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| Steve Shaheen checking measurements on model |
I will
forever count myself fortunate for the honor of working alongside a man like
Steve Shaheen. He is simply brilliant,
an inspiration both in capacity and in character! And he seemed perfectly suited to be my
mentor, being uniquely qualified in his knowledge of both the stone and the
figure. His artistic expertise,
razor-sharp intellect, and physical stamina all seemed limitless in his
devotion to my project. And a good thing
too, for the task demanded it.
As every
move in stone requires cognizance on many levels, focusing on one thing likely
meant I was oblivious to something else just as crucial. I continually marveled at how aware Steve
always was of things that separately would demand single-mindedness, but
together hardly seemed manageable for just one brain. I often felt like a clumsy halfwit by
comparison. Even with the intricacies of
the sculpted model, which I myself had created (and not on mere whim, mind
you), he always seemed to be thinking two steps ahead of me. I was in an unforgiving world that employs a
multiplicity of tools and skills—most of which were totally
foreign to me. But I quickly realized,
ignoramus not withstanding, I couldn’t be in better hands.
Time
after time I went from alarmed to amazed as Steve would demonstrate a deep saw
cut with absolute precision. I simply
can’t fathom how he’d repeatedly come within centimeters (I mean like 2 cm) of
the target depth while freehand cutting large portions of the stone we hadn’t yet measured. Even
if you credit him with lifelong experience with the tools and the methods,
Steve pulls off mind-boggling feats that can only be attributed to sheer
inspiration and artistic genius.
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| The front side roughed out |
Stone
carving demands the head to be not only filled with Olympian-level thoughts,
but also dripping with Herculean-like sweat.
It combines intellectual and aesthetic sensibilities with physical rigor
in a way I'd never experienced. This is
not the work of a civilized painter, as I'd been accustomed, sitting in a
cushioned office chair, dabbling with slender brushes while swaying to
classical music in an air-conditioned studio. It felt I had gone from court
painter to quarry slave.
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| Standing with the marble and model |
Nothing
under the Tuscan sun felt cool except the chips of marble flicking against my
sun burnt face. Whatever pieces were too
small to leave a mark, clung defiantly to my sweaty skin. The resulting white paste will likely never
catch on in the cosmetic industry, but there's something poetic about the
mixture of sweat and marble dust, the remnants of the artist's material
mingling with the remnants of the artist's exertion.
There is
also something beautiful in seeing the body covered in the effects of its
labor, the white powder and chips indicating a history of effort, of
struggle. The sculptor can then be
interpreted as one might a work of art, like the marks on a painting that
connote its creative journey.
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| The torso finally standing upright |
The
nature of stone is such that it will only conform to the artist's will by
forceful coercion. No matter the tool
used, the stone will in turn leave its mark upon the artist. As two colliding
forces, the stubbornness of stone and the determination of the artist, they
both are changed by this intense, even violent, form of creative destruction.
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| Using the pneumatic hammer on the front side |
Even with
modern tools, the artist is not above the stone’s
rebuttals. I think it may have been the
vindictive Gods of Carrara who inspired the advent of the pneumatic hammer,
designed to give an equal beating to the hands as it gives to stone.
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| One of many corridors at Staglieno Cemetery |
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| Guiliano Monteverde’s famous Angel of the Resurrection |
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| An extraordinary example of marble defying conventional limits |
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| Close-ups of incredible carving details |
On
Sunday, my day off, we took a trip to Genova to visit the Staglieno Cemetery,
an absolute treasure trove of marble funerary sculpture. Mostly done in the 19th century, there were
countless examples of superb craftsmanship, a collective monument to the
stunning possibilities of marble. I was
like a little kid visiting the Louvre on the excitement of his first coloring
book, wholly unprepared for the enormity of the world that I’d just entered.
Leaving there I felt dizzy, my brain bursting from such a ferocious binge
of the eyes. There I was, sitting
awestruck on the floor of an outstanding tradition, staring up at a very high
ceiling.
Pen & Ink Skeches
from Staglieno Cemetery
Check back here for more of Joseph's reflections on his residency and first experience working with stone.
Did you miss Joseph's other posts on his experience in Carrara? Read Carrara: The Impossible Dream and Carrara Part II: Initiation into an Ancient Tradition.
Did you miss Joseph's other posts on his experience in Carrara? Read Carrara: The Impossible Dream and Carrara Part II: Initiation into an Ancient Tradition.
