Move Along

How is stone carving like watercolor painting? They are both reductive processes. You can take it away but you cannot put it back. With watercolor, it is the white of the paper that is taken away while with stone carving it is the stone itself that is removed. These media require the same discipline.   It is the ability to project a line of development that does not change course.  For someone that is ADD and prone to indecision, these media are highly instructive and challenging.  We either end up with an obscure and confusing mess or a pile of gravel.

Move Along had a central premise, that is to expand the form from the inside even as the stone is carved away from the outside.  It is a process of visualization in which every strike with the chisel and hammer is bringing the hidden form within closer to the surface. It may in fact be removing material, but conceptually it is the inflation of a form. It is similar with a sense of movement. The stone is slowly being put into motion.  Stroke by stroke the stone is being told to move along.  It is being willed to move.  Of course, it is and always will be a static piece of rock, but the consistent application of an intention does make a difference.  Try thinking of it as the wind blowing against a stand of trees. Eventually, they will bend and stay bent even though it is only the air that is moving. Art is an expression of will, but the will has to be strong.