why anhydrite?

[Don Dougan <dondougan@xxxxxxxx>]

Subject: Why anhydrite -- or any kind of stone (or other material?)

For myself I can only say that the reason I like to make sculpture is
that it allows me to deal with material, and the unique qualities
inherent in each material I use.

I have never worked anhydrite -- primarily because I've not had access to
it -- so I have never responded to its qualities.  But, the reason I use
several materials in almost each piece is to combine and contrast the
qualities that are inherent in each material.

Brancusi once said, "You cannot make out of stone what you make out of
wood . . . " and that says it as well as anything I can write.

To combine the relationships between the qualities in a piece of glass, a
piece of indiana limestone, a piece of black granite, a number of cut
walnut sticks,  some gold leaf, an old watercolor tin, and some epoxy and
through the process to form, create and discover a statement both about
each material and their combined qualities -- and what that statement
reveals about a very personal and communicable concept about memory and
history -- is extremely rewarding to me.  ****

The materials reveal themselves (to us, the makers) through the
experience of working.  Each material -- be it marble or limestone or
obsidian -- allows itself to give up its secrets only to those who are
willing to put the trial-and-error work into finding them.  I am not
deliberately being obtuse about why particular materials are used (by
myself, anyway) but there are simply too many and the reasons are too
complex to list.

Sometimes it is the color, sometimes the texture, sometimes the
workability, sometimes the cultural and/or historical associations,
sometimes just the location where I obtained the material in the first
place.

The reason I make the sculpture is to discover them . . .

Good carving, or should I write 'good materials'  to you,
Don