ellenwoodbury

2009-10-29T09:52:00.000-07:00

All Tucked In

Sculpture by

Ellen Woodbury

Silverdale Limestone

Rojo Azteca marble

10 1/2 x 14 x 7 inches.

Completed Oct., 2009.

This is my latest sculpture, a private commission to celebrate the birth of a little colt named Mingo. I have been a horse person most of my life, and this project was a joy to sculpt. My client shared stories and photos of little Mingo with me , and I feel like I know him even though we never met face to face.

The stone is Silverdale Limestone, formed from the build-up and compression of billions of seashells in the ancient inland sea which is now Kansas. It is a very soft limestone, but holds an edge beautifully. There are many bits and particles of fossilized shell and protozoa in the stone which give it a subtle pattern and vary the hardness of the stone. These fossilized inclusions posed no challenge when carving, but the finishing phase had to be done with diamond jewelers files and diamond sanding pads in order to maintain a smooth surface despite the very hard particles mixed in with the very soft stone. The sculpture is sanded to 180 grit to keep a soft matte finish to the stone. I learned from my client that a young foal's hair is not shiny, so this was a happy coincidence.

The sculpture is about light and life. I played with the planar and curved design in the little colt to create many angled surfaces such that the forms are described with light and shadow as light moves across them. The overall color of the stone is consistent biege and the shadows and highlights provide color and interest. The sculpture comes alive with the introduction of light.

"All Tucked In" is the first scupture I've made in my new studio space at the Purple Door Studio, located in Denver. It is a wonderful, magical place to work. I share a huge warehouse space with 8 professional fine art scuptors, and it is totally inspiring and educational to sculpt there--Stonies' Paradise.

My next piece, in progress, is a squirrel carved from Vermont marble. This is a gorgeous, hard white marble with delicate gold and black vein. I am most excited to sand this stone as the crystal is really beautiful--smaller than the snowflake crystal of our own Colorado Yule, but equally as pretty. I am wondering if it will sparkle like snow, the way the Yule sparkles. I'll let you know . . .

Photo by Mel Schockner

2009-09-15T17:51:00.000-07:00

See Through Other Eyes:

Spotted Owl

Sculpture by

Ellen Woodbury

Yule Marble

on Granite and Concrete

44 x 19 x 19 inches

Completed August, 2009.

"See through Other Eyes: Spotted Owl" is the second sculpture in my endangered species series. The Northern Spotted Owl is the apex predator (top of the food chain) in old-growth forests. As the forests are being cut down, the habitat of the Spotted Owl is disappearing, and consequently, so are the Spotted Owls. This owl is the "canary in the coal mine" for old-growth forests and its disappearance is an indication that the entire ecosystem is failing due to the over-cutting of trees. Saving the Spotted Owl means saving the old-growth forests.

This sculpture is my first piece intended for outdoor display. This is exciting for me as I would like to make more outdoor sculptures. The stone is Colorado Yule Marble, and this particulatr piece of Yule has enormous snowflake crystal. Outdoors is a perfect place to display this sculpture as the crystal is absolutely dazzling in the sun, it looks exactly like the sparkles on fresh snow when the sun shines on it.

This photo was taken at Sculpture in the Park, 2009, the large, outdoor sculpture show in which I participate each summer. This year was another successful show for me. I love the experience of meeting sculptors from all over the country, and meeting sculpture-lovers from all over the world.

"See through Other Eyes: Spotted Owl" is designed as an interactive peek-through experience. The eyes of the owl are drilled all the way through and invite the viewer to see the world from the perspective of another being, to share the earth and make sure there is room for all creatures to live.

Photo by Ellen Woodbury

2009-09-09T15:23:00.000-07:00

Southern Gentleman

sculpture by Ellen Woodbury

Patagonian Blue Onyx on Marble

13 x 8 x 7 inches

completed June, 2009

"Southern Gentleman" is an adventurous sculpture from start to finish. Blue Onyx is only known to exist 13,000 feet up in the mountains of Patagonia on the tip of South America. The fellow who discovered this quarry chewed coca leaves in order to tolerate working at such a high altitude. He also hired some local workmen to help with the task. They loaded one truck with the stone and this fellow then drove it from the tip of South America to the U.S. paying a tax at every border crossing on his journey. On arrival here, he vowed he would never do this again. This accounts for the rarity and high price of Patagonian Blue Onyx.

Carving "Southern Gentleman" was also an adventure. The stone exists in nature encased in a thick layer of oxidized stone, so it is very difficult to see the colors and figures of the stone in its raw state. One can never be sure of what one is getting until this oxidized layer is removed. Even then, it is only the most obvious colors and shapes that are visible. When I carved this little penguin, he was a soft light blue color. I could see the brown and white natural fissures, which made me a bit nervous about this sculpture's chances of surviving the creation process. I carefully cut the stone with a diamond blade, and ground the shapes into being with diamond burrs. To use any kind of percussive tool would probably have shattered the stone, as onyx is quite brittle. After each day of carving, I carefully bathed my sculpture in cyanoacrylate, a very low viscosity super glue, in an effort to fill any potential gaps and fissures which might cause it to break.

The colors, layers, and depth of Patagonian Blue Onyx were not revealed to me until I began the sanding process. I began sanding at 60 grit and took the surface up to 600 grit. With each successive grit I saw more colors and layers in the stone. Onyx is a semi-precious gem stone and quite translucent. At 600 grit I could see at least an inch into the stone--the criss-crossing fissures and blocks of color were like looking into a kaleidoscope. Sanding is close work, and it was almost dizzying to peer into these formations that are millions of years old. I do love to carve stone!

I knew from the moment I saw this stone, even in its oxidized wrapper, that the figure must be a penguin. I chose to publish the back view of "Southern Gentleman" because I love the curve of the backbone as it sweeps up through the pose. The brown and white fissures are readily apparent, as are the colors that range from pale sea green to deep turquoise. I chose white marble, reminiscent of snow, as the presentation.

I later heard from my stone broker that the fellow who quarried this Blue Onyx had gone back to Patagonia for a second pallette. This was great news to me as I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of carving this stone, and can now look forward to another adventure.

Photo by Mel Schockner

2009-09-09T14:04:00.000-07:00

One Handsome Frog

Sculpture by Ellen Woodbury

Red Travertine

on Walnut and Travertine Base

14 x 12 x 12 inches

completed August, 2008

"One Handsome Frog" was completed shortly before Sculpture in the Park, 2008. I never found the time to post this sculpture until now as I was racing to meet the show deadline and then was on to the next project. Here, finally, is the frog.

This is the first sculpture in a series I am carving on endangered species. Frogs and amphibians are disappearing on every continent in the world due to the rapid spread of a skin fungus called khytrid, which spreads through water. National Geographic published an article about the plight of the world's frogs and amphibians in 2008 and it depressed me completely to think of a world without these creatures. Then I started thinking about a world without polar bears and tigers and ocelots. These scary thoughts prompted me to begin a series on endangered species to lend some visibility to the precarious situation of these animals and to send out a hope that we can share the earth with them. This is no particular species of frog, but rather stands as a symbol for all frogs.

The stone is Persian Red Travertine, the same stone from which I carved "Magic Lesson," the dragon which I posted at the beginning of this blog. The colored stripes of red, orange, and yellow, along with the many porosities (vugs) in the stone seemed appropriate for a frog skin. The "rose" on the frog's tummy was a gift from the stone and happened when I carved through these many-colored layers on the curve.

The stone is the star in this sculpture, so I chose large simple shapes as the design elements to insure that the forms would read. Detail would have been lost in such a "busy" stone. I am particularly fond of the eyes on this frog as they lend a humor and appeal. I hope this piece expresses my feelings that these creatures are significant in our world and worth every effort to save them from extinction.

Photo by Jim Digby

Nature's Paradox

2009-07-21T21:02:00.000-07:00

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"Nature’s Paradox"

Sculpture by

Ellen Woodbury

Mongolian Imperial Black Marble on Granite base

23 x 17 x 15 inches

Completed May 27, 2009

This sculpture was made as a private commission for two clients, both genetic biologists, and their family. When they suggested this project to me over a year ago, I knew very little about platypi. Research has always been fun and interesting for me. As an Animator, I always researched the animals on which my characters were based, and as a sculptor I find research equally important.

Behold the platypus, truly a paradox of nature. This benign, enigmatic little creature is one of Australia's treasured animals. It is one of only two egg-laying mammals in the world. (The other, also from Australia, is the echidna.) The platypus lays eggs which grow after they are laid, the young hatch as very immature babies and nurse until they are much bigger. They have 4 webbed feet and spend much of their time in the water. They eat crayfish and aquatic worms--they close their eyes, ears, and nostrils while swimming underwater and locate their food using an electro-magnetic sensor on the underside of their bills. The males have poisonous claws on their hind feet. Platypi dig long burrows along the dirt banks of fresh-water streams and ponds where they live. The webbing on their front feet folds back into the palms of their hands to expose their long digging claws. The genome of the platypus was recently mapped and they were discovered to have the DNA of reptiles, birds, and mammals--exciting and intriguing news to many people, including genetic biologists and sculptors! No wonder I fell in love with this creature! Platypusses are not allowed out of Australia, so it has become one of my life goals to travel to their native land to meet them in person.

The stone is Mongolian Imperial Black Marble. This is an amazing, dirty, gorgeous stone. Amazing in that is has fossilized sea shells in it, some pieces are shards and some are beautiful spirals. Dirty in that the stone smells strongly of sulfur when it is cut and the dust is black--my workshop resembled a cave during the many months of carving. Gorgeous in that it finishes to a beautiful surface and the color darkens with each grit of sanding. My platypus swims through a hole in a stone, the unfinished soft grey of the raw marble. The water plant, an abstraction of a DNA strand, is finished to 1500 grit and is a deep charcoal gray. The platypus himself is finished to a very high gloss shine at 10,000 grit. The shiny finish was achieved by using black rouge--a mixture of tin oxide, wax, and black pigment which sands and then polishes the stone. The platypus feels smoother than glass to the touch, almost like it is wet and swimming under water.

Please scroll down to the next blog entry, "Evolution of a Platypus," where I have posted several photos of my work in progress on "Nature's Paradox." This piece was a challenge and a thrill to carve and I want to share a little of my process with you. Ultimately, for me, the fun is in the process of creating.

Photo by Jim Digby

Evolution of a Platypus

2009-06-30T09:22:00.001-07:00

Several progressive photos in the making of "Nature's Paradox," a commissioned sculpture by Ellen Woodbury.

The block.

375 pounds of Mongolian Imperial Black Marble.

Clay maquette at lower left.

Blocking in the forms.

Roughing in the forms.

Refining the forms.

Completion of carving.

From this stage, the sculpture was refined further with the hand rasp (the last tool in carving and the first tool in finishing), the file, the jeweler's file (for fine detail,) sandpaper starting with 80 grit and ending with 2,000 grit. The final finishing stage was applying black rouge to the platypus only. Black rouge is tin oxide, wax and black pigment, applied with a felt bob and a rotary tool. This grinds and polishes the platypus to 10,000 grit--a brilliant high-polish shine, appropriate for a swimming platypus.

2009-02-02T23:33:00.000-08:00

“Phoenix Rising”

Marble sculpture by Ellen Woodbury

Colorado Yule Marble on Granite

30 x 21 x 17 inches

completed December, 2008

Here is a photo of my most recent sculpture, “Phoenix Rising,“ completed in mid-December, 2008. This project was begun in July at the Marble/marble Symposium held every summer in Marble, CO.

I have attended Marble/marble for the last 3 years. In June I started thinking about the sculpture I wanted to make and about what was most significant in the past year since the last M/m in 2007. “Phoenix Rising” was inspired by the help I received from the instructors, staff, and participants (both from 2007and from past symposiums) which made my year remarkable and memorable. Their generous gifts of knowledge about all aspects of stone carving are valuable lessons I will use for years to come. To all of my teachers, I sincerely thank you! Your good energy is part of this creation.

At the symposium during the blocking-out process for “Phoenix Rising,” I noticed that the stone came off in separated, crumbly layers when I sliced off thin slabs. When I touched these thin layers, they didn't fall off the block or disintegrate the way other thin slices of Yule Marble have crumbled in the making of other sculptures. I had to push on these crenulated fans in order to make them fall away. I mentioned this to Madeline, the Founder and Director of Marble/marble (and one of the sculptors to whom I direct many questions), and she said this indicates a very strong bedding plane (the layers of seashells laid down 100 million years ago which were compressed to make the marble.) I believe this very strong bedding plane is the reason why the wings are able to exist. They undulate through the bedding plane (the strongest axis) which runs vertically through the width of the stone. Both tips of the wings curve well away from this axis and yet they didn't fall off in the process of creation. I feel like the stone was perfect for the design and allowed me to coax it into these curving shapes. I love this Yule Marble! Every bit of careful effort you put into your sculpting returns to you 10 times over in successful forms, pristine color, subtle veining, and dazzling snowflake crystal.

I wanted to explore the play of light on curved and faceted surfaces in this sculpture. In southern California, Brian and I lived in a house that had many doors, windows, and sky lights that allowed light to come in from all angles. The interior of the house was painted white, and the rooms were designed with angled ceilings, inset spaces, and arches. The light came in through the windows and was divided into colors of the spectrum by the interior angles. One surface would have a rosy color and an adjacent, angled surface would have a bluish shade. Inspired by that pretty little house, I was curious to see if I could divide the light into colors with the curved and faceted wings of my marble bird. (This idea is still untested as I have not had the opportunity of a sunny location to study the play of light.) The sculpture is meant to be exhibited indoors in partial sun--the marble and granite will not fade in sunlight.

For me, this sculpture is about hope and new beginnings, a celebration of learning how to carve stone. I still have much to explore and I am looking forward to that process, but I am pleased by what I am able to create now. “Phoenix Rising” embodies my re-invention as a stone sculptor. This bird rises from the embers of one art form (animation) to inspire and inform another.

My next sculpture is a private commission for a platypus--an enigma of the animal world. The project was suggested to me last March, and I have been looking forward to carving this for many months. The stone is Mongolian Imperial Black Marble. The maquette has been approved, the marble block is on the carving stand, the blade is spinning, and the black dust is flying!
It is going to be a great Spring!

2008-11-01T18:08:00.000-07:00

The following article was written by me in response to about a dozen questions sent to me by Steve Moore, editor and creator of "Flip", an on-line animation magazine. The article was published in the October, 2008, issue of Flip.

My first stone sculpture,
"Frankie and Mancho,"
Done in the Museum class.

Disney Animator Turns to Stone
By Ellen Woodbury

I worked at Walt Disney Feature Animation as a Directing Animator and Character Animator for 20 years and brought many well-known characters to life, including Zazu the bird in “The Lion King’ and Pegasus the flying horse in “Hercules.” I resigned from
Disney in October, 2005, to re-invent myself as a sculptor.

So how DID I turn to stone? Around January, 2004, after several years of re-learning how to animate on a computer, I became fairly comfortable with the new technology and felt I needed to do something artistic with my hands to compliment and off-set all the technology. I started going to Ron Pekar’s lunchtime drawing class every week and had a great time drawing. One week Ron brought in some clay and encouraged us to take a small piece home and make something. I took home some clay and eventually made a small figure playing a guitar. Other artists in the class made small figures, and Ron took the clay sculptures to a foundry to be cast in bronze. I had never done anything like that before and I really enjoyed the process of making the clay figure and the surprise and fun of seeing it in bronze. I started doing more clay figures and having them cast in bronze. Ron told me about a huge sculpture show in Loveland, CO, which I attended as a tourist in August, 2004. The show was fantastic, and I was inspired to do more figures in bronze.

There are 2 big sculpture shows in Loveland held on the same weekend in August across the street from each other. One is a juried show called Sculpture in the Park, and the other is an un-juried show called the Loveland Sculpture Invitational. Together these 2 shows host over 500 exhibiting sculptors and attract up to 25,000 visitors.

I decided I would try to enter the shows to see if either would take me as an exhibiting sculptor. I spent every 3-day weekend in 2004 and the first part of 2005 making clay figures and having them cast in bronze. In August I exhibited my bronze in the un-juried Sculpture Invitational show. That same weekend my husband and I bought a house in Loveland. We moved there in November, 2005, and my intention was to be a bronze sculptor. My goal was to one-day show my work in the juried Sculpture in the Park show.

Loveland, CO, is Bronze Town. The two huge sculpture shows are held there every August, the city has 3 foundries, and 800 artists and craftsmen working in the bronze industry. There are two major sculpture gardens in the town as well. Benson Park Sculpture Garden has over 100 monumental sculptures and is the sight of the Sculpture in the Park show. The second sculpture garden, Chapungu, contains over 80 monumental stone sculptures by Zimbabwe master sculptors--more on this later.

In January, 2006, I took a 5-day course in stone carving taught by a Zimbabwe master sculptor and sponsored by the Loveland Museum. This was another fantastic experience. I learned how to use a hammer and chisel along with files, rasps, and sandpaper, and made a small stone sculpture of two horses. It was an amazing process to see the forms emerge from the stone. It was an enormous challenge as well. My left arm was aching from 5 days of wielding the 1 ½ pound hammer, my right thumb was battered from the multiple times I missed the head of the chisel and struck my thumb by mistake. My knuckles were raw and bloody from learning (the hard way) how to handle the stone. But, I made a nice little stone sculpture, I made a lot of friends in the class, I learned an enormous amount, and I wanted to learn and carve more stone.

The Zimbabwe stone sculptors are a prominent part of the Loveland sculpture community and have a huge sculpture park and cultural center. They also have a big warehouse where more stone sculpture is kept, along with raw stone and tools. After the carving class at the museum, I went to the warehouse and bought raw stone from Zimbabwe and my own set of hand tools. I also joined the Colorado Stone Sculptors, a group of sculptors who meet once a month to discuss, demonstrate, and teach some aspect of stone sculpture. After that, I began carving more and more stone and doing less and less bronze.

I have attended the Marble/marble Symposium in Marble, CO, for 9 days in July for the past 3 years. This is a mind-boggling and life-changing experience. About 45 to 60 stone sculptors from around the country and around the world gather along the Crystal River in the tiny town of Marble to carve gorgeous white Yule marble (quarried about 10 miles away from the carving site) with power tools in the woods, sometimes in the rain. I have learned an enormous amount from the instructors and staff of the symposium and I consider this my graduate school in stone sculpture.

There is something compelling about stone that strikes a responsive chord with me. Coaxing a form out of a piece of the earth that took millions and millions of years to create is a profound thought and an awesome experience. I like the colors and textures of stone. I like the risk that the stone could break while I am carving it, or it could just fall apart sitting there due to the stresses built up inside the stone from the process of carving.

Every aspect of working with stone is a challenge. For instance, how does one move a 250-pound block? The first time I had to do this I used the Egyptian method--I rolled the stone over dowels on the floor to move it around; and I used fulcrum, pry bar, 2 x 4’s, 4 x 4’s, and concrete blocks to raise it up. Then I discovered the hydraulic table on wheels which can raise and lower up to 700 pounds. However you must first raise the stone up 16 inches to get it on the table. The engine hoist can raise, lower, and roll around up to a 2-ton stone, and is the easy way to get a stone on the hydraulic table. The next step up is the fork lift . . .

The more stone I carve, the more I find my process uses the skills I had as an animator. I carve stylized animals--I love animals and I loved animating animals. I like a strong silhouette in my sculpture and a clear line of action through the pose. Attitudes need to read at a glance. The play of light and shadow over the form is new for me. Cuts must be deep and well-placed to accentuate the forms and increase the interest and drama of the pose. I carve the full body in my “characters,” some with faces and some without--the body attitude is primary to the feel I want to convey in the piece. Other artistic ideas that cross over from Animation are pose-related: squash and stretch, working straights against curves (flats against rounds), charicature and exaggeration in everything (like the deep cuts). Animation skills like self-discipline and sustaining the “performance” over long periods of time are essential to sculpting in stone. Nearly all my sculptures took over 100 hours of carving and finishing time to make, one took over 500 hours to make. Besides animation, I also learned how to micro-manage myself (keep track of my hours) at Disney--an annoying but useful skill when pricing my sculpture. As an Animator, I was an avid thumb-nailer. Planning was key to my animation and it is essential to my stone sculpture as well.

Ideas for my sculpture come from everywhere--inspired by a beautiful raw stone, a piece of music, a conversation, something I read, an unrelated piece of art that acts as a springboard to a new idea, some thing or experience that strikes me as significant. Then again, some sculpture ideas come out of nowhere and I never understand what the sculpture is about until months after it is finished.

So, first I get the idea, and then I draw. Sometimes I draw for several days or more than a week. Sometimes I do research on the animal that is the subject of my sculpture. Sometimes I read books about the history of sculpture, art aesthetics, or look at design work by other artists. I do a lot of thinking and drawing and gathering of information and inspiration. When this process is going well, I do what I did in animation and trade off being the artist and then the critic until I can no longer make the design any better or stronger.

At times I have a particular kind of stone in mind for a particular idea, and sometimes I need to find the right stone for an idea--it works both ways. When stone shopping, I will often buy stones that seem really neat to me even though I have no idea what I will make out of them. I love colored stone and stone with interesting textures. As I gain more experience, I am moving toward harder stones like marble, travertine, and calcite because they will hold a crisper edge, and crisp edges produce interesting and dramatic forms and shadows.

I like to work with at least one formal element in my sculptures. Jules Engel was my mentor at Cal Arts and he influenced me to think in simple geometric shapes both as a starting point and as an integral element of the design. Right now I am interested in spirals and triangles, and try to incorporate these elements of form in my designs. Sometimes I start with a spiral or triangle and draw until it becomes an animal design.

In sculpting stone, you have to do things in order--the first thing must be done first, the second thing second, and so on. It simply won’t work if you try to do the third thing first. The key is to figure out what the first thing is. I always ask myself if a particular mass of stone is needed, and try to determine the consequences if I cut it away. I work from the top down, go for the silhouette first, and draw on the stone. If I am doing a complex composition I will make a small clay maquette of my design before laying blade to stone.

I began carving stone with hand tools and made quite a few sculptures that way. Now I use power tools for the most part. My designs tend to be “dangerous,” i.e. arms, noses, ears stick out away from the mass and can break off if I am not careful. Using a hammer and chisel is very percussive, and it is easy to strike the chisel just a bit too hard or at the wrong angle and lop off an ear. Power tools, aside from the air hammer, are not percussive. However, they do create a lot of vibration in the stone and chunks can just fall off anywhere depending on how the interior stresses in the stone are set up. Unfortunately, this is unknowable and you must be careful and take your chances. I have had chunks of stone fall off the block as I am carving, but so far it has all been stone that needed to come off anyway. My colleagues tell me if the stone breaks, you then have the opportunity to make two sculptures.

First I block in the piece, working toward my silhouette and always working dimensionally. Excess stone comes off the top and then I work my way down because gravity can cause a top-heavy piece of stone to crack and fall off. An analogy might be to start with an entire baseball field and gradually work your way in from all directions to home plate. Or start with a big blob of dough and take away and refine until the forms come into focus.

For blocking I use a 7-inch diamond blade on a big grinder to take off big pieces of stone. I use a 5-inch blade to take off smaller pieces until I am left with my sculpture idea made out of cube-ish shapes and looking very blocky. Then I have to leave the “security of the block” and begin to ruff in the real forms in the locations (on x, y, and z) where they are supposed to be. As the forms become more and more refined I progress to smaller and smaller tools. I use diamond burs with a pneumatic die grinder, then smaller burs, then hand rasps, files, and diamond jewelers’ files. Then I go to diamond sanding pads and ultimately to sandpaper--where I go up through the grits to 1800 if appropriate for the sculpture. There are lots of other tools and processes. These are some of the ones I am using now.

Different kinds of stone are finished to different grits. Limestone I sand to 180 or 220 grit only. I prefer a matte finish on limestone, not a shiny one. Colorado Yule marble I sand to 220--to go higher would erase the beautiful snowflake crystal. Honey-comb calcite I sand to 400 or 600 because I want a very smooth finish. You get different effects from the stone depending on how you finish it.

I think it takes a long time to become good at any artistic endeavor. I think once you are good in one medium there are a lot of principles and skills that can carry over into another medium. Then, I guess it just depends on how long it takes to learn how to use the aesthetic principles specific to that medium. As with animation, I think a successful sculpture guides the eye through the piece via the forms just as good staging, timing, and path of action of the character guides the viewer through a scene. Technically good volumes and edges in sculpture is like good drawing. Appeal is the same in both mediums.

The business side of stone sculpture is another intense endeavor. Because stone is one-of-a-kind, when you sell it, it is gone. I always have my sculptures professionally photographed because the photos are all I will have to keep. At first it was difficult to adjust to selling my work and saying good-bye to the sculpture. Now I understand that it is the process of sculpting, like animation, that is the real fun. All of my sculptures are for sale and many in my portfolio have been sold already.

I have done one two-man show with another sculptor (“Two Women Who Rock”) and one Featured-Artist-of-the-Month display in a gallery show. I have an up-coming one-man show at the Loveland Museum early next year. Currently, my income comes from the juried Sculpture in the Park show in Loveland which I have done for the past two summers (I achieved that goal), and private commissions. This year I will start applying and competing for public commissions.

Stone sculpture is a lot like animation was for me--always new, always demanding more knowledge and a greater sensitivity to what I want to say. There are always more techniques to master, more situations to figure out. Each different kind of stone I carve involves learning how to deal with a new hardness and texture, sort of like learning the personality of a new character. Animation is the illusion of three dimensions, stone sculpture is the reality of three dimensions. To me, they are not such different mediums at all.

Sun Horse

2008-06-26T13:27:00.000-07:00

Sun Horse
Sculpture by Ellen Woodbury

Honeycomb Calcite 13 x 9 x 8 inches

Here is the latest creation from my Wonderful World of Dust. This is "Sun Horse," my charm, talisman, great glowing orb, vessel filled with positive energy and good things to come. In many cultures people dedicate and concentrate their energy through some activity to influence a situation they want to change. These activities go by a variety of different cultural names, but the intent is similar. The process of making this sculpture was my dedicated effort to help ease the grief of my friends who lost their horses this Spring. I know it is much easier to make a sculpture than it is to mend a broken heart, but maybe it will help a little bit. I put my energy of creation out there in hopes it will aid their healing process.

Process is really what any kind of art-making is all about for the artist. In Animation for me it was all about the animating--being the character and refining the performance to present exactly how and what I wanted to communicate. Feeling the emotions through the movement and getting that on the screen was my goal.

It is a similar process for me with sculpture. I want to shape the stone exactly the way I see the figure in my mind. That is my challenge and my goal. With stone, however, other variables exist as well, like what is going on with the stone itself? What surprises lie concealed within the solid mass I am meticulously shaping? Does it break? Are there colors and layers hidden within? Does it continue to inspire me to complete my idea, or does it make me think of other forms I want to include in the sculpture? If I am lucky, it will inspire another idea for another sculpture. I think these variables make the process of carving stone more exciting and more risky than animation. Planning the sculpture is my rehearsal, my pencil-test in Animation jargon. The carving is the show. With animation it is just the paper, the pencil, and me. (I am the only variable.) With sculpture, the stone is a major player, too.

This sculpture began as a boulder of honeycomb calcite coated in a thin white oxidized layer when I bought it, and I could not tell what was inside the stone. In direct sunlight I could see that there was a peachy-yellow glow under the white opaque layer. That was it. Sculpting the "Sun Horse" was my first experience with this stone,and it was a bit like meeting someone (who couldn't speak) for the first time. When I cut into the stone with my blade and began removing slices of rock the color and the transparency were remarkable. The thick veins of white contrasted dramatically with the transparent orange and yellow areas even when the stone was dry. (Colors really pop to life when you wet the stone.) Throughout the entire carving process this stone amazed me by its difference to other kinds of stone. I feel like it gave me and taught me much more than I expected.

The design of the piece is composed of large, simple shapes because I thought the stone would be the star in this sculpture, and I think I was right. Detail would be lost in the orange and yellow "plaid" of this stone, and swallowed by the transparency of it. Forms read in 3-D space because of the variations of light and shadow reflected off the surface of the sculpture. In the "Sun Horse" light reflects but it also penetrates, so light and shadow behave differently. It was really neat to carve this stone with light penetrating into it. I could lose my equilibrium and sense of location looking into it.

Finishing the stone was another revelation. Honeycomb calcite is very brittle and must be carved only with tools that grind--no percussion is allowed or it will bruise and break. The crystals are long and thin, sort of like the fur on a short-haired cat. Careful grinding was actually quite easy, but the rasping, filing, and sanding was a completely different experience. My carbide rasp turned the translucent orange forms to opaque white again. What! What happened to my gorgeous glowing orb? Then the slow process of filing and sanding gradually removed the hideous white scratches left by the rasp. The crystals were fairly large and very hard, and getting past the crystal-stage (getting to the point where the space between cut crystals was diminished and finally gone) was a challenge. Happily, there was a pay-off at the end with the restoration of brilliant colors that glow. My next adventure with honeycomb calcite will be greatly informed by this first experience and much less nerve-wracking.

Currently I am carving a frog out of "the dragon stone," red travertine. The frog was intended to be carved from green onyx, but I ran into some engineering questions with the onyx and switched to travertine. It was a good decision as the stone is once again surprising and appropriate for the sculpture. The frog is positioned 90 degrees counter to the way the dragon was positioned in the stone, and the shapes are cutting through the red and orange and pink layers in a completely different direction which is yielding some crazy designs--the biggest being an enormous "rose" in the center of the frog's belly. The frog is also destined, along with "Sun Horse," for the up-coming show, Sculpture in the Park, held here in Loveland on August 9 and 10.

I am off to the Marble/marble carving symposium for 9 days of carving glittering white Colorado Yule marble high in the Rockies in the woods in the rain (sometimes) with power tools. What a glorious image (!) and what an incredible experience it is--the creative highpoint of my year!

Photo by Jim Digby

copyright 2008 by Ellen Woodbury

A Matter of Opinion

2008-05-24T20:22:00.000-07:00

"A Matter of Opinion"

Sculpture by Ellen Woodbury
Limestone, granite base. 21 1/2 x 20 x 16 inches

Above is a photo of my most recent stone sculpture, completed in early May, 2008. I began the sculpture in September, 2007, at a 4-day limestone-carving workshop in Lawrence, Kansas, run by Myles Schacter, a great guy from whom I also buy most of my stone. I attended the workshop with two of my stone-carving friends, and the experience was absolute fun and we all learned a lot about carving limestone. This piece was shelved for several months while I carved the dragon ("Magic Lesson") and was started again in late February.

Limestone comes in many different colors and consistencies of classic beige. It is a fairly soft stone, easy to carve and holds an edge beautifully--I have heard many stone sculptors say, "it carves like buttah' . . ." and it really does when compared with marble. I believe my particular kind of limestone is called Cottonwood and comes from the ancient inland sea which is now Indiana. It is a rugged stone, full of vugs (porosities, remember?), and the matrix itself is not completely mixed to a uniform consistency and color, so there are swirls of brown, black, grey, and white. My particular piece of limestone was also generously mixed with what I will call fossilized shell fragments which provide a beautiful texture something like billions of miniature rice kernals. However neat, these kernals presented a challenge in the filing and sanding phase of creation as they are extremely hard when compared with the limestone matrix in which they are embedded, which is soft. The stone certainly did not sand like buttah', but the effort was well worth it as the little bits of shell provide much interest and character in the final look of the stone.

If you look closely at the photo you will see that the zebra in the foreground is light with darker stripes while the zebra in back is darker with light stripes. This was a theme I wanted to present in this sculpture, although at the time I dreamed it up I had no idea how I was going to achieve that effect. I began early in the carving process to experiment with inert pigment mixed with a variety of chemicals commonly used on stone for enhancing color and sealing. I found out from a fellow stone sculptor about pigments used in the monument industry to paint designs on tombstones. I asked several of my mentors about the product, called Lithichrome, found where to get it, and proceeded with more experiments. Ultimately, nothing worked to give me the effect I was looking for. At that point I decided that the piece didn't need different colors and I would simply change the title and move on. After that, I decided to give plain color enhancer a try. I meticulously applied the color enhancer with a teeny brush to the areas on the zebras I wanted to be different values and, after 5 coats, when the stone (which is enormously porous) wouldn't accept any more chemical, I had a subtle differentiation in the stripes, manes, tail tips, noses, and the outlines around the ears. Victory! More color would have been annoying and upstaged the forms, less would have been unnoticeable.

The poses in "A Matter of Opinion" are a result of my 20 years of experience animating for Disney. Strong silhouettes need to read in an instant and the poses of the characters must reflect how they are thinking and feeling at that moment. Two very different attitudes are presented and they must be visually clear and narratively understandable.

As with many of my sculptures, I don't fully understand what they are about and where they came from until they are finished. (Even then I may not really get it.) I believe this idea grew from the culture shock I experienced in moving from California to Colorado. Last year I made a small sculpture of a fish holding his breath ("Fish Out of Water")--a piece I came to understand as an image of myself when I first arrived here, holding my breath hoping to be accepted. The creation of the zebras revealed to me that I am finding my new identity as a sculptor and being accepted by new friends. It may hold very many different meanings for you, and I hope it does, but I want to share with you that unconscious feeling made conscious through the sculpture. It is pretty cool when that happens!

"A Matter of Opinion" will be my centerpiece at this year's Sculpture in the Park show held in August here in Loveland. It is only the first of three or four new sculptures which I am attempting to make in time for the show. I am grateful that it turned out OK, I have no idea what I would have done if it had broken in the process of creation. Luckily I don't need to think about that.

The piece I am currently carving is a radiant stone called honey-comb calcite. It is luminous, light actually penetrates up to an inch into the stone. It is opulent shades of lemon and tangerine plaid with thick veins of opaque white. I love this stone! It reminds me of glass in its translucent nature and it is also extremely brittle and must be shaped only with grinders. The form is another horse--this one round and glowing. Horses hold enormous significance for me which I can't verbalize. My extended family of horse people suffered the loss of two very special horses (note that to a horse person, all horses are special) one among the oldest horses in the world, and one among the youngest. Art has a way of turning the pain of grief into a celebration of memories and experiences, and tightens the bond with beings who have passed on.

"A Matter of Opinion" has proven to be my most complex and challenging sculpture to date. I look forward to discovering the elegance which lies in simplicity. Perhaps my next pieces will be a step in that direction. Ideas are strange things, and sometimes they hit me with the force of a tidal wave and I just have to make the sculpture--no matter how complex it may be.

Ellen Woodbury copyright 2008 Photo by Jim Digby

A Kiss to the Wind

2008-03-16T10:27:00.000-07:00

"A Kiss to the Wind" Marble sculpture by Ellen Woodbury
Yule Marble (Colorado)
25 x 13 x 8 inches
completed October, 2007

This is my newest sculpture, completed about a month ago, and recently sold (hooray!). It was inspired by my little mare, Kentucky, now in retirement at a Quarter horse breeding ranch in Bishop, CA, where she is the alpha mare in her retirees pasture. I can't visit her often, so I keep in touch with her by tossing a kiss to the wind--I'm sure my kiss finds it's way over the Rockies and Sierras to her pasture.

The sculpture was begun at the Marble/marble symposium in early July, 2007, a 9-day marble-carving workshop held high in the Rockies in Marble, CO. The stone is quarried at the Yule marble quarry, about 10 miles outside of the tiny town, even higher in the mountains. The experience of sculpting at the symposium is exhilarating! Upwards of 60 stone sculptors meet in wooded acreage along the Crystal River and carve beautiful native marble into stunning forms in the rain (sometimes) using power tools. We eat our meals on an enormous slab of Yule Marble fashioned into a giant dining table and sit on chair-level blocks of marble. Sculptors range in experience from complete beginners to seasoned professionals. Classes are held every morning on all aspects of stone sculpture and there are fabulous instructors to answer any questions you can think up. The experience is life-changing and mind-blowing.

"A Kiss to the Wind" is the result of my second symposium experience. I attended the same workshop in 2006 and began "Spiral Bunny," my first large marble piece, which was finished in January, 2007. I am hooked. Stone is a brilliant, brutal, prehistoric medium which yields to the hand and the imagination when approached with respect and a gentle touch. Diamond blades and grinders also help alot, but these tools are used with care.

I am currently working on a sculpture with a magic theme as a commission for a collector in Maryland. In keeping with my love of animals, the subject is a dragon. The stone is red travertine, a metamorphic rock (formed through millions of years of heat and pressure) with fantastic stripes of red, yellow and orange. Travertine is harder than limestone but has porosities similar to limestone, which will give a magical texture to the dragon's skin. Travertine is nearly as hard as marble so the stone is strong and can hold an edge very well. I am very excited about the piece, and will share a view of it with you when it is finished.

copyright 2008 Ellen Woodbury

Magic Lesson

2008-03-16T10:04:00.000-07:00

"Magic Lesson" Sculpture by Ellen Woodbury
Red Travertine and White Alabaster
15 x 14 x 14 inches
completed February, 2008

This is my latest creation and my first commission. My clients requested a sculpture with a magic theme and a removable piece. After some thought and research into magic tricks and objects I suggested a magic animal, a dragon, since I enjoy sculpting animals more that anything else. They were very enthusiastic about the idea and so I proceeded to find the right stone. I chose red travertine, a stone from the Middle East which is formed in part with water running through it. The water creates porosities in the stone called vugs. The vugs come in all shapes and sizes (worm holes, honeycombs, rivulets, some even filled with calcite and crystals) and I thought the vuggie surface texture and the variety of red and orange stripes in the stone would create an awesome dragon skin.

Working with the stone was a lesson in geology and patience. My tools could very easily get snagged in the vugs and grind away more than I intended to remove. The different stripes of color in the stone were often layers of different hardness, which meant my tools would blaze through some layers and creep through others--yet another reason to carve slowly and carefully. The location of the vugs was impossible to predict since there were so many sizes and shapes of vug. There was also an enormous abundance of them, which created a certain drama for me when I approached a place where I needed a solid point, such as the points in the dragon's hood, and the end of the dragon's hands and nose. Somehow I got very lucky and every place where I needed to have stone was solid. The thought of carving into the end of the nose and discovering a huge vug there was both exciting and terrifying. Each time I reached a destination in my carving and found stone was a mini euphoria.

i enjoyed working with my clients on this sculpture because it challenged me to do a piece that I would probably not have created on my own. I chose to do the dragon, but was apprehensive that I might end up with a Disney-influenced design. I decided my dragon should be a wise and compassionate companion to humans. I approached magic as an aspect of imagination and fantasy as that is my experience in Animation. I see magic (fantasy) as an essential aspect of reality. Reality devoid of magic would be unbearable, fantasy is what makes it possible for me to deal with and exist in reality. Opposites are necessary in order to maintain an equilibrium in any system. My dragon holds a wizard's hat in his out-stretched hands--offering the gift of magic to the viewer, the ability to exist with grace in a chaotic world.

This is the most challenging sculpture I have made to date. The pose was complex and the stone was tricky to carve. However, it was not a hair-tearing experience. Everything worked out great, every person I asked for advice or help was cheerful, knowledgable, and correct in the information they gave me. My clients were brilliant. The piece required hundreds of hours of careful work to become real, and it was all really fun!

I hope this brings a bit of fantasy to your reality and makes your day a tiny bit more fun.

copyright 2008 Ellen Woodbury