Anybody interested? Yes, absolutely...

["Tim Bunton" <tbunton@zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz>]

My dear fellow stone listers,

I was away for a week and upon returning eagerly went through my email
to see what the stone forum has been up to.  I found a very
interesting thread going back and forth in response to dear Dulce's
recommendation of a very talented bronze sculptor's website
( http://www.richardmacdonald.com/ ).  The responses seemed mainly
disinterested with the work as it pertains to what we stone carvers
are about, and it seems several of us felt that the discussion of
general sculpture - or rather, sculpture not executed in stone - was
ill-suited for our forum, perhaps even on the level of unwelcome spam.
I kept waiting for some of the other wise voices of the forum to speak
up in defense of the value of all forms of sculpture as a source of
inspiration and learning for those of us who want to develop as
artists working in stone.  Alas, that duty has apparently fallen to
me.

I, like many of us, am fascinated by figurative sculpture.  It
challenges us to be creative, while simultaneously requiring a high
degree of technical precision and control.  I believe it to be one of
the greatest challenges of the stone sculptor to be able to execute an
accurate figurative sculpture, and execute it well.  The figurative
sculpture has at various times been almost the sole domain of the
stone worker, and we should feel a sense of ownership and security in
this area, at least as much as any bronze worker.

The fact is, the bronze workers seem to thoroughly dominate the figure
sculpture area today.  Perhaps it is because those artists with
inclinations toward the human figure find that, for financial reasons,
bronze (clay, really,)  is a much faster medium to work in and will
yield multiple final products, thus achieving a certain economy of
scale.  Even though I completely understand this line of thinking, I
find it a tragedy that we, the last bastion of a shrinking-but-none-
the-less-glorious artistic tradition, seem to be content to let bronze
reign in the figurative arena.

As I mentioned before, I love figurative sculpture.  And, as the bulk
of figurative sculpture is currently done in bronze, it is logical to
say that I love bronze sculpture.  Nevertheless, every time I look at
a fine bronze, such as is found at Richard MacDonald's website, I
transpose that work of art into my most favorite medium, stone.  And I
learn from it.  I study the artist's execution and ask myself what
would have to be altered, if anything, to do the piece in stone.
Would the piece still "work"?  Would the colors and textures found in
stone lend any more virtue to the piece?  Will my next piece of
figurative stone art incorporate anything from the bronze I am looking
at, or inspire me further down a path that I would otherwise not have
traveled?

I strongly feel that Dulce's recommendation to examine the website
through a stonecarver's eyes was both appropriate and important to the
underlying mission of the stone forum.  The work is incredible and
inspiring.  I will be so much the better for my experience.  There are
many works of art that we all know and love that have been executed
and replicated both in stone and in bronze.  Many of those works of
art that we as stone carvers enjoy were done by artists who did not
work directly in stone at all. (Take Rodin, for example.)

Let me end my diatribe by saying that if we discourage the sharing and
discussion of sculpture simply because we don't like the medium, we
will limit our growth both as stone sculptors and as people.  And
should you feel displeasure at seeing a website link or discussion on
sculpture that does not interest you, please remember that the delete
button is just a click away.

Thus ends my manifesto...for now.
Tim Bunton

-----Original Message-----
 From:  [john@---------]=20
Sent: Wednesday, November 09, 2005 9:09 PM

"Thanks for the recommendation, but why? This fellow does not seem to
carve any stone at all, unless I missed something. Many of the other
carvers here will know what I mean when I say that clay modeling may
be "sculpting" but it is a far cry from stone carving" - John Graham

"I was looking at this site and thought it would be interesting to get
feedback about the work and the way to display the work on the
website..you can rotate the sculptures to see them better.....
http://www.richardmacdonald.com/";  - Dulce Maria Rico