Slippery Rock Gazette

First Session: Fundamentals of Stonecarving –The English Tradition, with Guest Instructor Joseph Kincannon, Presented by Southwest Stonework

Kazutaka Uchida (back to camera) teaches an edge pitching class at the 2016 session.

In this workshop, students will learn carving techniques from guild certified master carver, Joseph Kincannon. 

This class is suitable for all levels of experience. Students will learn and practice the time-honored techniques and traditions passed down from master to apprentice for hundreds of years.  Joseph Kincannon is a product of that lineage, having spent five years as an apprentice carver at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, and then serving as the lead stonecarver there for an additional six years.  The workshop is structured around five main activities:  carving, demonstrations, video presentations, and individual instruction. The fifth component is the hearty lunch served each day. 

The scope of the workshop includes: basic geology of carving stone, tool selection and care, basic design considerations, basic layout (measuring) systems, roughing out, texturing, polishing, drilling, pinning, power tool use and safety (grinders, chainsaws, drills, pneumatic carving tools), lettering, rigging, and gold-leafing.

2017 Summer Session Two: East Meets West is offered August 12-18, 2017, with Matt Auvinen, Guest Instructor, and Kazutaka Uchida, Guest Artist.

This workshop will expose students to traditional and innovative Italian stonecarving techniques and approaches.  

This session is most appropriate for intermediate and advanced participants. Guest Instructor, Matt Auvinen, has spent more than twenty years in Italy - studying, carving and teaching.  

Matt worked for several stone carving ateliers in the Pietrasanta area, the epicenter of Italian stonecarving, where he learned and practiced stonecarving under the tutelage of master carvers perfecting the techniques that have been passed down from professional to apprentice for hundreds of years.  While in Italy, he became the sculpture instructor at Temple University Rome as well as a sculpture and drawing instructor at the Studio Arts Centers International in Florence.  Upon returning to the US, he became the 3D design instructor at Chico State University, in Chico, California, where he currently lives.

Matt has the ability to present what he has learned in an imaginative and interesting way, weaving the classical with the contemporary.  His extensive knowledge of the history of stone sculpture adds dimension to the class. 

Guest Artist, Kazutaka Uchida, from Tokyo, Japan, has been a sculptor for over forty years, and his work is in numerous museum collections worldwide.  He brings his unique Japanese aesthetic to participants through demonstrations and a slide presentation.

Tuition of $875 includes a generous piece of limestone, individual instruction, demonstrations, daily lunch, work space, air and electricity.

For additional information, see www.saxstonecarving.com or call 505-579-9179.