experiences as stone sculptor - discussion

[MIKE WILLIAMS <sculptorman@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dear colleagues -

I feel that I want to jump into the pool and try and get
some discussion going on just why stonecarving is the
specific activity or sculptural technique that dominates
my and many others art practice. I have carved in wood
and stone for over ten years and find the difference
between the mind set needed to create by removing as
opposed to building as startling now as I did then -
here is a quote from the British sculptor Stephen Cox

"Before carving, I worked in plaster, the transition
 from working in plaster to carving in marble is one from
the modelling technique to the carving technique - it
was to do with this major difference in the primary
elements of sculptural language...for me it was quite
important to move from a modelling technique - which is
perhaps more sophisticated - to a primitive way of
expression, the craft I mean. I suppose that the first
language of man could be determined as a carving
technique or a carving language if you like. In sand
drawing Homo-sapiens used a finger to make marks in the
earth. That was possibly the most primary form of
expression, a kind of pre-language. I felt that in
carving there was  something more immediatly primitive,
immediatly basic in terms of language and sculpture."

Comments? All the best sculptorman