Latest Works
Left: "Back Door Blues" -- Right: "Last Man Out"
These clay figures are about 4 inches tall. They were made from wild, stratified porcelain clay and fired in a barbecue grill in my back yard.
Open the Stone
I spent a brief time in New Mexico studying stone carving under a Chircahua Apache. The first question I asked was: "What do you use on the stone to get them to shine? He held up the palm of his hand. "This, " he said. "You have to open the stone." He used no waxes or oils, only increasing fine grades of sand paper and water, until the stone shone by itself.
"Open the Stone" became one of my life metaphors helping me learn to continue at a project until I opened that stone. It was then I began to hear my own voice and see myself in my work.
Opening the Stone also applies to pottery. You can make a pot shine without glazes if you burnish that pot using the ancient methods.
I found the alabaster for this carving jutting from a hillside cut in northern Arizona. I took it home and took the rough edges off. As I carved, a nude figure emerged. This pregnant body was the form it took prior to opening this stone. As I polished the stone, a figure appeared in the womb of the nude --it appears to me to be a mother holding a child. After just a brief polishing, I left it alone. It was what it wanted to be. Do you see the mother and child?
Mother of
the Mother of Jesus
Click on the picture--it magnifies. Place the PLUS on the stomach of the nude. Do you see her now?
"Let Go of the Stone"
Alabaster (12" high)
This stone was carved from the same alabaster gathered as the above piece. I am recalling the following anecdote to the best of my memory.
A friend of mine worked as a hospice nurse. She was having a difficult time dealing with a Pueblo native on her death bed. As she stood on her porch weeping, a old man--a family member--approached her and handed her a stone.
"Here hold this," He said. "It will help." She clasped it tightly in her hand and continued to weep.
He put his hand on her shoulder and said.
"Now, let go of the stone."
That story inspired me to sculpt this piece. My stone was very heavy. I have not let go yet. I don't carry it now, but I do drag it along behind me.
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"Overthinker - 25lbs 1'tall
Soapstone w/linseed polish
Man of Sorrows - 20lbs/7"x 8"
Soapstone w/linseed polish
"Mother and Child" - 45lbs 1' tall,
Soapstone w/linseed polish
Native Woman
Soapstone
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Crying Woman
Soapstone
(L) Desperado - fired stoneware.
(R) Desperado with Blue Ridge Rocking Horses made with automobile brake shoes.
Rocking the Blues
at
The Dew Drop Inn
The Buddy Blues Band
Shorty and The Gang
Stoneware Clay
Hoochie Mama
--Don't touch the dancer--
Wild Clay Pottery
All of my pottery is from wild stratified kaolin clay found beneath my feet in this region of Georgia. This clay is fired using the ancient method of firing in a fire pit.
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