The Stone Sculptor’s Wife

As I look back on the last 25 years of being in a relationship with a stone carver, a few things stand out as “I had no idea..”. Thought I’d put together a little list of lifestyle bizzarre-ness I never saw coming all those years ago.

As a bit of background for those who don’t know us: this August we will have been together for 25 years (6 dating and 19 married). We are child free by choice, have 2 wonderful four-legged family members, and we have lived off of Michael’s artwork for all this time. It has provided a comfortable lifestyle full of flexibility and opportunity, as well as its share of challenges.

There is so much I have learned over the years and even more that I had no idea about, back when I met the sculptor, Michael Binkley.

I had no idea;
1. that stone dust could travel in the fold of a shoe over 200 feet,
2. that my oven would be used for “baking” sculptures so they’d be warm enough to wax,
3. that stone as an art medium almost always increases costs of a project due to its sheer weight and extra considerations for shipping and moving,
4. that no matter how heavy that sculpture weighs, if we REALLY wanted to reposition it across the gallery, we’d find a way,
5. that to be a self represented Artist meant that you need a loyal and wonderful group of friends and family around to pick up the lack and help produce the shows,
6. that licking 2000 stamps for show invites is a truly painful experience and a bottle of wine helps,
7. that any one person could be passionate about any one thing for so many years,
8. that our 4-cylinder Toyota pick up truck can hold about 3000 pounds of rocks,
9. that hand splitting granite boulders into steps for a front garden is a good starting point for an argument (but the steps did turn out nice!), and
10. that something called the internet would come our way and be a blessing and huge opportunity to reach the world.