Carving with 'Ministry of Stone'

I finally made it to Lincoln and the gargoyle carving course, actually a grotesque but who cares.
Working with stone again and learning new skills with new tools, what more can I say.

I was a little worried about it all due to my tendonitis flaring up for the first time in many years...typical timing, but all was good.

Things to come

I am so excited!
I've finally booked myself onto a Gargoyle carving course.
Ages to wait as it's not til Oct but so excited!!
I'll be off to Lincoln to carve stone and of course check out the cathedral amongst other sights.

Looking up is something that many people just don't do especially in a town or city but up there are fabulous things.... gargoyles of course, but I've also seen the beautiful architecture, strange items in windows such as large models of Noddy and Big Ears, and once I saw the most beautifully stone carved ship in full rig - such a sight.

"The origins of the word 'gargoyle' are derived from the old French word 'gargouille' meaning throat. In Architectural terms only the creature serving as actual water spout is called a Gargoyle, otherwise is it known as a Grotesque. A grotesque may function solely as decoration."

What is the purpose of Gargoyles? The first is a practical purpose - gargoyles provided a method of drainage which protected the stones and the mortar of churches, cathedrals and castles from erosion. The number of Gargoyles added to buildings were numerous because dividing the flow of water minimized potential water damage.  The second purpose of gargoyles was as 'guardians' of the buildings in the form of abstract symbols designed to represent, and to ward off evil.

http://www.medieval-life-and-times.info/medieval-art/gargoyles.htm

This information means that technically I'll probably be making a grotesque, but I really don't mind. I would love to make a proper gargoyle that is for water, maybe in a bit.

Another interesting fact is that there are no two alike!

These are a few of some I like.

photo by Richard Nilsen

photo by Annette Wagner

 


The last one is a modern take but equally appealling
 

 

London Wedding

Had a brilliant time at a wedding held in Croydon, London.
The event itself was beautiful with Ella's Grandfather walking her down the aisle, kilt swinging.
I was so pleased to have been invited and was able to see some old friends and celebrate with them.

The handfasting was probably more memorable than the service if a little cold. Many there, myself included, took the opportunity of jumping the broomstick.
After the meal, along with drinking and dancing we could also take photos in a specially curated booth in honour of Star Wars - lightsabre, Princess Leia head piece and a grand dark hooded cloak.

Before the event, I took advantage of being in London to visit an old friend and we visited Kew Gardens, amazing! Some lovely sculpture and a fantastic exhibition with hundreds of dried flowers threaded and hung from the ceiling. We were able to walk through these - astounding.
Then there was the bee place! wow!
This incredible structure has been built to replicate a bee hive.

"The Hive is a unique, multi-sensory experience designed to highlight the extraordinary life of bees. A feat of British engineering, it stands 17 metres tall, set in a wildflower meadow.

The Hive is an immersive sound and visual experience. The lights you see and the sounds you hear inside The Hive are triggered by bee activity in a real beehive at Kew.
The intensity of the sounds and light change constantly, echoing that of the real beehive. The multi award-winning Hive was inspired by scientific research into the health of honeybees. It is a visual symbol of the pollinators’ role in feeding the planet and the challenges facing bees today."
(https://www.kew.org/kew-gardens/attractions/the-hive)
You can walk inside and it is a strange experience but very beautiful.

The Hive

inside The Hive, top level

inside, bottom level

The gardens themselves are beautiful to walk around and much bigger than expected, could spend all day there with a picnic and sketchbook.

the greenhouse

greenhouse again

The structure just leant itself to some arty photos and I couldn't resist.











During our walk we came across a wonderous line of gorgeous statues. The carving is excellent and made me a little envious, must practice more.

detail

 

There was also an amazing exhibition/ installation of dried flowers. Walking amongst them was quite surreal and would have loved to have been able to be there with no other visitors, but hey, that's the way it goes.

St Madoes - stone carving workshop

I was asked to run a stone carving workshop at the opening of the new St Madoes centre.
I'd put forward a proposal to carve the stone that will be in their garden area but wasn't chosen for that. Not unhappy, the workshop went so well.

 All happy carvers and a great day out.

More Sculpture Classes

Very excited to announce that I will be teaching stone carving again at Broomhill, Greenock with Rig Arts. Yeah! Here's to more fun.

Feeling Proud

Yes, I am feeling very proud.
Everyone worked so hard and produced some lovely sculpture.

trying the tools

One of the ladies produced this on her first day, never having used the tools before. The shapes are representative of the roofs on the flats opposite. Definitely going to incorporate these into the final design.

Moving the stones

After getting everything going yesterday we have discovered that we were put in the wrong place.
So it's all change, luckily Rebecca was here to help me lift the stones up and down. The benches weren't too difficult to move, just unwieldy.

No young ones turned up for the morning lesson which was a bit of a shame but also really useful.
Heras fencing was put up for us by a very nice as well as helpful man, and we covered it in tarps to prevent the stone pieces flying out of our compound.

our sculpture compound

Move over and this site is much better, for light and the fact that we can be seen by passers by. The idea is to get the community interested in the project because it's about their area, Broomhill.

The ideas that appeared this morning from the homework I set yesterday are inspiring. I really enjoyed hearing the stories from everyone about this area, where their parents/grandparents had worked, what it was like, and who had actually lived in the flats that are being demolished.

Broomhill, Greenock

As said in last post, here are some images and writings about my time in Greenock.

The benches were already when I'd arrived the day before and the stone was sitting outside waiting patiently, luckily Karen had brought along a trolley. Got some of the stones into place with the trolley and a judicious use of palettes to raise them to a better level and then had some help lifting them onto the benches from our photographer, Chris.

Mornings were with the younger members of the community, unfortunately only one girl turned up on day 1 but she got the hang of the tools very quickly with the file being a favourite.

Afternoon, and the adults got their turn.

The first day was spent getting to know each other and teaching a little about how to use the tools. One of the group already worked with wood so had a bit of a head start with hammer and chisel.

practicing

Steps forming

These images show the progress of a couple of the students who had never used hammer and chisel, impressed me. This next one is from the only guy on the course. He had used woodworking tools previously. 

It was a great beginning and everyone left excited, even though I gave them a little homework which was to bring back images that they'd like to use on the stone. 

beginnings of the bell

After all had left, I got to work on one of the stones and started it's transformation into a bell.

Cromarty... the journey there.

On the way to Cromarty, Black Isle, Scotland. Not too far from my home but far enough to make it into a wee adventure. I took the scenic route and was very glad I did.

Taking full advantage of having to drive to Cromarty by taking the small roads, winding through the tunnels of trees, road speckled with sunlight. The trees just beginning to yellow, Autumn is on its way but the sun is still full.

From Dundee, through Coupar Angus and past Blairgowrie. Then Bridge of Cally and the roads get smaller - the view gets wider and the traffic is most certainly less. Ballintuim is now behind me and time for a stop.

The photo above is taken from my lunch spot. During the journey there have been some beautiful shots that I wanted to take but nowhere safe to stop. Ah well, just had to enjoy the driving and soak up the views of the Grampians spreading out before me to store in my organic memory instead of the mechanical and digital one in the camera.

It was good to stop. Smelling the air, only a slight wind to make a noise (when the traffic had gone of course) and a sense of calm. Then back on the road to Pitlochry.

Leaving Pitlochry and two young guys were hitching so I stopped, scrambled about moving stuff to make room in the car and off we went. Two students, I think just finished uni, from Germany and they had decided to travel by hitching and had made it from London in two days, which isn't bad.

Took them to Inverness.

Maths & Physics was a talker, Architecture not so much. Very interesting chat about politics/Brexit/Indy referendum/traveling/ and all the usual questions occurred: Where are you going?, Why?, and How long for?

It was good to help folks but was also glad of the quiet after I dropped them off.

Munlochy and the Black Isle Brewery (no, I didn't go in - but did think about it) behind me, I got stuck behind a slow slow car, nice to see the view but....  annoying after a few hours journey when I wanted to enjoy the last bit of the drive and get there.

Never been before so, new places, always something to spy out.

    -Got through Rosemarie and off on the hill down to Cromarty. Out to the left were oil rigs galore - well, about 6 or 7 - which is quite a lot in one area. Ships too.

More on next post.

Apollo & Dionysus

I played around with the relationship between the two pieces because that is, of course what the whole point is with the two brothers, Apollo and Dionysus.

The stones were exhibited like this at the Dalhousie building during The Humanities Postgraduate Conference.

The inspiration behind this sculpture is Nietzsche’s ‘The Birth Of Tragedy’, a reading in my Philosophy module. The duality of Apollo and Dionysus as suggested by Nietzsche within Greek culture compelled me to produce a sculpture that embraced that nature. The Apollonian character, known for form and structure is in opposition to the Dionysian chaos and passion. Although it is the tension that holds the two in balance which most interests me. Balance is the key to being able to live in this world and Nietzsche believed that the ideal person was one who was able to maintain this stability by using qualities from the opposites that are part of human nature.

Sandstone and soapstone are the two materials chosen and I have used them because of their diverse textural and visual qualities. The beginning of a sculpture is visually chaotic as there is no apparent direction or structure to the work, there is a constant refining before a form begins to take shape, where I am using control to enable the structure to appear. I prefer to use hand tools when carving, because then, the act of sculpting involves me in a dialogue with the stone and I feel a kind of transcendence from the here and now.

On their own, the two pieces are unsteady but it is when they join and accept the other half when balance occurs.

Finally! 'Apollo & Dionysus'

After even more sanding with varying degrees of fineness and then onto wet & dry, the sculptures are ready for the wax.

A wee preview of images before fitting them together.

More Philosophy Module Sculpture

The sandstone has changed quite a bit....

.... and so has the soapstone.

Much filing and sanding has been the order of the day, and many of those days too.

Philosophy module sculpture piece

the beginning

The early stages of the sandstone piece.









This sculpture came about as the practical assessment for my philosophy module during the Masters course. The module itself was called 'Tragedy's Figures, Aesthetics, Politics, Philosophy'. An incredibly fascinating subject that involved much reading and inevitably, talking. The idea of making an artwork as part of the assessment process is only in it's second year and I think works really well.

More process images.

Once the sculpture got to this point, I then had to work on it's partner, which is a soapstone piece.

From here on, things started to get a little more complicated because I had to begin working the stone so that they would both eventually fit together.