Sandblasting vs. lettercutting by hand & Why we carve ( again)

["Ian Marr" <ianmarr@zzzzzzzzzzz>]

George & All,
          I  didn't really think about being "trapped" in stone' but about
motivation & how to think about the relations of higher level inscription to
mechanical & industrial (lettercutting) processes, whose practitioners
sometimes are artists.
	Many artists begin to see their project as a quest of a
semi-religious nature :surely it's an indication of how serious your
vocation is.Locus(studio, gallery=chapel, monastery, eremite's
cave);followers(apprentices,acolytes, who may write down & pass on the
bon-mots of the master)& most relevant to our recent discussion,the sense of
the unenlightened Other( ...sandblasters, perhaps): knowing the TRUTH means
a harsh light is cast on the others who do not: it's a Manichean world out
there.
	Look at the Pre-Raphaelites, William Morris, & especially Eric Gill,
for whom dress, architecture, words, type & sculpture all assumed a
religious gravitas.  All stood AGAINST other values ( post-Raphaelites,
industrial manufacturing, non-direct carving) as much as they stood FOR
their own considerable philosophies.( I hope this helps to explain the
thinking behind some of my recent comments ).
	On another , related, theme though, perhaps headed "Why we carve":
There is one view that creative artists create because their early childhood
has been " characterised by major losses":& that there is " an overwhelming
need to feel whole again by constructing the ideal self or selfobject as a
concrete work of art.This often amounts to a passionate, almost addictive
need to create...." (Charles Kligerman ART & THE SELF OF THE ARTIST).The
sculpture, inscription ,poem or painting becomes a "transitional object",
through the harmony & physical achievement of which the artist can feel
reconstituted,& by using "fantasy as a mode of consolation and
self-soothing."
	A truly great Australian poet, Francis Webb, for whom I am carving a
major memorial in Mintaro slate for the institution where he lived at
Orange,NSW, once said ,"All my life has been chaos and horror, but I have
tried to create order and beauty in my poems."