First Friday Gallery Hop

I made a little progress on my life-size limestone figure this week. You can see the design drawn onto the stone preform.

There's been a lot of rain, and this is all that I was able to get done this week.

When it was raining, I worked inside on this stylized marble swan which is for a show of monument sculptures that will be at Kaviar's gallery on Frankfort Ave. in Louisville.

The art galleries in Louisville have concurrent openings on the first Friday of every month. We've been to several, but this was the coolest one that we've seen. We started our gallery hop at the newly opened space in the downtown Bristol. Chris Mozier had a one-man show of his paintings, and this was my favorite.

The installation of interactive sound sculptures at Zephyr Gallery was a real crowd pleaser.

Hidden down this narrow path off Market Street, and up these stairs, is the Tim Faulkner Gallery. Here, you will find the strongest concentration per square foot of local talent in the entire city.

95% of the artwork is 2D, but I wanted to show this plaster by Wyatt Gragg that I really liked. I think that he's on the right path.

Our last stop on the gallery hop was Flame Run glass studio and gallery, where I met fellow Centre College graduate Brook Forrest White Jr. He took the time to show us his plywood mock-up for a monumental glass installation that he will be doing at the Falls Interpretive Center later this summer.

University of Louisville presentation

Last Saturday, Meg and I spent a memorable afternoon with Dick and Ardi Wilson. They treated us to a great brunch at the Meridian Cafe and then invited us to their home to discuss commissions for Meg and myself. There's a LOT more to this story, and I'll post more as things progress. In the right of the picture is one of my sculptural benches that Dick acquired in the early 90's.

Meg snapped this view inside their home.

The good weather continued through the first half of the week, and I was able to make this progress on my life size limestone figure.

Wednesday night - meatloaf and potatoes.

Thursday, we gave a presentation to Ed Hamilton's public art class at the University of Louisville. This is Matt Weir, a local sculptor and a good friend of ours, who is assistant to Ed in teaching the class.

The most enjoyable part was when Ed treated Matt, Meg and myself to drinks afterwards.

This intense week ended on a real high note. I may have found a home for this piece...

...and this one, too. I'll post more, as plans become more solid.

Purdue University to acquire Hand sculpture

It's official - the art selection committee at Purdue University have decided to add my hand sculpture to their permanent collection. What a fantastic start for 2011!

I made this clay model, among others, during the freezing days of this winter. This sculpture, entitled "Testing the Water", is the first to be carved this season from a life-size block of Indiana Limestone.

There were 2 days near the end of January when the temperatures rose above the freezing mark. I started the project then, by splitting off extra length that I didn't need.
Meg has already claimed the top piece to create something for the Yew Dell outdoor sculpture show.

We had great weather last week. I took the model outside and began to block in the piece.

The sculpture is laying on its back, right now. I've roughed in where the front foot will emerge.

I removed extra stone along her left side first.

Then, I removed extra stone from her right side. I now have all the outside points for the form.

Meg snapped this shot of ice falls in the Wildlife Area. I hope this is the last of ice and snow for a while.

Rocks for Bob Lockhart and friends

Earlier this month, we had a visit from Bob Lockhart, who used to head the art department at Bellarmine College. He wanted a large stone to carve for this year's Yew Dell Outdoor Sculpture show. He brought out Chris Mozier, one of his students, who wanted a large piece of stone, as well. Chris came out to the studio this Saturday to drill and split a 7,000 lb. piece into 3 parts - one for him, one for Bob, and one piece for Mike McCarthy.

Chris drilled the 2 series of holes where he wanted to split the larger piece.

This was one of the first warm days of the year, and I'd been making the dust fly. (That would account for the 'Geisha look').

He set the rest of the wedges, hammered them to bring up the pressure and...

...split the stone into 3 pieces.

The next day he came back with Mike McCarthy (on the left), who brought his truck. It would have been simple to load up the stones, if my own crane truck would run - but I couldn't get it to start. A neighbor, Mike Hutchison, helped me out by bringing over his tractor. His son, Tristan, is guiding Mike to set his forks.

Many hands make light work.

The tractor couldn't load the 3,000 lb. piece into the truck, but it could move it under my gantry crane. Where there's a will, there's a way.

That's Mike McCarthy setting the rigging under the stone. Check out his art and fine furniture on his website http://www.trinity-designs.net.

Up, up and....

...away. A 3,000 lb. piece of stone is on its way to Bob Lockhart's studio.

I'd been stuck inside a lot, doing computer work. It was good to get out and walk. Meg and I took a short hike to Big Cave Hollow in the Yellowbank Wildlife Management Area.

Confusing Turkey tracks. Is he coming or going? (all photos copyright Meg White).

Ridiculously Cold!

... or, at least, that's the way that the Louisville-based WAVE-TV weather team called it. Temperatures have been a lot colder than forecasts called - starting the last 2 days at zero degrees.

Snow Trek, to boldly go..the 1/2 mile back to the studio because the snow is too deep for the car. (photo Meg White)

I worked on clay projects in the warmer clay studio, while Meg toughed out the sub-freezing temperatures in the stone studio, to finish up her Grizzly Bear sculpture. I made this stylized design of the Virgin Mary to be carved from a block of Alabama white marble that measures 40" high by 20" wide by 12" thick.

I also made a design for a limestone block that measures 72" high by 36" wide by 24" thick.

This design is tentatively titled "Against the Wind", and symbolizes the difficulty of succeeding in today's business climate.

A weird design in ice. (photo Meg White)

Some local Buffalo in the snow. (photo Meg White)

...and where there are Buffalos, there are Wolves. An Alpha and Omega face off. (photo Meg White)

Monte Cassino Winery

The highlight of this week was a visit to scope out the future site for my stone monk....but first, pictures of what I've made since the last posting.

There hasn't been a lot of days lately that have been above freezing. But, I managed to make this Limestone fountain "wrapped" bubbler. It measures approx. 12"H x 15"W x 8"D. It has a polished wrap, and a stippled bush texture on the inner seed form. It is priced at $350.00

I also finished this "Twisted" bubbler in Indiana Limestone. It measures approx. 22"H x 12"W x 5"D and will sell for $400.00.

During days when the temperatures are below freezing, I have been working in the clay studio. I made some improvements on the clay model of two lovers. They will be carved life-size from a block of Indiana Limestone.
This is the back view of the model. The base portion will have a spiralling pattern of chisel texture that fades into the smoothly polished figures.

This is a clay model for a design called "Testing the Water". I made a maquette-sized stone sculpture that was similar to this in 2007. I gave that piece away as a wedding gift. I'm trying to make improvements on that design, and carve it as a life-size version approximately 67"H x 30"W x 24"D.

Sunday, I drove to Covington, Kentucky to check out the site for my stone monk. The first thing that caught my attention was this stone cairn. It was constructed from small pieces of marble by Mark Schmidt, who is the property owner.

This is a picture of the original building that was a Benedictine Monastery and Winery from approximately 1863 through 1917. This was the first winery in the region, beginning its operation in the 1700's under private ownership before the monks bought it.

This is one of the bottles that came from this winery.

When Mark cleared off the overgrown vine terraces, he discovered a couple of large dry laid stone walls. On top of the wall is a table and chairs where he goes to enjoy the view...

...and what a view! This picture doesn't do it justice. This will be the first year that these new vines will be harvested. Let's hope 2011 is a good year.