paper torn from magazines. However, a speck of dust on a camera lens can be a real pain, so dirt is something I generally prefer to avoid. Artists who carve stone accept living with the dust. Well, they do when they are in the studio. The "mess" created by carving stone is one of the reasons having a separate studio is so important to the sculptors from Walnut Creek - that and the camaraderie they experience by working together. Below are some of my favorite photos of the dust that covers everything in the sculptors' studio. The photos show the tools used in carving stone, some of which were intriguing to me. Below: Lisa's stone rests on a pillow as she carves. Lisa makes the pillows used by the sculptors, which she fills with sand to help cushion the stone. She has to be careful to keep the sand from getting in her sewing machine! The tools in her hands are a mallet and a chisel. The file lying on the work stand is called a riffler. Above: The top of a stand used by a sculptor is covered with bumps (and dust!). Above: The base of a stand used by the sculptor so that the stone is at the right height for carving. I particularly noticed the reinforcement at the bottom to improve the stability of the stand. Above: In the left foreground is a maquette, a small model of what the sculptor is carving from stone. Michael has made numerous maquettes, some of which he has used to help him make full-size sculptures, but many more that are awaiting their time to be replicated in stone on a larger scale. (More on Michael's maquettes soon.) Below: Although there is not much dust in this photo of Dave's glove, I had to include it because his gloves are part of his tools and because it's one of my favorite photos from the shoot. The wear on that glove is just really cool.
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I first saw Dave Matthews' work when he entered some wood assemblage pieces in the Tracy Art League's Expressions show two years ago. You can see some examples of this type of work on his webpage. Dave was part of the Artists' Talk at the Expressions! Selections 2018 show at the Grand Theatre Center for the Arts because his assemblage work was also selected to be part of that smaller exhibition. I was surprised when I saw him at this year's Expressions! Selections gallery talk helping Michael Rizza, a sculptor of stone, make his presentation. It turns out that Dave has moved into sculpting stone as well. I was intrigued by Michael Rizza's dedication to his identity as an artist, and I became interested in how other artists, including Dave Matthews, are helping him continue his work despite his suffering from macular degeneration. (More on this topic in another post.) Approaching them both after the gallery talk led to the opportunity to visit the studio and learn more about Dave's current work in sculpture. At the time I visited, Dave was working with pink alabaster shipped from Utah. He had had a vision for what the piece above would become. However, it turned out that the stone had a dirt pocket that made it impossible for Dave to achieve his original vision. He wouldn't tell me what that vision was because he still planned to try to make it work with another piece of stone! I have since found out that he used the stone pictured below to make a new piece entitled Whimsy. There are elements of luck or unexpected complications in just about every art form. However, the element of surprise seems to be a big part of sculpting stone. When the sculptor chooses a stone, they can't always tell what will be exposed once they start carving or sanding. Dave strikes me as a pretty organized guy and someone who plans things, so I want to talk to him more about how he deals with the surprises buried in the stone he carves. When I was with the group, I noticed that Dave showed his work to the other sculptors and asked for their thoughts about what they saw in the stone once he realized he wasn't going to be able to make his original design. Asking for feedback when you are creating art is a brave thing. You never know what people will say, and it can be painful at times to hear criticism. It's a credit to Dave and the group of sculptors that they feel comfortable sharing their thoughts with each other during the art-making process.
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April 2022
AuthorTiffanie Heben is a photographer who has been inspired by the artists in her community |