Making sculpture has always been for me a dance of joy.
My partner in the dance is the stone I’m carving.
We go back and forth….my partner and I…..
Perhaps first I must carve away the deep bruises and gouges left by the tools that tore this stone from its home in the mountain or rock pit in which it stayed for many years before we met. During this time we start our “what if” ………….
It goes like this……I ask “What would this stone look like if I carved this portion away, making the eye of the viewer go here instead of there?.........and I try it, or perhaps while I’m on my way to the completion of this endeavor I see that something else would happen if I changed the direction by not removing so much HERE, but rather gradually moved my chisel over THERE and starting a swooping motion there……..and I step back and ask my partner in the dance “ Are you (stone) okay with this……….or should we stop moving in this direction and gradually come to a close here…..or would a continuation toward there be better……..or……..or……..or?
And so we dance back and forth, the stone and I until we are in unison……..and the JOY of our music is wonderful…….as I hone and polish and wax I hum our music…..and my husband says “What did you say?” because my tune is so tuneless……but I know it is joyous.
And then my husband and I look at each other and we laugh together with a shared moment.