Page 30 - Demo

30|April 2020
Inheriting the Past and
one year at a time, trusting that a momentum has built up that will withstand the test of time and that what we have begun will continue to educate and reveal the beauty and worth of stone work, carving, and sculpture.
What makes a workshop suc- cessful? First and foremost, we learn from our instructors. Over the past 20 years we have been privileged to welcome some of the best stone carvers in the world, in- cluding Kazutaka Uchida, Karin
giving the class a life of its own while keeping it small enough for each student to receive personal attention and interaction. By the end of the seven-day experience, everyone knows one another by name and by the project they are working on, and many connect as friends beyond the class, sharing information and experience. We learn from each other.
Everyone brings to the work- shop their special talents, and we make sure that everyone has
Slippery rock GAzette
comfortable separation of those who want to carve with hand tools from those who want to use power tools. Every year, we have taken and followed suggestions from our staff and students to make the classes better and better, not un- like stacking stone upon stone.
At the core of what we offer is the understanding that everyone who comes has a dream, and that it is our job to help them realize that dream by providing all of the information and guidance we can
Probing the Future
This Spring, the Sax Stone Carving Workshop in northern New Mexico is celebrating 20 years of training and encouraging stone carvers.
As my wife/partner in this en- deavor and I sit at the dinner table planning this year’s classes, we have also been talking about the instructors and participants we have come to know over these twenty years. Many have become good friends and loyal supporters of the workshop, a family of sorts. Some participants have even gone on to have careers in the stone trades as carvers, stonemasons, or sculptors.
A landmark moment such as this inevitably also brings to mind the question of how long things last. Is twenty years a long time? It de- pends on what you compare it to. For some things, like the age of the earth (4 billion) or the duration of the pyramids (25 centuries), 20 years is a mere grain of sand. Even the Arctic whale lives to be 200, while the bristlecone pine may thrive for an unthinkable 5,000 years. But then again, the aver- age electric dryer lasts a measly 12 years, which is, coincidentally, about the life span of a goat. A freezer may continue working effi- ciently for a decade and a half, and a gas range barely outlasts a high school graduate.
We hope, of course, that what we have created will outlast us, and that young, dedicated carvers will see fit to carry the program into the future. We continue to take it
Mark Saxe
Special Contributor Photos Courtesy John T. Denne, Morgan Dummit, Patrick Halloran, and Jessi Cole Eaton
Morgan Dummitt uses the pointing machine during the 2018 workshop.
Sprague, Patrick Plunkett, Kelly Jamison, Joseph Kincannon, DJ Garrity, Nicholas Fairplay, Gary Haven Smith, Frank Haufe, Fred X. Brownstein, and Matt Auvinen. From them, the learn- ing branches out, not unlike the roots of that bristlecone pine. Dedicated staff, an organized cur- riculum, good equipment, an in- spiring setting in which to work, quality stone, the experience of being in a professional and active stone carving studio, delicious food – all of these factors contrib- ute to a meaningful experience.
We have found that 18 stu- dents is our optimum class size,
a chance to share them. Our stu- dents include doctors, nurses, teachers, lawyers, architects, geologists, hydrologists, rocket scientists, artists, plumbers, stone- masons, archeologists, flight at- tendants, photographers, jewelers, managers, students, city planners, historians, designers, and the list goes on. It is amazing to see how much knowledge is brought to bear during the class.
So needless to say, over the years, we have learned a few things! We know, just as one example, to prepare two zones, a quiet zone and a dusty, noisy zone, allowing for the
in a seven-day span. This includes teaching safety considerations, then helping each student choose the right stone and the right tools, teaching them how to care for and use those tools, how to plan, rough out, split, carve, texture, polish. We also have lessons in pneumatic and electric tools, rig- ging, lettering, gold leafing, and so on. Some of our repeat students have gained such proficiency as to lead some of these demonstrations themselves.
Adding to the overall experience is an extensive library of books on stone and sculpture.
Please turn to page 31
Jessi Cole carves with a pneumatic tool on her free-form sculpture at the 2019 Sax Stone Workshop.
Patrick Halloran working on his angel, an advanced project that extended over the course of several classes.