The Original Question

["Clive Murray-White" <clivemw@zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz>]

Dear Elaine,

You touched a nerve with the mention of "beauty", another of those things
like aesthetics and even stone that lost favour with the serious art world
over the past 40 years.

When I first became addicted to stone I was working away on a piece and I
had a bit of flash "why don't I try to make it as beautiful as I could", I
think I was actually thinking that meant as Brancusi-ish or Arp-esque as I
could but as I worked I realised that that was their brand of beauty and not
mine.

By the time the little sculpture was finished, I had learned an awful amount
not only about working stone but myself, because no other quest, the search
for what I considered beautiful, had ever taken me on such an exacting
journey.

What I have realised is that if you do no more than honestly attempt to make
something thoroughly beautiful in your own terms, that is taking absolutely
no notice of what other people or history etc says is beautiful, just your
own values, you will automatically have to thoroughly and completely express
yourself. Because you are different to anybody else and "original" then you
will automatically make original work.

So instead of beauty being something that we should try to ignore the search
for it can be the fast track to originality, invention and relevance.

Yes I do agree with Bill re bare knuckle stuff to me arguing helps make
things clearer for me, one of the things that I love the most about art is
that there is never just one right answer or right take on things. I also
have to admit that the more outrageously critical you can make yourself the
more likely it is that you that you'll stumble on some pretty wild
inventions.

Best regards Clive

P.S My bones tell me that we are only inches away from voting on the Top 10
sculptors of the last century just to see if any of us stonies crack it for
a mention!

Sculptor Clive Murray-White
Cowwarr Art Space
Cowwarr Gippsland Vic. Aus.
Ph: 03 51489321 Fax 0351489498
E-mail: clivemw@---------------
Web: www.cowwarr.com