Although I now work more in stone and wood, than in clay, wax and plaster, I continue to enjoy and celebrate all forms of sculpting. Indeed, each time a new image begins to emerge through my dialogue with the materials that graciously surrender to my hands, I re-experience a sense of wonder and gratitude for the gift of creative expression. For this reason I believe creativity is a form of alchemy. One that each of us can practice and, in this way, transform our personal experiences – our pains and joys, confusions and questions, stumbles and breakthroughs – into a personal mythology that not only records, but ennobles our journey and helps us to contribute our unique notes to the Song of Life.
The form of sculpting I practice is called Direct Carving. I was introduced to it by Jose DeCreeft, my first teacher to whom I will always be grateful. For ‘Direct Carving’ has enriched my life more than I can say. Among its most important lessons- avoid imposing a preconceived image or concept on the material I’m working with and instead seek to establish rapport with the stone, wood, clay, wax and plaster. This alone has allowed me to uncover the best and highest result my current skills allow. And without equivocation, this is a gift of inestimable value.
Jose DeCreeft also invited me to consider avoiding the use of pneumatics and other power tools, and instead to carve by hand. He reminded me that power tools vibrate at frequencies greater than my own natural physical rate and even greater still than the natural rate of vibration of wood and certainly of stone. As a result, while these power tools might allow me to shape, texture and finish a piece sooner, they do not help me to ‘touch the heart’ of the material I work with. To do this requires a slowing down my rate of vibration, an investment in patience and active listening, and a willingness to conduct what Socrates called an elenchus, a genuine inquiry in pursuit of understanding and truth.
To connect with the heart of the stone and the wood, also requires that I give up the illusion that I am separate, in control and in anyway superior. It requires me to move beyond the belief that reason, logic and other mental prestidigitations will get me home. Instead that journey requires humility and the willingness to surrender to the process and to the mystery.
Direct carving is, on most occasions, a slow process. But I have discovered that this pace is essential. Unlike the dictum of the modern world that asks us to do more, faster, better, cheaper, the pace of Direct Carving insures that I do not rush to conclusions or grab hold of the first and most obvious images that tend to emerge primarily from my mind. Instead Direct Carving both allows and requires me to await the more authentic images and feelings that emerge in a genuine dialogue with the stone and the wood. I know to some, this may seem an odd thing to claim. But again and again, over these years, I have experienced the deep wonder when the stone begins to speak to me and the wood begins to offer its guidance and direction.
These moments of surrender and dialogue have allowed me to come to better understand that carving can becomes to sculpting what jazz is to music. Improvisation…experimentation...real time rapport and moment to moment inquiry and response. All things that bring greater joy, wonder and a greater sense of harmony.
I will say more about this in some of the blogs and podcasts that will follow. And I have also had a lot more to say about all of this in the manuscripts of a trilogy of novels I am completing called Old Stone and Promises.
So I leave you with these thoughts and most especially with my gratitude for taking this time to explore some of my work. And I encourage you with all my heart, to let your heart speak in and through whatever media it is called to use. Surrender to a collaboration with the blank canvas or page or musical score sheet, to the paint, to the notes, the movements, the musical instrument, the words, the concepts, the stone, the wood, the imagination or whatever materials and tools you are most drawn to. Do this as often as you can and with your full heart and you and the world will be the richer for it. You will also have the chance to verify the truth of these words by TS Eliot.
“We shall not cease from exploration. And the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time….To arrive at a state of simplicity costing not less than everything.”