...it's been so long...

...since I've carved stone. I've been extremely busy doing everything but... stone sculpting. This week I came back to it - with a vengence!

I picked out this 15,000 lb. stone about 8 years ago because it has some extreme variegation on the other side.

In the last week of April 2011, I began work on it by splitting off a 2,000 lb. corner (behind me) and cutting a notch out of the center. There's stone everywhere - too much of a good thing.

I got the crane truck to start and... made the extra stone go away. This is how the quarry block looked for 3-1/2 months.

This is the progress at the end of this week. I'm super happy with the direction that it's taken. I've got hinges and machine parts coming out of the gnarly stone block. I'm having too much fun...but...I'll have to put it aside again, because...

...It's official - I received a commission to create a major bronze sculpture to be installed in Cave Hill Cemetery of Louisville, Kentucky. This is a Tree of Life with a White Granite Dove rising from the branches. The entire monument will measure 5' wide by 5' high. I'm excited by this opportunity - I had been considering creating a Tree of Life (in stone), before this came along. Life is strange - things happen for a reason....