Portfolio Piece: Stone Head
Over one of my summers I was given a scholarship to work with a stone sculptor from Zimbabwe. I hopped on the opportunity and found working in stone incredibly satisfying. The mass of the material, its permanence, and the amount of work that goes into shaping it gave me a sense of satisfaction not found with many other materials. Being my first stone piece, the decision to create a face was a combination of looking at the material on hand and the forms that could be readily created with them and a recent fascination with faces. Looking at the unshaped stones that were accessible for the class, I was reminded of Hiyoihoi, a character from the GameBoy game Super Mario Land. This combined with it being my first piece in stone, I didn't decisively go into making this piece with a 100% sound idea other that wanting to make a slightly curved faced. In a certain respect, I was still experimenting with the materials going into making the piece. The excess material I had to remove gave me a good opportunity to get a good feel for how the stone would respond to the chisel and hammer. In terms of the concept of the piece, it is lacking of meaning or insight of any idea and primarily just aesthetic.
Medium: Serpentine Stone
Fabrication Method: Carved with Hammer and Chisel.
Physical Dimensions: Width: 8", Length: 10", Height: 12".
Year: 2005.
