Colorado Yule Marble Sculpture

For the Twenty-First Century

Weight Matters

Before I describe my ‘radical’ Curvilinear Reductionist Marble Sculpture, and how its light and portable properties completely change the equation when it comes to owning fine art stone sculpture, I would like to turn your attention to the realities inherent with ownership of traditional stone sculpture, given the immense weights involved with even the most modest carving. For example, marble (metamorphosized limestone) weighs on average approximately 160lbs per cubic foot; that’s right, every twelve-by-twelve-by-twelve inch of stone; and you’ll begin to see the problems that arise with ownership of traditional stone sculpture, it’s darn heavy!

It doesn’t take long before even a modest carving begins to weigh in at two, three, four or five hundred pounds, easily, even more with larger pieces. Which, when you think about moving it, presents a serious challenge, and usually an expensive one too, for it often takes block and tackle, lifts, rollers and rails. It can even prove dangerous to the movers, and perilous for the sculpture, for although marble is a strong stone, compared to limestone, it will not stand an impact collision with practically anything.

I won’t labor the point, but next time you find yourself staring at a stone sculpture, try to imagine the weight involved, and the problems that might arise should you wish to, say, move it upstairs, or from one room to another, or take it outside to view it in natural light. The truth is that wherever it ends up in your home, is probably where it remains long after the movers are gone, and most likely forever, or until the movers return to collect it’

Now, imagine my Collection Series Colorado Yule Marble Sculpture. As a reductionist I carve it to be light and portable, to take its place in ‘the real world’, to the point that it can be picked up and moved around with relative ease. And although many art lovers may dismiss such matters as trivial, when it comes to ownership, these are important considerations. In other words, when it comes to stone sculpture, weight matters.

Of the 67 COLLECTION SERIES sculptures, upon completion, I picked up and carried out of the workshop all but one, with my bare hands. Two people can move any piece with relative ease, if they have the necessary experience and confidence in such matters. This one fact alone means that each unique carving may be easily carried from room to room, house to office, or shipped cost effectively anywhere on the planet – hence my claim of “Carved for Full Immersion in the real World”.

Unsurpassed Quality

Colorado Yule Marble is, in my opinion, and in the opinion of many experts in the field, the finest white marble in the world; a claim backed up by its origins as Contact metamorphosized limestone, as opposed to Regional metamorphism. I won’t go into the details here, but this technical differential is explained at length in a good many articles here at martincooney.com. My eight-part abridged summary of Elaine S. McGee’s ‘Building Stone of the Lincoln Memorial’ explains at great length just why I love the stone so very much – it can be carved into practically any shape imaginable. And, it is also very hard, comprising 99.7 percent pure calcite, allowing me to sculpt my Collection Series Curvilinear Marble Carvings with walls so thin that light passes through it and illuminates the stone as if it were stained glass. Click Here for the Link: By Elaine S. McGee. U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY BULLETIN 2162. Building Stone of the Lincoln Memorial

Green Credentials

Aside from being light, portable and carved from the finest marble in the world, my COLLECTION SERIES Marble Sculpture is also created from marble slabs that are otherwise unsuitable for commercial application due to their shape, their size or there being intrusions (mainly magma) and/or cracks. For these I exploit with my ‘Direct Method’ carving technique first championed by Constantin Brancusi, considered one of the most influential sculptors of the 20th century, (wiki). I also utilize blocks of Yule that have been out of the ground for more than century, such as The Maiden Slab that had spent half a century controlling erosion of the quarry’s train tracks in the Crystal River, and another half century or so adorning the parking lot of the Snowmass Rodeo in Colorado. But such is the astounding quality of Yule marble that the interior of the block was unaffected by such lengthy abuse. In fact, it may have simply aged the stone… to perfection.

The ’Direct Method’

As mentioned, Constantin Brancusi was the father of my preferred method of carving. Simply put, Direct Method demands that the finished sculpture should already exist, trapped within the rough block, as implied by the shape and markings revealed by the stone’s surface. “For art to be free and universal, you must create like a god, command like a king and execute like a slave.” And this is what I do. The carving is finished even before I start, and all I must do is free it from its bondage. Sometimes I will take an existing bock and utilize the shape, trace the markings and embellish the idea with my imagination, and sometimes – increasingly so – I drill holes in the marble, insert my plug and feather wedges, and begin the carving process by teasing and tempting the stone to break along unimaginably old fault lines, or more recent cracks and fissures. Either way, the stone is in control at every point, for marble of such integrity and vitality as Yule possesses a spirit and guile quite impossible to explain yet must always be obeyed. I call this force, Mabel.

A Finite Body of Work

Finally, THE COLLECTION SERIES is finite, meaning that each carving carries with it a Serial Number, along with my Mark, usually on the underside of its base. And each sculpture commands its own webpage here at martincooney.com. To date, 67 pieces have been carved. Many have sold, one or two gifted and a couple, unfortunately lost to circumstances along the way. However, it is my dearest wish to continue my sculptural journey over the coming years to include several more collections, until my time is up, and the roll is called up yonder.

The Fourth Collection

And now that Kris and I have made the move to Kansas, and I am once again set up to carve in the now flourishing Walled Garden of Alta Vista, I think that time has come. It is my hope in the coming months to have a suitable block of Colorado Yule Marble shipped out here where I will split it and carve ‘The Fourth Collection’, yet to be named, to complement The Maiden Collection, 1314 Winter Collection and Autumn of 14 Collection. This promises to be my most ambitious and accomplished collection to date, as it will draw upon the vast amount of knowledge and experience that I gained in carving the first three, along with a great deal of expertise I have developed whilst carving other, non-Collection Series work, in the intervening years. So, if you wish to see a fourth Collection Series emerge, and would like to have first choice in selecting a piece for yourself, please consider purchasing one of the remaining Collection Series Colorado Yule Marble Sculptures, pictured below. Just email martincooneysculptor@gmail.com for financial and shipping details.

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The Remaining 36 of 67 COLLECTION SERIES Colorado Yule Marble Sculptures

by Martin Cooney

Stone Sculptor

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Please click on a picture to enlarge and enter a slideshow.

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Weight Matters: COLLECTION SERIES Marble Sculpture is

“Light, Portable and Carved for Full Immersion in the Real World”

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Colorado Yule Marble Sculpture for the Twenty-First Century

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Thanks for visiting martincooney.com

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