How the Creative Forces Aligned to Create “Eclipse” – My 500LB Grizzly Bear Stone Carving.
“Eclipse” was the first of three planned monumental sculptures I began in the summer of 2019. This particular piece actually began about a year and half earlier when I had spotted a large brucite boulder around 1400lb in the warehouse of my stone supplier neolithic stone company. At the time I wasn’t ready for doing a project that size and hoped perhaps I could carve it eventually when I could handle larger stones over 1000lb.
Earlier in the summer of 2019 I began discussions with Mountain Galleries about the possibility of teaming up to create 3 large pieces for their gallery. Mountain Galleries currently represents my artwork throughout their 4 locations across Canada.
After some talks the project was underway and the first stone I went after was this larger brucite boulder I spotted a year earlier. Luckily it was still available and I had it delivered, along with 2 others marble blocks to my studio in Squamish BC
I knew this massive dark-black, green boulder with bands of light lime green was to be the first project I would undertake. I had conceived this idea to create 3 large museum quality sculptures where I would push the level of intricacy and detail, aiming to create something that would last, and stand the test of time. Committing 2 months to creating a sculpture is a substantial amount of time and so for me it makes sense to really get the most out it and to create the best piece possible. Its quite interesting to consider that I could realistically only create around 4 or 5 pieces like this a year. That’s not a lot of pieces when you compare that to a society and world system that lives and breathes mass production. With this piece, instead of creating a lot of work with less detail like many mass produced items, my aim was to go deeper into the piece, adding more detail and refining the form more specifically.
And so I began putting in some of the first cuts on eclipse.
This early stage is quite enjoyable as the stone quickly begins to take the form of the subject you are carving, in this case a large grizzly bear. Right before your eyes the stone transforms from an undefined boulder into a bear that strangely already begins to take on a personality. A personality that shifts, and changes throughout the carving process. In this sense the stone, the piece, the subject, the creation, IS ALIVE!
It took about a day to actually position the stone how I wanted it. When you carve a uniquely shaped boulder, there are usually a few different angles that could work and my first job is to decide on one of those angles/positions that I think is going to work best for my subject. In this case I found a position that aligned well with the shape of the bear I was wanting to carve. Once the stone was in place I began carving away the first layer of stone just to see what was underneath and see if there would be any cracks or problem areas. During this phase I also noticed this unique pattern in the stone and began aligning my design to utilize some of this unique coloration of the stone.
Through the years I have developed the methodology “letting the stone do what it’s going to do” this mostly regarding the coloration of the stone. I have found ways to utilize the unique colorations in stone to support and enhance my design but also just letting it do what it’s going to do, and in this allowing for some unexpected events to occur or surprises, if you will, when it comes to the unique color of the final form.
I have always worked in a way that “keeps me on my toes” where I have aimed to strike a balance between the relationship of control vs letting go. Encountering the unexpected during the creative process where things happen that you could have never planned for, to me, makes the piece ALIVE and in the end adds an interesting quality and energy to the final expression. Allowing for unexpected things to happen is a way of working WITH the stone in a kind of collaboration rather than just trying to control it and getting it to do what you want.
I noticed with “Eclipse” there was this perfect split happening when it came to color right through the center of the face, and so “I went with it” I thought if I worked with the color in this instance it could provide an interesting quality or symbolic element to the piece with half the face dark black and half the face vibrant lime green.
Ultimately this is in part why I decided to title the piece “Eclipse” because you have that half light and half shadow affect happening like when you have an eclipse.
This piece also represented a turning point for me in my artistic career. With my carvings in particular this project I was undertaking would be my most monumental to date and so I felt like there was more at play to the events that allowed this project to emerge. An eclipse is rare event and requires a specific alignment of planetary bodies moving with an almost mysterious mathematical depth and purpose. I felt the title “Eclipse” embodied these deeper existential dimensions. It was like all the sculptures I had done before were coming together to contribute to the creation of this new major project I was working on and so the title I chose for this piece embodied these deeper movements and events I was contemplating.
As I continued to carve I gave myself permission to slow down and spend the time necessary to achieve the level of detail, accuracy, and articulation I wanted for this project, I moved myself to work at the very edge of my ability so to create something that in the end will have some substance and stand the test of time and that will add value, interest, depth and expansion to the history of art and to the environment it will finally live within.
At one point as I got closer to the base I was going back and forth on whether or not to add a salmon, one of the grizzly bears primary food sources, into the piece which would definitely add a few more days of work. Initially I reasoned with myself to leave it out and just ‘keep it simple’ however I eventually decided to include the salmon as a way to add more of a storyline to artwork. I am grateful I did as I find it added a lot of value to the piece and ultimately made it a more dynamic design!
In doing these pieces larger than I was before, I can now include more detail, and in the case of this piece, I could really refine the shapes and forms and depths in the face to bring through a more lively and what turned out to a more intense expression. An intensity that equals the intensity of the coloration of the stone with the distinct contrast between dark green/black and vibrant lime green. Intensity is one of the most dominant words embodied in “Eclipse”. This makes sense because LIFE is intense.
Sanding and polishing was one of the final processes and that is when I could really start to see how the color was going to be. This is when the title really started to come through. Its quite fascinating to polish stone. I find with so many stones I work with, as you polish them and the color starts to reveal itself, its like looking into an infinite universe and this one was no exception. You had the deep black space with the lime green bands floating within it where its like your looking into and through a vast galaxy and so I eventually locked into the title of “Eclipse”.
The last thing I did was find a red cedar stump which I sanded down and utilized as the base for “eclipse” to stand on. I was quite happy with how these two very different natural materials came together and worked seamlessly.
I hope you enjoyed hearing about some of the more personal parts of the creative process and how the sculpture eclipse came to be.
If you would like to learn more about where you can collect my original sculptures feel free to email me at andrewgable@hotmail.com. I am always happy to provide any information and details about my available work. You can also contact Mountain Galleries who currently has many of my original pieces available in their collection.
VIEW “ECLIPSE” GALLERY HERE
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