Pietrasanto/ Cararra

[Norman Watts <Norman_Watts@zzzzzzz>]

Hello Clive,

I was there a few weeks ago and I wished I had posted your question
before I went. Mind you, I only had a day, but I did get to poke into
one workshop in Pietrasanta and talk to one of the sculptors working
there. He happened to be an American, a semi-retired sculptor who had
been sailing here and there around the world with his wife and was now,
he said, doing work for a while for the more well known sculptor who
ran the place. It seemed an enviable situation. Mostly though I wished
I'd had the time to find out how to get up into the mountains right
behind town to see the marble quarries. There they were, wreathed in
clouds and mist and magic, and I was going away.

The most bizarre thing I saw in the workshop was an almost finished
marble sculpture of a young woman seated on the floor. To my untrained
eye it was very life like, with perfect facial features and well
proportioned limbs. The odd part was the expression on her face and the
handgun she was holding loosely in her hand. To me, the contrast in
medium, style and theme was almost shocking. Apparently it was the work
of a British woman, but she wasn't around to tell me about it.

n

Norman Watts, Ph. D.
National Institutes of Health
50 South Drive, Rm. 1509
Bethesda, MD 20892-8025
Phone: (301) 402-3418
Fax: (301) 480-7629