local sculptor participating in Minnesota Rocks!

[Bill Smith <besmith@zzzzzzzzzzzzzz>]

This link is to an article in my local paper about a participant in the
upcoming
Minnesota Rocks! symposium. I put the text below, because the link may only
be free for a few more days. Unfortunately, the paper had photos that the
online article isn't showing.

http://www.bemidjipioneer.com/articles/index.cfm?id=795

Local sculptor chosen for summer carving symposium in Twin Cities
Molly Miron Bemidji Pioneer
Published Sunday, April 02, 2006

When Dewy Goodwin was a teenager, he tried his hand at stone carving. "I
started carving pipestone and just took to it. I was 17," he said. "From
there, it started escalating."

After a stint at the Santa Fe Institute of American Indian Arts, Goodwin
developed his style of sculpting to bring the forms and movement of
animals and the spirits of people out of blocks of stone.

"Things that people can relate to," Goodwin said. "My concept is the
less I can take off the stone to come out with the image. That's my
objective, to bring out the spirit and the image. That's what I do."

Goodwin, a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, former Bemidji High
School teacher and currently on the faculty at Leech Lake Tribal
College, has worked on many commissions over the years. But this summer
he will take on a major new challenge. He will create a life-size
sculpture as part of Minnesota Rocks! — the International Stone Carving
Symposium May 22-June 30 on the lawn of Saint Paul College, at the
intersection of Summit Avenue and Kellogg Boulevard. He is among 14
international artists commissioned to create works from Minnesota stone
for public places in the Twin Cities.

The stone will be donated by Minnesota quarries — dolomitic limestone
 from Vetter Stone Co.; Kasota limestone from Mankato-Kasota Stone Co.;
granite from Cold Spring Granite Co.; Oneota dolomite from Biesanz Stone
Co.; and stromatolite from Cliff's Natural Stone.
Chisels out a sculpture
"Basically, I've found you've got hard stone, medium stone and soft
stone," Goodwin said. He said he orders mixed batches of stone chunks by
the half-tone load at 25 cents per pound.

In addition to the commission and donated stone, the artists will
receive tools donated by the Granite City Tool Co., and a 36-by-36-foot
space to work on their large pieces and display their other creations.

"They have so many tools, the half of them I don't know what they are,"
Goodwin said. "You got to step up when you do big pieces. You can't fool
around with small grinders."

Goodwin said most of the 14 sculptors chosen for the symposium from
Mexico, Germany, Japan, Zimbabwe, China, Finland, Egypt, Italy and
Minnesota will create abstract art. His design, however, will follow his
technique of bringing living spirits out of the rock. He has sketched a
figure of a grandmother, modeled after his wife, Bambi, holding their
16-month-old granddaughter, Aianna, in a blanket embrace, with their
3-year-old grandson, Little Seth, hugging his grandmother's knees.
Later, he will form a clay model.

"I have two grandchildren we're really close to," Goodwin said. "I think
it will be very unique to the other carvers. I have to simplify it
because I only have six weeks. It's going to be a new experience and
it's going to be a pretty big work."

Christine Podas-Larson, president of Public Art St. Paul, said the
artists are committed to international friendship and to showing how the
language of art can transcend cultural differences. The first Stone
Carving Symposium was held in 1959 in Austria. The St. Paul carving site
will be open to the public from noon to 8 p.m. daily.

Goodwin said he hopes to build a studio in a barn on his property, but
he has always worked outdoors, or in the doorway to his horse barn.

"I'm an avid horseman. I've been around horses all my life," he said.
His children are also part of the world of horses: son, Niki, is a
jockey who will be riding at Churchill Downs during Goodwin's symposium;
and daughters, Neah and Chamisa, are exercise girls for various racing
stables.

Horses, bison and eagles are strong themes in Goodwin's work. He also
encourages people to experience his work up close and personal. There
are never "No touch" signs at his exhibits.

"I don't feel that way. I put that one on the floor and the kids used to
play with it, sit on it," he said of a resting bison. "A sculpture is
supposed to be touched. You go up and feel the texture. The grandkids
love to hug them."
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