I finally did it. After having a huge piece of soapstone waiting for me in the artstore shelf for eight or nine months I finally had the money and the intent to go in and purchase it this week. I have been carving alot of "small" sculptures this summer and needed to sink my teeth into something bigger. When I was 24 that something bigger was a five thousand pound block of marble(New Nazca Stone) and though here in Slummerville I am not set up to carve such a wee-big piece of Marble, I certainly can carve pieces up to a hundred pounds. Something happens to and inside me when I carve large. It is like clear providence into another dimension. I almost loose myself inside the confines of this medium that takes millions of years to be created in the earth's crust. So I went down stairs to the newer art store in "Mental" Central Square and grabbed the heavy piece from the shelf. After finding out they wanted two hundred for it and not the one-fifty I thought it was, I asked for a deal as one does with the purchase of a huge stone and they were very cool, I signed my credit card receipt and the total was one-hundred and seventy. I proceeded to walk up the stairs and out to the street right behind the t-stop and down past Pearl st. to my car with the big stone in my hands like a gravity challenged new-born. Several people looked at me like, "what the hell is that." I proceeded to put it down on a bench next to a person completely out of it, opened my trunk of my car parked on Mass have right before Hubba-hubba and plopped it in my trunk. Then fed the meter some more and ran into the Harvest for some salmon rolls.
Having the piece set up to work is very exciting. Current typing included, I find my self procastinating a little bit before I start. I think I just want to enjoy the piece a bit before I tear into it with my chisels. One note, this piece is the most talc piece of stone I have ever seen or worked on. Soapstone and Granite are silicates = Very harmful dust. I have a very good respirator I will be using. I am also happy/sad to say the work shouldn't take too long, do to how soft it is. In a purest way this is kind wimpy, carving a soft-stone, but faced with how much time it takes to carve something like marble, finish it and finally show it then maybe sell it, it is nice to work in softer stones as it doesn't become a life sentence of stone carving!
Thanks for reading and wish me luck........................ Peace and enjoy this great fall energy that is starting to envelop... *Scott.
