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A funny thing happened on the way to the studio…

Sometimes I just cannot throw away a piece of stone. I have quite a collection of odds and ends pieces that I think I can create a sculpture from. The mound of these bits and bobs drives Michelle a bit crazy, especially if they encroach upon her garden.

About a month ago, while heading to the studio, I had a moment of inspiration. I looked at one rogue piece of white marble and thought I could create an interesting abstract form from it.

Unfortunately, as the side of this small chunk that inspired me was the surface of a former split, the area was fraught with unstable fractures. I tore into it, removing these fractures until I found sound stone. Once there, the block was far too thin for me to create the image I had intended. I couldn’t put the stone down, even when it fell short from my original idea.

The new surface revealed part of a rib cage, an abdominal area and a hip, so I changed   direction and created “Horizontal Button”, a detail of a female torso that appears to be wearing clinging drapery. I kept the flat surfaces on the back, top and sides of the stone and created a gentle curve on the bottom edge of the piece to give the composition a bit of lightness.

But I was determined to carve the piece I set out to do, so I cut a new piece of marble that was sound and fit the dimensions I needed. “Point of Persuasion” finally became a reality. This piece has two straight vertical sides whose edges appear to flutter as a sheet in the breeze. I wanted the viewer to think a slender spike poked one of the flat surfaces and pushed into the marble, causing it to protrude out the other side as if the stone were malleable. The depressed side also appears to be the abdomen of a female torso!

Sometimes the creative process is not a direct route…