Tyndall limestone - or surface patterns and form

Quoted text begins.RE: "To experience serendipity one must have pre-existing parameters
of expectation . . . space and material keyed and opened by a dark
grain of imagination."
End of quote.

Bill's words flow from that silver tongue yet again.

As you also spoke about texture (your uploaded Fotki pix), I think you
enjoy playing at Devil's advocate to Bob's query.

Perhaps I do too -- I wrote that polish was overrated, and I stand by
that, but as has been mentioned more than once, a polished stone
carving sells much more quickly than one that isn't. Early in my
career (when I made simple forms that were polished from stem to
stern) my work sold about as fast as I could make it (unfortunately, I
never could make it very fast).

As I kept raising my prices I also kept exploring the medium --
pushing myself to find that treasure that lies between the potential
of the material, the scope of my imagination, and the skill in my
hands. This exploration led me away from the tried-and-true; the
'glorified lumps' that my undergraduate sculpture professor called my
work (he was not a stonecarver, and thought that REAL sculptors
fabricated steel, and he refused to have soapstone in HIS sculpture
studio, so I threw away the truckload of Georgia soapstone I had
brought to school and got some Indiana limestone and Georgia marble --
which he did allow).

Anyway, my explorations led me to find what every tool could do, and
how the tool I used impacted the final form that resulted. Polish was
retained as the focal point in almost every piece, though it usually
became one of several textures in any particular piece, and I used it
much more judiciously.

My gallery owner on the one hand raved about the new directions I was
heading in, but on the other kept asking for more work like I did
before . . . "which I have no trouble at selling," she said.

Meanwhile, I was winning awards on a fairly regular basis, but sales
became few and far between. I did obtain several commissions, but I
discovered I would rather work at my 'day' job for all the 'bliss' (as
Joseph Campbell would say) the commissions generated. Yeah, they got
a new roof for the house, a new stereo system, a few new tools . . .
but the work wasn't anything that I have put in my portfolio (at least
not near the front). I try to avoid commissions, because I want to do
my best, and usually the commissioning party doesn't want to pay for
my best, they want to pay for their idea of what my best is.

My sculpture is most years either a break-even or a loss -- perhaps
one in five years shows a profit, and that can usually be measured in
a tin can.

So for those of you who like to sell don't listen to me, because I am
a poor example of making my living as a sculptor. But I love all the
infinite variations of texture in my work, and though polish can
beautiful in so many instances, it is so limited as an end in-and-of-
itself that it feels like I have lost my vocabulary and my ability to
communicate.

There are so many degrees of polish -- the timeworn polish of a river-
rock and how it fits so sensually in the hand, the polish of a glass
countertop in the old hardware store that has had merchandise change
hands on its surface for sixty years, and the polish on that antique
'shooter' marble that has . . . well, you get the picture.

I see the advertisements in the trade magazines for the 'gloss-meter'
and cringe because it means the market has already to put a
quantitative value on polish, and it means the 'public' wants a
definitive and easy way to value the stone product. Sure, it is the
countertop and floors that are the main thrust of this tool, but like
anything else, it spills over into 'art' because most people don't
know anything about art but they know they like it shiny. The same
person who has gotten the antique chest of drawers from great aunt so-
and-so, and who cleans it up and refinishes it so it looks new, and
now they're on antiques roadshow and are about to be told how much it
would have been worth . . .

I guess I am making a plea to help educate the public (our audience -
or our market?) so they can appreciate some of the subtle little
nuances that make our work into poetry, and not just leave them at the
mercy of the art marketers whose only goal is to sell cheap doggerel
jingle and thus make a bigger commission.

As for me, well perhaps I have the luxury of being an unsuccessful
sculptor (certainly from the marketing standpoint) and working several
other jobs to pay the monthly bills. Because I don't try to make a
living directly from my art, I have the luxury of going into the
studio and exploring wherever my nose leads me. I know it is a
luxury, even while I complain I don't have enough time in the studio.

Good Carving to You,
Don

http://www.dondougan.homestead.com/indexdd.html