Articles
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NEW LIFE FOR MARBLE
SCULPTURE
by Doug Murphy - c2001
Through the ages, sculptures carved in marble have always
had the highest level of honor.
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Never in time have so many mediums been available
to the sculptor. The metals have all been mastered. They have been poured,
forged, welded, fabricated, lasered, blended, alloyed, immersed in various
forms of electrolysis and what next? The synthetic world offers options beyond
endless . . . and are they making any new rocks these days?!
It is marble that stops the heart, soothes the eyes
and awes the mind.
It is at times discussed, which are more permanent
- metals or marble. We need not look past Michael Angelo for the truth about
this. In his day, he did several bronze sculptures up to 2 1/2 times larger
than life. But you and I will never see their beauty because they have been
melted down . . . to make other things. Bronze is not permanent. Michael
Angelo's marble works are all we have today.
Marble demands respect. Marble
stands the test of time.
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Doug Scott - 2000 |
In America, bronze sculpture has emerged the leader
today . . . however . . . still the most casual observer is excited more by
marble.
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Doug
Scott's Robert E. Lee - 1998 |
In the old days, bronze came to be an inexpensive
way to make large, durable sculpture. Marble was the expensive way. The
lost-wax process was the first, and is still today, the best method for
creating bronze sculpture. A few materials have changed, especially in mold
making, but lost-wax is still the way it is done. It is a highly
labor-intensive, multi-step process that has turned into an expensive way to
make durable sculpture.
Our modern age of high labor and energy costs have
caused bronze sculpture to become expensive . . . this has opened a new wonderful
era for marble sculpture! Marble is surprisingly easy to purchase. Today's
efficient extraction methods, machinery and technology at the quarries have
kept prices reasonable. Modern tools for working marble are highly advanced.
They are fine quality and long-lasting. This allows the sculptor new freedom,
wonderful control and speed in their work.
Thus, a durable life-size or monumental sculpture
carved in marble can be as economical as bronze . . . New life is breathed into
marble sculpture.
Sculpture carved in marble still has the highest
level of honor . . . and thus the highest appraisal values.
Throughout the ages, it is marble that has stood
the test of time . . .
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Romancing The Stone
Sculptor Doug Scott
Uncovers The Grace In Hard Rock
by Gabby Lars - c1995
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Marble Dolphins, travertine
buffalos, onyx eagles . . . Grace makes first and lasting impression; impact is
compounded by an almost eerie animation
and uncanny lightness of being. Sculptor Doug Scott makes stone sing and dance.
In Taos Canyon on Highway 64 East, Scott's studio
combines a natural history museum's realism with the magic of marble dust and
oddly honky-tonk. Everything including the artist, shimmers with a silica-fine
coating. Here, carvings of beasts, birds, and leaping fish embody links between
man and nature, beholder and beheld, the incarnate and the invisible. Some of
the music a visitor hears may be real. On a funky old upright piano, Scott
often entertains his rock creatures and guests with "home cooked"
compositions. On the keyboard, as with his sculpting, he's irrepressible and
sure-fingered, heavy on the grace notes and reverberation.
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His art's "revved" effect - palpable vitality
- is due largely to Scott's loving respect for material and subjects. Scott
sees muscle and sinew, scales or hidehair, in every stria and grain of stone.
In a dolphin carving titled Catch The Waves, fossils in Taos black marble
emphasize the enigma and allure of the sea. All Scott's sculptures beg to be
touched; stroking this work, one easily imagines the thrill of proximity with
real ocean mammals.
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The real thing is what Scott's about, but his
unique brand of authenticity accommodates marvel and dreams. In a statement of
philosophy, he writes, "Pure earth is real . . . Strong is the urge to
share the beauties of the earth." What he knows about the earth, its
stones and creatures, is, well, a whole lot. "I love animals, and, yeah,
rocks," he says as if it goes without saying. And it does.
Scott works with wood and metal, too, but his
favorite medium is hard stone, like rhodonite and granite, rocks that require
abrasives and diamond cutters. He's even done what geologists called the
impossible - carved and sculpted fluorite. In his Fluorite Grayling, for
example, all translucence is enhanced to dazzling effect. "Parts of this
piece you can read right through," he says. Then, acknowledging the trout's
astute form and a hand net among his chisels, he adds, "Sculpting is an
obsession, but I do love to fish."
Widely admired for his work in Taos black marble,
Scott says, "I'm interested in every kind of marble. Belgian black
carrara, but marble found in the U.S. West is some of the best in the world . .
." Quickly, he locates a small piece of Picasso marble from Nevada.
"Isn't that beautiful?" he asks about a piece of rock made
unexceptional by the opaque dust that covers it. Noting our puzzlement, he
briskly wipes it clean. The rock's pinks and blacks are gorgeous, but we're
most impressed with Scott's eye. How it seems to see through all conditions to
beauty.
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Pointing to a carved marble eagle atop a buffalo
head, Scott says, "I never would of thought of that. The rock told me.
That's true of all my sculptures. I never tell the rock." Indeed this
work, Strength and Vision, does not look contrived or even, exactly, symbolic.
The detail and choreography appear so natural that one accepts the odd
coupling. As real as dreams.
For Scott, a career in art is a dream come true.
Raised on the Oregon coast, "we were poor," he says matter-of-factly.
"In fourth grade, I carved a couple of seals for show and tell and the
teacher expressed doubts - out loud to the class - that someone my age could
have done them." When his tears finally convinced her of his honesty, she
amends in genuine admiration. "That incident made a big, a very big
impression. Art was behind everything."
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"In high school and college, I was a
pole-vaulter. A lot of people thought I had a real talent, but an operation
ended my hopes. I think it took that heartbreak to settle me."
Still, because he felt a need to be a practical,
art remained a "doodle." To make a living, Scott was the first
commercial river outfitter in northern New Mexico. He's been a piano tuner and
some say he could be a professional musician. In all cases, he's vigorously
self-trained. Before he took up sculpting full-time (ten years ago), he was a
carpenter. "From one paycheck to the next, there was nothing left
over."
"It was my wife who challenged me to take up
my dream of carving even at the risk of real poverty. I couldn't have done it
without her."
Scott speaks of his family - wife, Vivian Sue, and
five children from infant to age thirteen - with devotion and rich enthusiasm
for their talents. "My kids are carving too. Great stuff, and it sells
out."
"What I like best about my work is selling
it." he says disarmingly. "If a piece doesn't sell it breaks my
heart. It's failed then."
Not much of that disappointment, we're happy to
say. Of the 300 sculptural works Scott's completed, only a few (very few at
this writing) remain to be purchased. At shows across the country, Scott's art
has set record sales. "I sell to people from all over, mostly private
collectors. Business has been good. My first museum sale is for the Roy Rogers
Museum in Victorville, California."
Almost completed, this sculpture, Happy Trails,
exhibits all Scott charisma and mastery. Described generally: Roy flirts with
Dale who acknowledges her affection with a playful pinch of his thigh.
"I'm really proud of them," Scott says, referring to his art and
theirs. "Fifty years of a good marriage is something worthy of notice."
Rogers and Evans have been heroes to Scott since
childhood. "My great uncle did horse-training for Roy . . . The marble I
used for this piece is 'rubble' from the Colorado marble columns used in 1928
for the Lincoln Memorial." Scott shows off what remains of the original
5000 pounds of white marble. The base alone will weigh one half ton when
completed. (Notably, Scott's bases are always an integral part of his
sculptures.) The entire piece will tip the scales at 2500 pounds.
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Just to conceive of such work daunts us, but Scott
makes it all - winching to polishing - sounds and look simple. His tools, by
the way, l include a collection of Swiss grinding wheels and cutters
("expensive," the artist says, "but worth it"),
"ordinary" files, and forged steel chisels handmade by a neighbor,
Jim Parker. (Ask for details of his process when you visit. Scott's as patient
in exposition as he is ardent in execution.)
For all its real weight, the sculpted Roy Rogers
and Dale Evans appear as if they could rise into the air - a sense that springs
from the figures' expressions of delight and Scott's facility with marble.
Though precise in anatomical observation, the artist has focused on a natural
ease of line, following, always, the stone's "voice."
"I've always wanted to do monumental works and
portraits," he says. "I've done human figures before, but this is the
first piece that is truly a portrait."
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Since last May, when he began Roy and Dale, Scott's
completed three other major works. His mind works in similar pace, and like his
art too, though unequivocally honest, Scott leaves much to the imagination.
"I make no purchase at the quarry until the stone's spoken to me," he
says. "I don't spend a lot of time seeking stone sources anymore. They
flow to me. Beautiful rocks find me."
Recently, Scott's begun to cast limited editions of
his work in marble dust. "These editions will allow more to afford my
work, where the original clay or wax forms are destroyed, Scott's stone
"model" will endure. "The original will remain
one-of-a-kind," he says. "And very valuable."
Original describes Doug Scott and his art.
Spontaneous and mysterious, down home and refined, poetic and practical.
"The other thing I like best about my work, "he says suddenly,
"is dreaming about the next piece."
Send questions and comments to art@dougscottart.com