LIKE A TONGUE TO WATER

In the last few weeks in Studio Sem I panicked a few times at the end being in sight.

It made me realise how inside the process of developing the pieces I was. It felt like a very unnatural stopping point, a large road block when you are hurtling down the road on a long trip.

                  


I had to suddenly think about all the practicalities of display, finishing, shipping etc.
I wanted to resolve and complete the pieces I was working on, but also didn't want to leave Pietrasanta with any unfulfilled experiments/ideas in mind.

Talking it though with some of the other artists in the workshop was really useful. I decided the residency's main gift was a chance to experiment, so I grabbed a friend and took a trip to the river (close to the quarries) and went boulder hunting. In no time at all we found two lovely marble boulders that had a good shape for the ideas I had in mind.

I wanted to continue to explore the ideas of internal/external surface, the results of working with the stone and juxtaposing geometry/lines.

With one stone, I experimented with carving it in a way that suggested un-peeling, and the other I have brought back to the UK to be skinned in parts without affecting the overall fantastic natural form of the boulder.

                         

I'm so pleased with the outcome of the robot cut skylines project but I have to wait to resolve this work till I return to the studio as I don't have enough energy or time to engage with it as I want to. I decide to leave all of the finishing of this piece and some other sanding/finishing of other work till August or September when I hope to come back to Studio Sem. The contrast of the natural contours colliding with the cut quarried line creates a charged form. I look forward to being able to work the stone and put human touch energy into it.

Now that I'm back in the UK, I have struggled to write a final blog entry about my time carving in Italy. It has only just happened, and was my day to day life until a few weeks ago, which is one reason it's hard to reflect.

The experience has definitely given me confidence, I am really pleased with the work I have produced and I feel glad people who have seen it have a really strong reaction to it. 

A close friend (who is also a fantastic painter) came to visit the studio and saw the largest piece I had just finished (the boulder) and cried! (This is unusual! She is not the sort to well up easily!) From knowing me and my practice (we shared a studio for two years) she said she could see an enormous respect, harmony and understanding achieved in this piece between the stone and me. 

This was very moving, as I guess it is what I was (subconsciously) intending. I wanted to really meet the material on this residency and explore (with energy and dynamism) how I could start a conversation with the stone. I also wanted to open the debate up to others who saw the work, as well as talking about environmentalism and our connection with the things around us in a wider sense, as I feel much of my artwork discusses. 

 

I will return to Studio Sem in August or September to reconnect with the pieces, finalise mounting and finish some elements before the show at the Royal British Sculpture Society in November.

I would like to continue working with stone as part of my practice and using modelling in clay and plaster too. I have lots of ideas I want to develop.

I will investigate stones available close to the West Country, where I will be based while I finish my MA. I would also like to continue investigations into the emotive impact of line. I will do this through drawings primarily. I have brought one small marble boulder home which I will start work on too.

A sculptor who I met in Pietrasanta, who became a close friend, spoke one day of an Aboriginal proverb that used the metaphor of our bodies as boats in the world and our tongue as the oars. This image has stuck with me so strongly over the last few months. I really enjoy the idea that we attempt to navigate with our tongues (using language) the world around us and it will take our bodies in and out of certain situations and places but we are also continually at the mercy of the world around us/the seas, currents and changing tides, the unexpected.  All we can do is be sensitive to that which is around us, sometimes succumbing to the situation and sometimes trying to steer our boats.

I felt that the sea of Pietrasanta and my time in Studio Sem has taken me on a really big journey and to a new destination, realising the value in being sensitive to an environment and attempting to find harmony between intention and the friction of realisation. 

It has been such a privilege and gift to be working in Studio Sem and Pietrasanta for the last three months. All the incredible characters I've met along the way, incredible art, new friends, skills I've seen and conversations had will not easily be forgotten.

 

I have felt a real profundity in being able to just "be an artist", to work really hard all day in a supportive environment, surrounded by other people doing the same, making work. Not being too distracted by the administrative, reflective, promotion and funding processes around the practice of a contemporary artist has been a joy. 

The thing about Pietrasanta, and in a sense Italy in general, is that they accept and support art and craftsmanship to such a huge extent, as it is so ingrained in their history and culture and they seem to still see and celebrate the integral value of it to a thriving society/culture.

This has not only had a big impact personally on my art practice, but also has made me really want to continue to support and create space and openings for creatively collaborating with, developing and supporting others. It's a very progressive and beautiful thing, to integrally accept the value of creative exploration and aesthetic beauty in a community.

I am excited about continuing this body of work started in Pietrasanta as well as exploring new avenues.

Thank you to the Royal British Sculpture Society, Studio Sem, Keara, all the artists I met there, and to friends and family who, through their loving, make anywhere feel like home.

STUPIDO!

I was cycling back from lunch break to the studio, and the old lady who lives at the end of the road was walking past me. She jerked her head back while directly looking at me as if to get my attention. I cycled a bit closer to her and thought she was going to ask me something. (I was feeling pretty proud that I might look like a local, enough to ask for directions or something). As I got closer she shouted directly at me."STUPIDO!!!" 
I swerved away laughing  hard to myself, if a bit bewildered. When telling friends back at the studio they said, "Ah! Now you are a local!" Apparently she is a local character who abuses many people: shouting and throwing water at them. The next day she shouted "Radical Chic!" at me as I cycled past, which made me feel pretty great! 

Pietrasanta and the studio are feeling more comfortable week by week. It's now not discovery so much as finding my own way amongst it all.  

I've been up to explore different quarries quite a few times.  I'm really interested in the contrast of surface and form of the quarried areas against the natural mountains. It's at once both a display of human's incredible power and yet questionable sensitivity to our surroundings. 

 

         
To experience the atmosphere and methods used in the quarries is incredible. They are exhausting, all-sensory places to be. The bright, reflective white, constant heavy, very dangerous machinery and necessary destruction of thousands (millions??) of years of built landscape is a full-on encounter.
I took some film of the way they extract the marble. The crane arm seems so human in its arching, clawing and grabbing. You can feel the sensation of the tension.

                                        

I've almost completely resolved my first marble piece and am happy with the outcome but want to simplify, extend and grow in scale lots of the ideas I have begun.

I went to the the quarry to boulder shop for my second sculpture. It felt like such a privilege to be there to select a stone to start work on. Amazing!
 
I am still really interested in the natural surface/form of the stone and using this to contrast with a machine affected part of stone. To me this is really interesting visually, viscerally and conceptually and talks of the process of extracting and using stone. 

Hex (a sculptor who was here working on the bronze residency from the RBS introduced me to another sculpture studio in town where they produce a lot of work using a robot. (Robomarmo :-) I found this pre-programmed robotic arm with a grinder attached to it, running 24hrs a day, strange and exciting. 

Nicola seemed like a really enthusiastic, smart guy, (he taught himself the technology to work with a robot after years of hand carving stone.) Because he still works directly by hand with stone and has done for years, he really understands the limitations and benefits of the machine. It seemed like a perfect opportunity to discuss a project I had been wanting to develop in 3D. Nicola seemed interested when I explained the basic idea so we have continued to work together and I'm getting increasingly excited as the project develops.

I wanted to 3D image some paintings I had been working on recently to see what they would look like as objects. I've been silhouetting natural and urban skylines and placing them together as if to be a reflection. 

As soon as I saw the skylines here I wanted to create a site specific painting. I worked to get the right photograph of a mountain scape. The quarry skyline was harder, as the quarries are often below the peak of the mountains. With some hairy drives, sympathetic friends and endless treasure maps drawn by locals who knew the mountains before and after quarrying, I found some great spots. 
This is what I am working on with Nicola (and the robot) to turn into a three dimensional form, that I plan to then finish by hand. 

The boulder I selected from the quarry came to the studio yesterday. It was so exciting to see it alone, in a clear context. It was more lovely than I remembered!

Helaine Blumenfield (a very successful sculptor, who was part of the selection panel who gave me this opportunity, has worked in Pietrasanta since the 80's and was the first female artist to work in the studio I am in) wonderfully described the need to sustain a connection with a piece you are working on, "otherwise if you leave it too long, don't pay it enough attention, you come back to it like an old lover that you forgot the reason you liked them in the first place." I felt the opposite with the boulder when it arrived in the studio - it confirmed our initial attraction and brought a whole world of extra vibes down from the mountain with it.

Is hurt part of love? Do we need straight lines to understand what a curve is? Do we think the morning is fresher because we have just been asleep? If I slice into this boulder, leaving some of the natural surface as it is, will I amplify the texture/forms that are already there? I think so, I hope so.

It's such a pleasure to spend time with artists from all over the world here. A lot of them are established and have so much experience to share. They keep telling me how young I am, which is nice!

Everybody shares a dreamer's mind, a real belief and appreciation in the importance of wonderment, beauty and succeeding in exploring/creating your own visions. It's a powerful atmosphere to be in.

TOOTHPASTE

Today was the first day I got to finally get my hands on a piece of marble.  After deciding more on a concept than definite form, with Keara’s advice, I chose a stone (see below). Simone (one of the artigiano) took me through the basics of using the different tools he was reassured I knew how to use the grinders safely.

The air hammer seemed like a joke! I couldn't believe it when I held it, I could hardly put the chisel into the hammer, they were both vibrating so fast it felt like those bicycles you ride at funfairs that go the opposite way to normal. The vibrations were massive and I thought maybe I'd made a big mistake thinking I could do this.

However with some guidance and patience and much flying marble (and a small bit of blood) I got a bit more control of it.

The vibrations and elongated use will definitely take some getting used to. The resistance from the marble is so much more than softer stones. I'll have to be very aware of my body so as not to damage or push myself too far.

It's really exciting to begin to see a shape emerging from the stone. I really want to try and make something interesting, unusual and related to the stone, its natural form and the way it is treated or handled by humans. I hope to master the tools some more so that I can achieve a dramatic but sensitive effect.

The first day I manage to use the air hammer and finally feel I have some control over it, its impact on the stone is amazing. The marble is an incredible material that demands time, respect and can be so many things depending on how you treat it. The natural surface shows passing of time, marks of different weather and erosion, if you work the surface a lot it begins to be like powder or butter, softening as broken . Like a special occasion you can also dress the stone up to be incredibly precious looking, reflective and showing off all its best qualities. 

So to create a sensitive surface or shape in the stone is something that requires real sensitivity and engagement. This is a challenge and testimony to what a human touch thinks you can bring to an already beautiful natural material. I don't want to impose a form on something unless it speaks and reflects on the material itself. It seems futile to me to create another static, complete object unless it really achieves a provocation and continues or encourages a dialogue involving the material.

On my second weekend here I visit, Fantiscritti a quarry accessible to the public, although very touristy ( "I love Marmo" merchandise everywhere) it's an amazingly moody, stormy day, great to drive up to the mountains and get some perspective on the area and see the beautiful and brutal scene of the quarried stone. They are literally cutting up the mountain. It strikes me again the complete contrast in the way humans can approach the environment; divide, quantify and ultimately decimate, the wild humbling, enormous beauty of the mountains.

I speak to Keara the director of the studio, about my impression of the horrendous beauty of the quarries. She explains (to my horror) that in order to obtain the large blocks of a viable quality, 70% of the quarried stone ends up as debris or tailings. This stone debris is pounded into powder. White marble is composed predominately of calcium carbonate in a relatively pure state.

Because it is almost completely inert, calcium carbonate is used as a densifier in plastics, added to pasta and bread and used in almost all abrasive solutions from bathroom cleaners to toothpaste. The recycling of the debris to obtain calcium carbonate is a larger industry than the quarrying of the marble blocks, but then most of the mountain is riddled with defects, so that rendering a large sound block for architectural work or sculpture inevitably produces a large amount of waste.

           

The artigiano are always on hand to answer questions or give advice about the best way to approach the next way I want to work with the stone.

The atmosphere in the studio is amazing and so conducive to making, personal space, tools and interacting all respected and understood. It feels like such a natural and supportive environment to experiment and make work in. I really appreciate people moving at their own pace, stopping, thinking, chatting, bashing or doing detailed work as and when it's right for them to. There is such an understanding and respect for art and sculpture here, it is the first time I have daily felt free, open and encouraged to make and explore the process. It's understood here that this is a living.

It's inspiring to hear the stories of so many other artists working here and how they strike the balance between income, space, personal life and times of solitude. I can learn a lot from the older artists about marketing and representing yourself and your work. I describe to many how it's my weakness and how I would a million times over prefer to just keep making than stop, document, represent and communicate. But it's definitely a necessary part and something I should give more time to.

Pietrasanta and the surrounding area continues to blow my mind, mountains, sea, art on every corner, the incredible Italian passionate openess and directness, hospitality and pride in simple quality, evident in the food and experience here.

This is the end of my third week in the studio, it's been an incredibly steep learning curve, both with getting used to the ten hour day of manual work, getting to know all the new people and keeping engaged in my own journey with the stone and what I am making.