Sculpture Northwest
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Sculpture NorthWestQuarterly January - February - March 2010 ssociation A Inside: Artist Spotlight Michael Gardner Candyce Garrett culptors culptors Jim Heltsley S The German Sculptor Ben Siebenrock Cloudstone tone tone Revealed At Last! S The Lost Trade Of Stone Cutting By Joe Conrad Ben Siebenrock, ‘Hertz’ (Heart), Granite, 6’ high ‘Hertz’ 6’ Granite, (Heart), Siebenrock, Ben est est Summer River W Walks On The Pilchuck Abiquiu Workshops orth N Sculpture NorthWest Quarterly is published every three months by NWSSA, NorthWest Stone In This Issue Sculptors Association, a Washington State Non-Profit Professional Letter From The President ... 3 Organization. Letter From The Editors ... 3 CONTACT P.O. Box 27364 • Seattle, WA 98165-1864 Trivia Question - Answer ... 3, 15 FAX: (206) 523-9280 Website: www.nwssa.org General e-mail: [email protected] NWSSA OFFICERS Gerda Lattey, President, (250) 538-8686 Leon White, Vice President, (206) 390-3145 Petra Brambrink, Treasurer, (503) 975-8690 Lane Tompkins, Secretary, (360) 320-8597 Artist Spotlight: Jim Heltsley, Mike Gardner, Candyce NWSSA BOARD Bill Brayman, (503) 440-0062 Garrett ... 4 Carole Turner, (503) 705-0619 Elaine Mac Kay, (541) 298-1012 PRODUCTION STAFF Penelope Crittenden, Co-editor, (360) 221-2117 Lane Tompkins, Co-editor, (360) 320-8597 DESIGNER Adele Eustis The German Sculptor, Ben Siebenrock ... 6 PUBLISHER Nannette Davis of PrintCore, (425) 485-5570 The Lost Trade Of Stone Cutting ... 8 WEBMASTER Carl Nelson [email protected] 425-252-6812 Cloustone Revealed At Last ... 10 Membership........................................$60/yr. Subscription........................................$30/yr. Please Note: Only full memberships at $60/yr. The Abiquiu Workshops ... 12 include voting privileges and discounted member rates at symposia and workshops. Summer River Walks On The Pilchuck … 13 MISSION STATEMENT Note To All You Stoners ... 13 The purpose of the NWSSA’s Sculpture NorthWest Quarterly is to promote, educate, Where Did NWSSA Come From, Anyway? ... 14 and inform about stone sculpture, and to share experiences in the appreciation and execution of Terry’s Tips ... 14 stone sculpture. Classifieds - Announcements ... 15 © 20010 NWSSA All rights reserved. No part of this publication Carving Calendar ... 15 may be reproduced without the consent of NWSSA. Sculpture NorthWest Quarterly Jan/Feb/Mar 2010 2 t has been six months since I took over at the helm of NWSSA and I am glad to report that we are Imaking progress. The board is running smoothly and I have enjoyed our long, productive meetings of late. Petra Brambrink as treasurer has already made huge strides by simplifying our systems and cutting some of the overhead that has accumu- lated over the years. However, there is From still work to be done. Our symposiums don’t produce the revenue that they The Editors... From The have historically, and we need to do more in order to increase our annual elcome to the first Quarterly of 2010. income. There are options for growth Gosh, it seems like forever since the last President... of course, but they all take willing one. hands. W This issue is packed full with art from the North If you think you have some time to help please contact me and I’ll point West, from the South West and across the pond in you in the right direction and offer support along the way. Volunteerism Europe. often seems like thankless and tiring work; however, you get more out of it than you put in. As individual artists we create art. But as a collec- Verena Schwippert has brought us an introduction tive of artists, we can begin to create momentum. It is that momentum to Ben Siebenrock, a very productive stone sculptor that allows art to become defined as a “movement” making way for the from Kiel, Germany. We think you’ll enjoy his whim- possibility of a far-reaching resonance. I’m asking you to think about sical approach, and the way he combines granite and lending your own melody to that resonance. colored glass. You can see his work in color by going to nwssa.org, sign in, click on Sculpture Northwest, Spring has sprung early on the coast this year and we are much closer to click on guest sculptor, click on Ben Siebenrock. our wonderful Camp B symposium. I hope to see you attend in droves. Elaine MacKay and her symposium committee have come up with some This issue’s Artist Spotlight will shine on three mem- great guests and instructors. Stay tuned; you’ll be getting a brochure in bers whose last names sound like a law firm: Gardner, the mail soon. Or, check the Camp B lineup at nwssa.org. Garrett and Heltsley. They each give us their personal story about one of their sculptures. Have you visited the new website yet? It’s terrific! There are many folks who put in time for our organization but I want to specifically thank Joe Conrad from Portland, Oregon knows a lot about Carl Nelson for his tireless dedication to nwssa.org. A big thanks also the early twentieth century stone trade. In this issue goes to Nicky Oberholtzer. Nicky estimates that she spent hundreds of he tells us about things he learned on walks with his hours on the application and implementation of the Flower and Garden father through long abandoned quarries; the ones show. We really appreciate your efforts, Carl and Nicky. that yielded up the stone for so many buildings in our cities. Happy Carving, And, with Tracy Powell as your guide, perhaps you’ll Happy Spring, catch your first glimpse of what Hank Nelson has Happy NWSSA to you all, been up to out there on Whidbey Island all these years. -Gerda Thrown into the mix are a walk along the Pilchuck with Karl Hufbauer and friends, a historical note from Meg Pettibone and an invitation to carve stone with Candyce Garrett and Alex Morosco down in New Mexico. Terry Slaton shares more of his useful After John Pugh passed away, what and humorous tips, and finally, this issue’s Trivia happened to his steatite quarries in Q & A may be of special interest for you soapstone Southern Oregon? carvers. -Lane and Penelope 3 www.nwssa.org Artist Spotlight Jim Heltsley, Mike Gardner, Candyce Garrett ‘Midnight ‘Dune Watcher’ by Jim Heltsley Kill’ by Michael n recent years I have pretty much worked on Gardner smaller pieces mostly made from Gary Mc- Williams Alaskan Stone. I have found that these pieces sell well in today’s Imarket. Since Gary’s stones are usually amazing in color & pattern the finished sculptures are greatly enhanced by their use. Editors’ note: One such piece pictured is “Dune Watcher.” The stone is a vibrant red marble with a layer of blackish/green and grey margins. After looking at the raw stone’s While it may be true that Michael is a broken edge I began to see the backbone & tail of a lizard running from top to beginner at stone carving, he is no fledgling bottom. This worked out pretty well and thankfully, starting with an amazing in the art world. Michael routinely adorns stone resulted in a very nice carving. human skin with amazing creatures of his own design at the Tattoo Garden on 2nd As of the first of this year I’ve moved from my Edmonds house/studio to West street in Everett, Washington. Seattle and I am currently trying to set up to carve again. I want to thank all those NWSSA members for their help and support this last month. P he sculpture “Midnight kill” has waited a long time to be done. I’ve been carrying around the stone for Tfifteen years, since college actually. I be- lieve I was told that it was soapstone when I first acquired it, but if it is soapstone, it doesn’t act like it. This is actually the first sculpture that I’ve done since my college years. I finally had the time to tackle it in the summer of 2008 and with a small kit of soft stone tools and a lot of sandpaper I went to work. I had always envisioned the sculpture to be more abstract, like just the dorsal fin of some sea creature but when I actually put the stone on the bench, I just couldn’t find it again. My normal start to any sculpture is just to find a main curve or direction in the stone and start removing material to reinforce it. That’s one reason that I do a lot of my initial removal by hand, because it gives me time to continually look at the Dune Watcher, marble, 9’’ high shape that’s developing. Sculpture NorthWest Quarterly Jan/Feb/Mar 2010 4 t ‘Midnight Kill’ Eventually, I got enough of a rough shape that I needed to step back and really figure out what it was. I think that in this instance, my lack of any outside influence (or real experience for that matter) worked to my advantage. Since I wanted a flush, dynamic fit to the base I decided to do a plaster cast of the bottom of the sculpture and then carve the resulting block of plaster into the shape that I wanted. I then painted and sealed the base. It’s certainly not a perfect piece but it was a wonderful learning experience. I hope that you all enjoy it. U ‘Replenishing the Earth’ A water fountain Candyce at the wheel of her favorite tool by Candyce Garrett his granite sculpture was installed by Candyce at the entrance of the Santa Fe Farmers Market building in the recently refurbished Rail Yard Complex in Santa TFe, New Mexico. She was asked by the organizers of the Farm- ers Market to make a granite fountain for a newly completed building.