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02/17/2006: "IN THE STUDIO"
Guido is a client from my past. Over the years, he’s bought a few pieces of mine, and when I got an e-mail from him asking me to make a family tombstone using as its subject the Madonna of Monte Nero, I was thrilled. I don’t mind reworking images from the past, because it opens my mind to other ways of perception, and allows me to spend enough time with them to observe things I wouldn’t have otherwise. The original was a painting, with some elements gilded, done in a Byzantine style, and for the cemetery, Guido asked me to make a bas relief. With stone, there are some things you simply can’t do, and others that you could, but decide not to for the purpose of controlling the total end result. You don’t want to clutter the surface with too much detail, because at the distance from which you view a tombstone, effects are best transmitted if there’s an impression created that’s harmonious and complete. Not excessive. Of course, these are subjective judgments that all of us artists must make; sometimes we do well, and other times not so well. Of course, we never admit the latter! Everything is exactly as we planned it to be. Or is it?
I had a pretty good idea of how I was going to handle the drapery, not cutting in too deep, but still giving the cloth volume. I chose a stone that was dark grey when polished, and much lighter when left rough. Chiaro scuro would give me a range of tones that I could use, separately, or mixed for mid tones. Other elements, like the skin, I wasn’t sure how I would approach, and so I figured I’d decide later.
The first step with a composition like this for me was to deepen the surface around the figure, to make it sit in the foreground. Not much, just an eighth of an inch or so, but doing this defined my sizes and the elements of the whole. I couldn’t see what was in the background from the e-mail picture I’d received, but knew the story of this work. It had drifted up near Leghorn in a small boat, without anybody in it, in the thirteenth century and has been the icon of the venerated patron saint of Tuscany ever since. I made a few waves and liked them, so waves it was. One of the first things I did. I liked the contrast of a light color surrounding a darker figure, and the arched dark surround became like a window for me. Again, the polished veined stone reminded me of water, and I began to get excited.
I also started thinking about what I wanted to achieve. There in the cemetery, with tombs on the left and right, in rows, I wanted the piece to speak in a soft tone, not to shout out its individuality or non conformity, but to retain its own character all the same. A balance. I knew the family, and knew also that the dying grandmother was not going to go without first having seen this tombstone. That meant I had some pressure on me to finish, but not so much that I was going to rush anything.
And how would this age? I know the darkness and lightness will fade, but not completely, and so, the whole impression will soften as the years go by. Do I sculpt for eternity? I think not. The moment is everything, the moment when all things are possible, the moment when an effect is even partially created letting me know that I’ve found a way, a means to an end that I didn’t know about before. Continuing the work after I’ve found the way is almost a let down, because the peak of my sensation is at the moment when I suddenly see how I can achieve an effect, and not in carrying that forward to the completion of a whole section. Sometimes I get so tired of what I’m working on that I don’t complete it, as in the waves at the left side, where a toothed chisel’s marks are left and the wave crest itself never was finished. That too, is an oft seen element of my work, not done intentionally, but just something that happens. And as I jump up to work on another element, these things of the immediate past are quite forgotten. The marks on the tunic of the baby Jesus are yet another…I put them there to define the volume, and I’d intended to make some kind of a pattern on the material, but I never did. I looked, I saw their place in the whole, and so I left them as they were. The artisans who steadily churn out tombstones don’t like this about my work. All their marks are carefully concluded, there is nothing that isn’t taken to the end, but you can’t really tell who did what because of it. There is a similarity between all the madonnas, all the cherubs, all the crosses, that earns them the respect of their clients. Before a piece is ordered, the buyer knows exactly what he’s going to get. There are a limited number of textures to select from. Do I carefully try to make my work different from theirs? Not really. It is my lack of knowledge that makes it so, because if I had been trained the way they were, my work would have attained the same classical precision that theirs has.
Ethically, there’s a fine line between what someone expects of me, and what they get. If they know what I do, as Guido does, then they won’t be surprised, and maybe even curious or excited about a slightly different approach. Certainly, in a relatively two dimensional subject and technique like this, I want to try to achieve depth, a foreground and a background, and the means by which I do this have been standardized. There is not much about the sky which is like something I appropriated from another piece I’d seen somewhere, and it is like this because it worked. Perhaps it is my inability to make a perfectly flat surface, or my reluctance to check it with a straight edge, that makes the tones vary in intensity. Actually I didn’t appropriate much as far as techniques go. I winged it.
When do you call a piece finished? Overworking, as with drawings, may result in something appearing to be labored, and perhaps effects which work are better left at the point where you see that they do. But how to decide? I’ve had friends who have modeled a figure, achieved a unique and very uplifting movement, and then ruined it all by filling it in with a useless clutter of details. Did I need clouds? A moon, or a sun? I didn’t even look at the original to decide, I just said to myself, this works, and left it at that. Among you readers there will be those who agree, those who think I did too little, and those who think I did too much. In anything, be it politics, or fine art, extremists are always the ones furthest from the truth. When one dares to think about what the left has to say, and then about what the right says, usually, each side has something of value to add. When one pounds either viewpoint to the exclusion of the other, one starts to recite the dogma of a group, and stops thinking. One becomes a conformist, a blade of grass on a lawn, waving in unison with all the others, when the breeze blows.
The drapery and the embroidery of the cushion underneath look good from the distance at which the piece will be seen, but as you go closer, they begin to make less sense. The white embroidery pattern is achieved by striking the stone with a dull point, and smashing the crystals, or ‘bruising’ the stone. The damage goes in sometimes a third of an inch, and therefore is one of the last things that will disappear. I have not used this before, although I was aware of it enough to avoid its more or less permanent damage to rounded, polished forms. I may in the future. As architecture, which I consider a form of sculpture with its own set of preordained limitations (like any art form) often uses textures and colors to get a desired effect, I might use this on sculptures in the round, maybe even using this same grey stone. It allows remarkable contrasts.
Other little bits came from what I could achieve through a smattering of tromp l’oeil. The little bumps along the edges of the robe became holes, and the only difference is which side of the hole the light hits. If the light comes from above, it’s a protrusion, if the top half is dark, it’s clear that this is a hole. But from a distance, you don’t really visually address this, and the negative spaces affect you as if they were positives. They are so small anyway that they don’t disturb the viewer, rather they form a decorative part of the surface, breaking up a ribbon that might otherwise be too blank. The shadows in these holes are the darkest parts of the entire tomb.
The bird with its legs tied by a cord is something I never found the significance of in Christianity; if any of you know what it means, please let me know.
Is this art, or the work of an artisan? There are a few issues here worth talking about. The subject is not my own. The execution is, and many artisans will take exception to it for that reason alone. Some won’t. The men who made the sarcophagus asked me if I would be willing to make other images. If I do, the next one will be a subject of my own design. This one introduced me to a whole new series of possibilities.
Replies: 21 Comments
on Friday, March 3rd, Andrew said
Ewa, it's interesting that you bring up the point of whether the feeling from the piece comes from something metaphysical, or is just the result of working the stone professionally. If I'm on the edge of disaster, as I feel I am when I make these things, then I suppose there's something beyond what I've learned to do that keeps me from falling over the edge. I get the feeling that either its the stone, or something guiding my hand that's beyond myself. Professionality is great, but the most professional works I've seen are usually the coldest. And as you mention, that isn't true here. I almost feel there's something homespun, practically naif, folk artish, that permeates the faces.
Aedan, there are some super works among the byzantine cemeterial pieces, too, I know. If you see one, you wonder how you can make your own work have that special something that makes these pieces stand out from the others around them.
And MFL56546774hgfhgheesnfg, thanks for both your comments. It's nice to see that readers like you have struggled so hard to pick the most profound interpretations out of the few meager phrases I've managed to write. Your own work must be just as interesting.
on Thursday, March 2nd, Eva Wacherlohn said
Andrew - podziwiam, zachwycam i chyle glowe nad mistrzostwem. Twardy kamien stal sie Tobie poslusznym. Odtworzenie tak misternej ornamentyki w tak niepokornej materii swiadczy o nieprzecietnym opanowaniu rzemiosla artystycznego.
Ikona bizantyjska zawiera w sobie tyle mistycyzmu - "nasiaknieta modlitwa" swojego "pisarza" jest powiernikiem unizonego wiernego , ktory z pokora powierza jej swoje troski i z gleboka nadzieja jak i gleboka wiara prosi o cud spelnienia.Jakas niemal pozaziemska sila zmusza nas - ogladajacych, do glebokiego szacunku i pokory. Juz sami nie jestesmy swiadomi czym nas uwiodla - czy mistrzostwem wykonania? czy jakas nieokreslona metafizyczna sila sprawia ze czujemy jej nieziemska moc.
Czy w tym wypadku kamien moze byc zimnym?
Nadales mu nowa moc - podziwiam i dziekuje Eva
on Friday, February 24th, aedan cartoons said
Headstones can be surprisingly good.
I have a friend who is a photographer and in the past he visited European locations, mostly Italy, to shoot some of the spectacular "cemetery art" you can find there. Byzantine angels and other stylized pieces tend to be the main fare, but some of these works are actually first rate.
on Friday, February 24th, 8jO0y2T4Kd said
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on Wednesday, February 22nd, gabriella said
Andrew - being humble doesn't preclude self-awareness and self-confidence. Your skills and knowledge would prevent you from putting your hand onto stone in projects which would better be realized in fibre, for example. Knowing the characteristics, potential and limitations of a particular medium and working within them well is what separates true craftsmen/artists from the rest of us mortals.
on Wednesday, February 22nd, Andrew said
Let's talk about humility. If you ask me to create ANYTHING in marble, I'm far from humble. I'll take it on, and believe I can do whatever anyone sets before me. I believe my skills are more refined than those of other sculptors, and that I can carve rings around all those self proclaimed artists who couldn't carve their way out of a paper bag with a chain saw.
on Tuesday, February 21st, 9YPdrmDOIF said
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on Tuesday, February 21st, Ron Massey said
A measure of humility is important in everything, and is certainly preferable to delusory self- aggrandisement.
on Tuesday, February 21st, Hyacinthe Baron said
Humility is a worthy endeavor when it comes to most aspects of living with other people. I don't believe it has a place in making art. The artist must take control and believe the knowledge and the power of execution is within.
Just my belief, and experience.
on Tuesday, February 21st, Andrew said
Hycinthe, I don't think the skills of the painter are beneath me, they're just different, that's all. Think of all the simply amazing geniuses who painted exquisite and unforgetable works of art, never touching sculpture. To create images as a sculptor, you don't need the gift of the magic that enables you to create three dimensional images using only two. Alexander, your words make me blush. Walt, if you think I'm in control of my skills, then maybe I can take my seat belt off and stop thinking I'm on the brink of absolute disaster. I always feel like if I went around these curves any faster, I'd be in the woods for sure.
on Tuesday, February 21st, Hyacinthe Baron said
Andrew, the task you set yourself must have been made even harder since the skills of the painter are so beneath your own accomplished abilities. I think the question is were you able to retain your own integrity while appropriating another's inspiration in order to please a client. I think the answer is that you came up with a brilliant solution. Brava!
on Sunday, February 19th, niedzielski alexande said
ANDREW,
jestem pe³en podziwu dla wykonanej przez Ciebie pracy.Dobor materialu okazal sie bardzo trafny ,gdzyz tzw.lumen-swiatlo odgrywa w tej pracy zasadnicze znaczenie.Rownie po mistrzowsku rozegrales problem reliefu grawiury-szrafunku,obecnie zwanej tekstura.Znane w heraldyce zmiany koloru na relief tobie udalo sie rozwiazac znakomicie.Rozne szkoly pisania ikon ,co prawda przewidywaly ornament tektoniczny wykonywany na zasadzie przyklejanej koronki lub repusowanych w matalu draperii-ale tobie udalo sie to osiagnac w kamieniu.Jak w znakomitej wiekszosci znanych mi prac po mistrzowsku operujesz symbolika oraz z wielka swoboda ksztaltujesz finezyjne i lekkie obrazy w twardym kamieniu .Jednym slowem tak jak wiatr rzezbi draperie, tak ty w kamieniu bez wiekszych przeszkod oddajesz nature i charakter podjetego tematu,za co ci skladam moje najwyzsze slowa uznania.Aleksander Niedzielski
on Sunday, February 19th, walt said
Andrew,
All the arts require craft. The masters of that craft were those who could utilize craft and give us something new and unique. It is not a question for those who have been at it for a long time. It was only an overblown issue for a few short years when the art world began to think that abstraction would overwhelm all other forms of art. It was an iconoclastic controversy that is largely coming to an end. Abstraction has always been a part of the art and craft of image making. It was a bit arrogant of us to use it against those who used abstraction to create recognizable imagery. Nice piece. Good to see someone who is in control of their skills.
on Sunday, February 19th, Andrew said
Gabriella, the lady for whom this memorial was made was pleased when she was wheeled to see it this past week. She passed on day before yesterday. Ron, the bird info clears up a mystery I really wanted to know about. The other end of the cord is held in the infant Jesus's hand. Olga, Resense (Russia?), and Brad, thaks for the supportive comments. Hyacinthe, every new day is a new career. Jose, the changes in direction during the process are the part that keeps me going when all other charms fail.
on Saturday, February 18th, jose freitas cruz said
Andrew, I particularly liked reading the technical aspects of your work. I found many similarities with the approach I take to mine [and the doubts I am confronted with] even though our media are so different. Not that I follow an initial plan as you obviously have here, but in that sometimes a painting will take me in one direction for some time, making me develop certain aspects, but like you, I like leaving clues unfinished – unsolved? And now to the artisan bit. Not an issue, I agree with previous comments. If your work allows you to intervene at that level and to interact in such a powerful way with your community, whatever a few may view as artisan will only compliment the rest of your production at the end of the day. A beautiful story you have told us here.
on Saturday, February 18th, Hyacinthe Baron said
Andrew: Interesting question raised here and one which RAISES questions for all frustrated artists. There is a solution to many problems artist's face in regard to integrity of their art and the need to have money. I think I will elaborate more on this on my next blog as it is a subject dear to my heart and based on my own experiences struggling with the the freedom to paint my Butoh series, and sculptures, and other non commercial pieces, and the need to fulfill the requests of my collectors and galleries.
You are such a rebel. You claimed everything you could as your own on this work and then your tool must have slipped working on the face which in any event, although based on a particular model, is now your original creation. Your client should be beside themself with joy to have such a clever work for their own.
For future reference there is now a technique to graphically reproduce images exactly on concrete if that is what a client wants.
As you charge forward with your new career of monument creator you might think of Barre Vermont, where the headstones at the Hope Cemetery are a major tourist attraction: the "granite capital of the world" where I believe the last of the Italian Born sculptors trained in Carrara,have crafted a memorial to stonecutters. Tradition has it that "A lily with a broken stem means a life cut short" Ferns mean the beginning of life, Chrysanthemums mean death, Roses are for love, and Carnations mean the guy was an anarchist.
on Saturday, February 18th, Resense said
Hi! Very interesting... =) I like it , excelent work!
on Saturday, February 18th, olga said
Very thoughtful and intelligent work you described and showed here, Andrew! Greetings!
on Friday, February 17th, Brad Michael Moore said
Its not the work of an artisan if that's not what you are. Explore the series of possibilities...
on Friday, February 17th, Ron Massey said
Andrew,
The tied bird is probably the European Goldfinch commonly painted in Madonna and Child works as a prophetic emblem of the Passion. As I understand it this bird eats thorns and brambles and therefore symbolised not only the pain of the cross but the overcoming of that pain. The fact that it's legs are tied together can be on the one hand due to realism, in that the birds have been often kept in this way,... on the other hand,in some cases, the bird is tied to the infant Christ, possibly as a sign of irreversable destiny and in other works ,it's recieved from John the Baptist also attached to a string. Certainly an interesting symbol.Theres a peculiar little site I found about the Goldfinch which gives some attention to it's presence in these art images.It's worth taking a look at.
http://home.tampabay.rr.com/brdland/cc/index.html
Interesting to see how you approached this commision... seeing sea waves worked in stone is interesting, though it's not obvious to see here that you didn't finish them.I don't know if the question of art or artisan is one worth losing too much sleep over ,... in creating art, one has to do a lot of exercise as artisan. One interesting aspect of that is looking into the meaning of old universal or obscure symbols.
on Friday, February 17th, gabriella said
Andrew - i will not weigh in with arguments pro or con as to whether what you have illustrated here is art or artisanship.
you have clearly explained your rationale for making this bas-relief, illustrated it well with how you dealt with various technical and visual aspects of making the image work in this stone medium and make no egotistical claims of greatness. You have also expressed your excitement in putting your own experience and knowledge as a sculptor and artist to work in translating a 2 dimensional, painted image into the medium of bas-relief.
I like how you communicate at the end of this blog that you have discovered for yourself a different direction for working which you intend to follow up with works wholly originated by you.
Life is long, and to continue to grow as artists we sometimes have to return, sporadically, to studentish practices - humbly, with curiosity and with a desire to learn new modes of thinking and doing.
I do hope that the lady for whose memorial this is intended is pleased with what you have made for her. Bravo!
