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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Aug. 21, 2019)
24 Wednesday, August 21, 2019 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon SCULPTORS: Symposium was set at Suttle Lake Continued from page 3 (NWSSA). They hailed from Washington and Oregon, from British Columbia, Italy, Germany, and Japan. Some continued to work through the day on Saturday under individual open-air tents, chiseling, sanding, blasting, and sanding again. The tents circled a vast open field with a massive compres- sor at the center, air hoses snaking through the grass to the tents to power each sculptor9s tools. The hiss of the compressor alternated with the whir of drills and the chime of chisels. Early in the week, the sculptures were rough 3 barely suggesting a figure, an abstract shape, or a face. Saturday, the finished (or almost finished) work was displayed for the public. The artists are both men and women, teens to sea- soned citizens. Some worked the stones for the very first time, and others have 30 or more years of carving and the arthritic joints to prove it. Some have MFA degrees framed back on their stu- dio walls, where they often work in solitude. The com- munal sculpture event in the woods at Suttle Lake draws them back year after year because it9s both nurturing and inspiring. Jason Chrastina of Portland was lured back to carving after a long hiatus. Perched in front of his tent early on in the week were three moderately sized sculptures that he made around 20 years ago: one in marble, one in limestone, and one in alabaster. <Life just got in the way,= he said. He works in retail, selling natural foods and homeo- pathic medications to stores all over Oregon. <Around 1999, I moved to Seattle,= he recalled. <I knew You never know who you will spot at... Jeff, Theresa, Ann, Jamie, Shiela, Terri, Shanntyl 152 E. Main Ave. / 541-549-8771 about this society; I knew there was something, some- where, but this year, my part- ner found out about this (sym- posium) and encouraged me to do this. So I got this chunk of marble, drilled some holes in it, and I9m chiseling around the holes.= On Saturday, Chrastina showed his early work along- side the almost-finished mar- ble piece, which was pinned to a base of granite, the cir- cular holes at the bottom and a series of parallel notches carved at the top. Half of one side was polished, the other half in its natural fractured state. Jason beamed as he walked through the sculpture garden: <I9m definitely coming back next year,= he said. Leon White from Seattle is a veteran. On his workbench, a mermaid emerged from a two-foot tall block of pre- mium Carrara marble. White described the whimsical piece in great detail. <She9ll have a sand dollar necklace, and she9ll be petting a sea horse. There will be a fish here, and a starfish under her tail, which will sweep around to the back like so,= he said, waving his hands over the marble. A career artist, White began as a painter, but turned to carving stone when he got bored. He9s been a member of NWSSA since 1989, but this was his first symposium near Sisters. White9s mermaid was still growing from her base on Saturday, but he dis- played a humorous but stone- cold piece called <Dinner is Served,= consisting of a carved plate and full course: a pork chop, green beans, baked potatoes and a warm roll, complete with marble <butter pat.= <You know, it doesn9t upset me if I don9t get a whole lot done this week,= White said. <I just bring one piece to work on, because this & it9s like a reunion. We9re all excited to be here. Many of these folks don9t have a studio where they can generate this much noise and dust, so they come here to rough things out and take them back home to finish.= Stephanie Robison runs the sculpture program at City College of San Francisco. All week, she worked with beginning carvers who had the opportunity to try their skill using borrowed tools, borrowed air, and new materials. Baeven Hoit, 17, of Bainbridge Island, Washington, was one of them. Her mom, Valerie, explained that Baevin has tried out all kinds of art, and makes up stories about her art as she goes. Her first sculpture defi- nitely looked like a wolf with a bird on its back. Baevin, who has autism, is one of many special-needs students participating in the sympo- sium this year. During the week, sculp- tor Patty McPhee of Tacoma polished a soft translu- cent calla lily with an onyx peduncle that she displayed on Saturday. She9s been with NWSSA for 25 years. <It9s where I found my passion,= she said. <It9s hard work but it9s so soul-satisfy- ing, because it connects you to the earth. <We9re doing what we love, but it9s toxic,= she noted. <I mean, really toxic. Once I was sanding a piece, a green stone called chlorite, when my husband walked in and hollered 8STOP!9 I looked around me and there was a green haze, everywhere.= She has asthma as a result, but she won9t give up her passion. McPhee is a self-described <tool junkie,= with at least three angle-grinders and more safety gear than a small store. All of it thanks to her teacher and mentor, Everett DuPen. In 1925, the Hollywood Daily Citizen praised the then 13-year-old sculptor DuPen as <the genius among us.= By his death at age 92, DuPen was an <elder= • Re-Roof & New Construction • Composite, Metal, Flat & Cedar Shake Products • Free Estimates • Transferable Warranties • 10-Year Workmanship Guarantee Family Owned & Operated for 19 Years 541-526-5143 ccb#203769 PHOTO PROVIDED Jason Chrastina works on an abstract sculpture in marble. and fellow of the National S c u lp tu re S o c ie ty a n d National Academy of Design. 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