Oklahoma, gallery chat, Oscar and Jim

[gary grossman <grossman@zzzzzzzzz>]

Carvers - greetings from Oklahoma where I've heard there's actually
alabaster.  Many of the buildings in Norman, where I'm visiting are made
 from what appears to be sandstone, that is from eastern Okla.  Nice
little town full of craftsman-style houses by the campus, and too many
fast-driving students, just like my own little burg of Athens.

Jim, welcome to our list -- I've looked at your site and enjoyed the
flowing form and detail of your animal carvings.  As an ecologist, I'm a
fan of animal carving and like to carve bears too.  I particularly
enjoyed your polar bear on the iceberg.  Please feel free to contribute
whatever knowledge you've accumulated in your years of carving.  Lots of
folks here work in harder stone (someone just called marble "soft
stone", but as someone who carves everything from soapstone to marble, I
call it hard stone <g >), but I'd love to garner tips, advice about
soapstone, alabaster carving, et al.

Dulce, my sweet, I have to agree with the others about the site you
suggested and apologize for not suggesting a site after we all agreed to
try this digital gallery walk.  I've been out of town and had limited
computer access.  We could do other sites, but I would offer up my own
meager body of work if folks want to critique it in a "constructive"
manner.  I don't know, maybe it's really too hard to comment on carving
without seeing and touching the piece, but if folks want to take a look
at my work and give me pointers, or just tell me how they respond,
negatively or positively to some of the pieces, that would be great.  My
site is www.negia.net/~grossman   .  It would be fun to guess which of
my pieces are "early" and "recent", although given that I've only been
carving ~3 years maybe technical or stylistic changes won't be apparent.

 We could start with an alternative site if you wish.  As you said -
someone has to get the ball rolling <g >.  For a non-list member we could
also visit Merlin Cohen's site at www.merlincohen.com  .  He does both
objective and non-objective work and there are a variety of pieces on
the site.

Oscar - good question re. why you like to draw representationally and
then carve in a more expressionistic manner.  Having had no artistic
training and little talent in draftsmanship, I don't really draw, but I
do know that I want to carve pieces that create an evocative emotional
response in both myself and the viewer and also have some originality.
I just don't get that from classical sculpting in the style of McDonald,
or whatever the guys name is.  His pieces, as is true for many pieces of
classical sculpture for me, don't move me emotionally, although I
appreciate their technical virtuosity.  Personally, the highly realistic
carving doesn't float my boat and I think that it also limits the
"originality" of the piece.  Okay Oscar, I'll get back to your question
<g > ---- despite my dislike of explicit realism, I feel like I have to
understand the "true structure" of something (your realistic sketches)
before I can modify it to produce the expressionistic,  evocative manner
that I would like to present it.   So I find no contradiction in your
sketching one way, Oscar, and carving another.  This is one way that
science and art are similar, they both take everyday phenomena and seek
to understand and present them in a unique and innovative way

cheers and good carving

g2