Smile!

Sculpture by Ellen Woodbury

Portuguese Pink Marble on Granite

19 x 14 x 10 inches

Completed March, 2013

Fantasy and humor have always been a large part of my reality--I don't think I could exist without either of them.  My sculptures take on a unique personality and a life of their own about half way through the creative process, something clicks and they're real.  My animated characters became real in a similar way.  For me, this is what makes being an artist so much fun.

I think I was born loving cats.  I became a cat-owner at the age of 7, and have been one ever since.  Domestic, wild, or fantastic, they all have the same fascinating blend of power and appeal that makes me want to share my life with them.  The Cheshire Cat is thought to have originated as a smiling cat on a pub sign in Cheshire, England.  I first met him in Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland, again in the Disney animated version of those stories, and most recently in the Tim Burton film.  I love them all, and had to make my own version.  The Cheshire Cat is quoted as saying, "You may have noticed that I'm not all there  . . . "  I used this line as the inspiration for my sculpture and as a goal to create a cat in the process of disappearing.

The stone is Portuguese Pink marble.  This particular block has green vein, which struck me as absolutely wild!  What better stone from which to carve a fantastic cat?  The marble is very dense and hard--finishing was a real finger-buster (I still have calluses from sanding) but so worth the effort.  The feel is very rich and substantial, quite different from the feel of a softer stone.  I wish I could show you the back view of this sculpture--the design is surprising and fun.  I make it a rule never to publish two views of a piece as this makes it easier to steal and copy the design.  So, I can only tease you . . . but I promise that if you like the front, you'll love the back.

All images and text copyright 2013 by Ellen Woodbury
Photo by Mel Schockner.

Solo

(Belted Kingfisher)

Sculpture by Ellen Woodbury

Blue Onyx on Limestone and Marble

26 x 7 x 8 inches

Completed February, 2013

I titled this sculpture "Solo" both for the solitary nature of the Belted Kingfisher, and for its distinctive call.  One usually hears the kingfisher long before spotting it along a riverbank or lakeshore.  The limestone tree-form, with its many vugs (porosities) and inclusions, is reminiscent of the dead trees found along the banks where kingfishers customarily perch while scanning the water for fish.  Once a fish is spotted, the kingfisher flies out and plunges head first into the water to catch it--like a freshwater pelican.  

I find the distinctive silhouette of the kingfisher to be most appealing, easily recognized, and unique in its proportions--stocky compact body, what appears to be a large head (due to the long feathers in its crest), and long prominent beak. The shapes themselves are interesting to me--one does not think of birds as having such large heads and squatty bodies.   If form follows function, perhaps repeated collisions with the surface of the water may have prompted the kingfisher to evolve a substantial upper body to absorb the impact of repeated dives.  For me, it is a gutsy little bird with the audacity to plunge headfirst from a significant height into a river or lake for a routine meal.  The fantastic must be commonplace in the life of the kingfisher.

Blue onyx is a semi-precious gemstone only recently discovered, and known to exist in only one location 10,000 feet up in the Peruvian Andes.  I have carved blue onyx quite a few times and, although it is a tricky stone to carve, I find it worth the extra care as the color is irresistible.  The stone itself is somewhat translucent and has a deepness to it, like looking into time.  It breaks and reforms over hundreds of millions of years creating areas of different greens and blues, minerals seep in and leave their telltale petrified brown lines. It is an ancient undecipherable code of the history of the stone. Humbling, not unlike standing under a Coastal Redwood.  I think this is much of the allure of sculpting in stone for me.  I will call it geologic serendipity--events happen over millennia at an extremely slow pace, and I find them in the stones I carve.  I am witness to the result, though not the process, and this gives me a thoughtful perspective on existence.

All images and text copyright 2013 by Ellen Woodbury.  Photos by Mel Schockner.                                              

At Home with the Water Shrew

Sculpture by Ellen Woodbury

Mongolian Imperial Black Marble and Blue-green Onyx on Granite

11 X 13 X 8 inches

Completed January, 2013

My husband, Brian, gave me a book on Colorado Mammals for my birthday.  He remarked, “You won’t believe the animal on page 67.”  Wow.  He was right, and I was captivated.

The water shrew is the smallest known aquatic mammal, measuring 6 inches from tip of snout to tip of tail.  Water shrews are found in many places in the world—Montana, Tennessee, China . . .  In Colorado, the water shrew lives at elevations between 6,000 and 10,000 feet in the Rockies along rivers, streams, ponds, and marshes.  Fly fishermen may know the water shrew as “the swimming mouse.”  It is completely carnivorous and eats small fish, crustaceans, and aquatic insect nymphs.  The unlucky water shrew is also food for larger fish. 

The water shrew does not hibernate in the winter and grows a very thick fur coat for insulation against cold weather and cold water.  Many aquatic animals lower their body temperatures when diving into cold water (the leatherback sea turtle is one). Water shrews raise their body temperatures significantly before diving for their food, and their dives last only a couple of seconds.  They have bristles between their toes and partially webbed hind feet which allow them to run across the surface of the water for distances up to 5 feet.  Remarkable! 

The stone is Mongolian Imperial Black Marble—carbon bonds with sulfur in the formation of this stone, so the actual cutting of the stone smells like swamp gas (the completed sculpture does not smell).   The stone is a lovely medium hardness that holds detail and is mostly dependable and predictable.  It polishes to a gorgeous high shine with black rouge (which takes the surface to 10,000 grit) and yields a lovely soft gray when polished to 60-grit and textured.  I also achieved a medium-dark gray at 600–grit for the snail shell.  The “water stone” is Blue-green Onyx, a semi-precious gemstone, only known to exist in one quarry 10,000 feet up in the Peruvian Andes.  This stone is extremely tricky to carve and must be handled with care.  However, it is worth the extra effort as the colors are outrageous. 

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The sculpture show in August, Sculpture in the Park, was another success this year.  Thank you to all the friends who stopped by to see my work and chat.  It was great to see you!  Thanks for mentioning the blog—I am very pleased you enjoy reading it!

I am including a few shots of my new studio, built on the patio slab in the backyard this past summer.  It was completed in September and immediately coated in black dust from the water shrew’s black marble.  (Sigh.)  The space is about 16 x 18 feet and is working out great.  There are 2 doors, the main one on the patio, and a loading door with a concrete ramp on the opposite side for bringing in large stones.  There are 2 small windows and 2 skylights.  There are 2 layers of sound-proofing material in the walls to contain the noise, and my compressor breathes outside air through an exterior air filter.  Sweet!

New studio on the patio slab.

Back entrance for big stones.

Interior view from main door.

View from back to front door.

Me at work.  The flash highlighted the dust in the air--it really wasn't that bad.

All images and text Copyright 2013 by Ellen Woodbury

Water Shrew photo by Mel Schockner.

Studio photos by Ellen Woodbury.

Two Hearts, One Song

(Mountain Bluebirds) 

Sculpture by Ellen Woodbury

Blue Onyx on Sivec Marble and Travertine 

17 x 9 x 6 inches 

Completed August, 2012

My husband and I recently celebrated our 30^th wedding anniversary, so this is my sculptural tribute to love.   I never thought I would make a monument to love, but I surprise myself.  The past 30 years have been an awesome adventure!

I grew up with the Eastern Bluebird in upstate New York (the state bird.)  I met the Western Bluebird when I lived in California for 23 years.  Now I have the pleasure of the Mountain Bluebird in Colorado.  Seeing bluebirds is a comfort, an instant tension release.  The pressures and concerns of the day fall away in great cascades when I see them.  (The sliver moon, both new and old, has the same effect.)  I can’t explain it, I just feel so much better in the company of these visions.

The bluebirds are carved from Andean Blue onyx, a semi-precious gemstone known to exist only in one place on earth:  13,000 feet up in the Andes Mountains.  (I had thought the quarry was located in the Patagonian Mountains, but this is not the case.)  The stone is both clear and clouded and one can peer inside to see transparent layers of blues and greens—it is a deep vision, like looking through time.   Blue Onyx is very tricky to carve as it can break on all the color changes.  One never really knows how much pressure can be applied to the stone before it will come apart.  Mysterious in many ways.

Color is a fun aspect of my work, and I enjoy combining stones that compliment each other.  The birds perch on an abstract tree-form carved from Sivec Marble from Greece.  This marble is fantastic to carve—very trustworthy, and the crystal is beautiful when finished to a very low grit (like 120).  There is no bedding plane, so the stone is hard and strong in all directions.  There is no vein in Sivec so it provides a perfect stage for the opulent bluebirds.   White marble bends light and shadow, blue onyx absorbs it.

Many thanks to Brian, my husband, for acting as drill assistant--five pin holes and much creative problem-solving--one of my more challenging assemblies.

Comfort, beauty, mystery, fun, contrast, dependability, teamwork—I guess that begins to define love for me.

All text and images copyright 2012 by Ellen Woodbury

Photo by Mel Schockner

The Untypical Owl

Sculpture by Ellen Woodbury

18 ½ x 10 x 8 inches

Amarillo Negrais Marble and

Mongolian Imperial Black Marble

on Granite

Completed June, 2012

All owls (except barn owls) are classified in the genus Strigidae and are called typical owls.  Barn owls are classified in the genus Tytonidae.  The only difference I was able to find between the two genera is that all the typical owls hoot and barn owls do not.  (Barn owls make an enormous variety of sounds, but hooting is not part of their repertoire.)  There are about 16 species of barn owl, and they live on every continent in the world except Antarctica.  We have one species in North America, Tyto alba.

This sculpture was inspired by the untypical story of a young biologist who raised a 4-day-old barn owl and cared for it for 19 years.  The book is Wesley the Owl, written by Stacey O’Brien—a great read if you enjoy animal stories.  A close friendship with an animal is a profound experience and enriches one’s life.  The Untypical Owl is a celebration of the deep bond that can happen between people and animals, wild or domestic.

The Untypical Owl is composed of simple, mostly geometric shapes (like animated characters.)  Barn owls are covered in a huge layer of dry, fluffy, light feathers.  Under these feathers their forms are very complex.  The skull of the barn owl is fairly small and most of the skull is eye sockets and beak.  The eyes are huge—so big there is no room for eyeball muscles.  (This is why owls move their heads so much—they can’t move their eyeballs.)  The beak is huge—so big the owl can swallow a mouse whole.  All we see of the beak is the tiny tip, the rest is hidden in feathers.  Barn owl wing feathers are huge and cover up the tail when the wings are folded.  Barn owl legs are very, very long because they need to reach down into tall grass to catch mice.  In the pose of this sculpture it looks like the owl has short legs.  In reality, we see the talons and the long legs are engulfed in feathers.  Think of the pose of the owl as if a person were crouching down on his toes.  The foot bones extend behind (this is the slanted leg shape seen in the sculpture), the lower leg bones extend forward to the knees which are about where we think we are seeing the chest of the owl, the thighs extend back, and the pelvis, rib cage and neck are all in the upper third of the body silhouette.

The stone is Amarillo Negrais  (dark yellow) marble from Portugal, an outrageous blend of yellows that looks sort of like partially mixed corn bread. (Food analogies work well for me.)  One must work very hard for this beauty.  The thin veins of dark color are particularly soft and have a tendency to want to come apart.  The basic yellow part of the stone is so hard it stripped the diamonds from my cutting blade.  Carving was an adventure as the stone is quite brittle and cannot withstand a great deal of vibration--lots of flying shards.  Finishing was another adventure as the white and lighter yellow areas are extremely hard and required a lot of pressure in sanding and the darker areas needed almost no pressure.  Happily, by the time I was finished with the sanding I had figured out many ways to recognize and accommodate the different hardnesses in the stone.  Discovering its secrets makes me love the stone (and the sculpture) even more.  The dark yellow is polished stone, the light areas are raw stone.

Now I am racing to finish one last sculpture for Sculpture in the Park, the juried summer show held here in Loveland each August.  Show dates are August 11 and 12 and I will be in Tent D this year.  Please stop by my booth to say ‘hello’ if you happen to be in Northern Colorado that weekend.  I love chatting with sculpture fans and friends.

All text and photos Copyright 2012 by Ellen Woodbury

Photo by Mel Schockner

Chat Tacheté

 Sculpture by Ellen Woodbury

13 x 7 ½ x 7 ½ inches

Black Campan Marble on Granite

Completed June, 2012

This sculpture was inspired by my tuxedo cat, Moonface.  She had several health challenges this year and was uncommonly brave and trusting throughout the long ordeal.  The title is French for Speckled Cat, and though Moonface is neither  speckled nor French, the lively stone fits her playful personality.  The marble is French.

I carved Campan Verde, the green and white cousin of Black Campan, last summer when I made The Last Dinosaur (leatherback sea turtle).  Both of these marbles come from the same quarry in France and have the same graphic pattern but very different colors.  This is a pretty wild concept if you think abut it.  What geologic factors caused both kinds of marble to be speckled in the same way, but with different colored spots and binders?

I found Black Campan much trickier to carve than Verde.  Think of it as a block made of mortar and bricks where the black matrix is the mortar and the pink and white spots are the bricks.  When cut, it fragments in any direction and the shards are very sharp, like broken glass.  Edges are quite susceptible to chipping and have to be handled with great care.  That said, the color is worth the effort.  The detail does not emerge until sanding is well under way—around 220 grit you begin to see variations in the pink and white spots.  By 2,000 grit there are hints of green and yellow, with reddish veins running through the colored spots. 

My next sculpture is a barn owl carved from a dark yellow marble from Portugal, a new stone for me.  I am filing and sanding the piece right now, and I do think it will turn out well!  I love this stage of the process where all the questions are answered and the beauty in the stone is revealed.  I'll have it ready for you in a couple of weeks!


All images and text Copyright 2012 by Ellen Woodbury
Photo by Mel Schockner

She Who Stands and Waits

Sculpture by 

Ellen Woodbury

Sivec Marble on Marble 11 x 5 x 5 inches

Completed May, 2012

The title of this sculpture is a derivation of the last line in the poem, “On His Blindness,” by John Milton—“They also serve who only stand and wait.”  Milton was contemplating his feelings of usefulness after going blind.  I take the line in the context of the poem to mean that each being has his/her own validity in life simply through the fact of existence.  We all have the right to be here. 

True patience is not one of my natural abilities.  Many of my friends see what I do as an animator and as a stone sculptor as requiring massive amounts of patience.  It is not patience that allows me to create intricate work at a snail’s pace.  All that creation-time is spent enjoying the process, envisioning the final artwork, and daydreaming about the next sculpture I will make.  

I do stand and wait for validation.  Each year I apply to several national art shows and I wait (sort of) patiently for the jury results.  This year my wait was rewarded when White Lightning (see ermine below) was accepted into the Society of Animal Artists’ 52^nd Annual Exhibition on Art and the Animal.  My first time in this prestigious venue, and I am absolutely delighted!  The show is at the Hiram Blauvelt Art Museum in Oradell, New Jersey, and will run from September 1 through December 31, 2012. 

In other news, my outdoor sculpture, “See Through Other Eyes:  Spotted Owl,” was recently installed in Highlands Ranch, CO, for June 2012-2013.  The owl is beautifully displayed in front of the Highlands Ranch Library, which is part of a gorgeous municipal park with gardens and recreational fountains (in which one can cavort if one so chooses.)

White Lightning
sculpture by Ellen Woodbury

See Through Other Eyes:  Spotted Owl
sculpture by Ellen Woodbury

See Through Other Eyes:  Spotted Owl
in front of the Highlands Ranch Public Library
Highlands Ranch, CO

All images and text Copyright 2012 by Ellen Woodbury
She Who Stands and Waits, White Lightning photos by Mel Schockner
See Through Other Eyes:Spotted Owl photos by Ellen Woodbury