Newsletter Excerpts

April - May 2005 Issue of
The Third Dimension, newsletter of

Contents on this page include:

Austin Sculpture Center -- Update & Memories
Sunset Valley Sculpture Show
Umlauf Sculpture Garden & Museum Staff: A Welcome, and a Farewell
Sculptors' Dominion Invitational 2005
Sculpture Lives in Central Texas
Stone Carving Students Enjoy Vasily Fedorouk Workshop
Tom Foster Invents Tilt Table for Artists
Member News: Mark Yale Harris and Bob Coffee
Submission Guidelines

My Memories of the Elisabet Ney Sculpture Conservatory

by Shirley Kivell

I had been a student of Pern's for so long that I was pretty much a fixture around the lodge anyway; helping Pern Smalley with getting flyers out, cleaning up, etc. So she decided that I should be the Director. My first class was in 1978. John Beauduy had the director¹s position first, for only one or two semesters, I think. Then he moved to Dallas. We had to wait for the President of the Elisabet Ney Museum Association (ENMA), Gregg Free, to return from his honeymoon in August of 1987, before I could be hired. The ENMA board was at that time a very viable group -- fund raising, organizing special events for the museum, locating, purchasing, restoring Elisabet Ney pieces for display at the museum, and arranging for much needed repairs to the museum.

There was a membership then, with levels of giving, a newsletter, discounts for members attending classes, a bookstore and more. I stocked & ran the bookstore and donation box, collecting moneys, keeping records, doing mailings, etc. The school was the Association¹s community outreach program and not their primary focus; although it was always MY primary focus. I enjoyed a very amiable relationship within the board as the only staff person. They were very helpful and attentive to the needs of the school. (The board recruited and hired Mary Collins Blackmon in '89 or '90, I think).

When I started, Pern Smalley and Dan Hawkins were teaching. We hired Dan Kurland to teach stone carving right away. Jim McHenry came along, and after he moved away, I recruited Jon Formo at a TSOS party. He was rarin' to go! Mary Paige Huey taught for a good while, and then the Kincannon brothers (Jeep & Joseph) came in just when Dan Kurland was leaving. Robert Drew taught life drawing, then Gary McElhaney, Phillip Trussell, and Eve Larson. We were blessed to have By Shirley Kivell on the faculty, as well as Billie Caselli Clark, and Bobby Pearl. Bill Barnett dived into the bronze casting class with a talent and a vengeance. Ken Burns and Herb Long jumped into the clay sculpture after Pern retired in 1995. At our peak (109 students) I think it was Pern-2 classes, Jon-2 classes, Kinkannons-2 classes, life drawing with Eve: 1 or 2 classes, and maybe Ken Burns, Herb Long and Bobby Pearl.

My vision for the school was essentially that everyone with an interest in sculpture could produce sculpture at least pleasing to themselves, if not salable art. At any rate, each student should be able to leave the class with something permanent as well as an understanding and appreciation of the artist's process. I remember countless times seeing students slink into the building, poised to flee if the situation seemed too intimidating! I would calm them, saying that there are no failures allowed here, just personal growth, and that everyone has to start at the bottom!

Those times were "Salad Days"! We all had such a marvelous time, being together, making new friends (many of which have lasted!). Students would bring food & drink for the last class, or go out afterward. The feeling was very warm and hospitable, partly due to the somewhat primitive conditions and close quarters. We all loved the Lodge: it had a soul about it; like it loved the creative energy and the messes we made creating art! Faculty & students pitched in to clean up, help each other out, etc. I enjoyed every minute I spent there.

I'll never forget some of Pern's early classes: someone would bring his/her dog to sculpt, husband or wife or mother . . . they would have wine breaks . . . those guys had fun! Pern, of course, took it all as an ordinary event, switching gears as she went to each student's work. It was truly amazing to see. I was always afraid we'd end up with a dog & a cat or monkey or whatever in that tiny room and bedlam would ensue, but Pern always kept her cool and so did her followers.

I think that what made the school great in those years was the personalities of the teachers: they were quick to assess each student's needs & potential, gear their personal comments to that student, and somehow manage to make everyone happy, give them a sense of achievement, and encourage them. It was a very casual place, with lots of warm & fuzzy feelings. We even had birthday parties for models! Everyone was so relaxed and at home there . . . I'm getting teary eyed with the memories. We knew the meaning of teamwork without having it spelled out in our job descriptions.

What a grand old place; it seemed to invite creativity. We will surely miss her and all those good times.
Shirley Kivell
2004

[The Austin Sculpture Center, formerly known as the Elisabet Ney Sculpture Conservatory, closed its doors February 28, 2004. Efforts are still being made to find it a new home. --Editor]

Austin Sculpture Center: The Rest of the Story

by Nancy Cardozier

Toward the end of the year 2000, a group of sculptors met, with the objective of improving the Ney school. We approached Gregg Free, who originated the school, about whether he would be willing to turn over the reins to a new board.

We accomplished the transition over a lunch meeting between Shirley and Free and the committee which he approved to succeed him: Charles Webb, myself, Dick Lawrence, and Rey Alaniz. On February 1, 2001, that group became the Elisabet Ney Museum Association. Gary Williams, Mary Paige Huey, and Joe Kenny joined the board, with Alaniz as Chairman.

The job of "legitimizing" the school with the Parks and Recreation Department (PARD) fell to Lawrence and Alaniz. The State charter also had to be renewed, and tax-exempt status reinstated. With PARD, there was a bit of a hurdle, as that department had allowed sleeping dogs to lie for years; there was considerable reluctance to accept the new group now running the school. Also, we let officials of the Cultural Division of PARD know that we intended to make several positive changes.

Our plan was to "enhance and expand the Conservatory, in coordination with the director of the Elisabet Ney Museum . . . to make it the best physical facility for sculpture, worthy of the Elisabet Ney legacy." At first, after a luncheon meeting with Cardozier and Ripperda, the Elizabet Ney Museum director Mary Collins Blackmon seemed to embrace the new board. She led us to believe we were going to work hand-in-hand toward achieving the finest sculpture school possible.

Alas, that mood didn't last long. On May 7, 2001, the board was summoned to a meeting in the museum and told to be prepared to vacate the building in three years. We were told to make no improvements, to change the name of the school, and to disclaim any connection with Elisabet Ney or the museum. The museum had other plans!

Recovering from that knockout blow, we changed the school's name to the Austin Sculpture Center. The board set about trying to get that unfair order reversed. We went through PARD channels. Students and faculty wrote letters and emails. Marla Ripperda led an appeal to the head of PARD. At every turn, we were rebuffed. Scott Sustek, in his role as chair of the board and school Director, submitted a proposal for the Norwood property. But we withdrew that idea as unworkable and too expensive.

Bob Coffee and I visited the offices of the current mayor and city council members. We received sympathetic nods, nothing more. Earlier, Mr. Willie Kocurek obtained an audience with the previous mayor for several of us; we were given a polite fast shuffle. In an effort to help, a new PARD director gave us two lease extensions, and offered to help us find a new site, which now appears uncertain.

The museum director's plan has been carried out. With no board to advise her (the Ney Museum is the only City-sponsored museum without an advisory board), she has contrived to oust a school established to carry on Elisabet Ney's legacy: teaching the same traditional figurative sculpture that Ney herself would have taught.

What kept me slugging for four years was the idea of the Austin Sculpture Center as a hub for planning and carrying out a large part of local sculpture activity, including TSOS. Having been an active worker in TSOS for years, I know TSOS will be able to continue. But what does the future hold for the ASC?

A Moment from the ASC

by Bob Brooking

When I was working on the portrait of the Willie Kocurek in 1997 on the third sitting, I had invited his wife Maureen to come and commnet. When she studied the piece, she said, "You made him too pretty."

I had been judicious about Willie's many wrinkles, etc., a la Elisabet Ney. I put back the wrinkles and dewlaps and she said, "Now that's Willie!"

Sunset Valley Sculpture Show

by Cat Quintanilla

Artists participating in the show were Cat Quintanilla, Gary Lott, Marla Ripperda, Rodney Bohl, Gary Beyer, Theresa Bayer, Rose Farmer, Leonard A du Castel, Bob Coffee, Judy Conroy, and Mary Thrasher Griffin.

The show was held at the beautiful new Sunset Valley municipal building. The group was enthusiastic about the facility and its grounds, located across the street from unlimited free parking.

Plans have begun for the next spring's show to be titled, "Trail of Sculpture". The show will be set-up along a beautiful landscaped public hike-and-bike trail that runs along the street adjacent to the city hall facilities. This is behind the AISD Burger Stadium Southwest.

[mixed media sculpture by Gary Lott, Venus Eye Trap]
Above: "Venus Eye Trap," by Gary Lott, was featured at the Sunset Valley Sculpture Show, Texas. Photo by Mona Searson.

Sculptors Dominion Invitational 2005

by Gilbert E. Barrera

The Sculptors Dominion Invitational 2005 opens its third annual large scale outdoor sculpture garden and exhibit on April 16 through May 22, weekends from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Thursday nights 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Admission is $10. Opening night by invitation is April 14th from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m., $25 admission at the gate. More than 60 professional and international sculptors will offer over 120 sculptures. Demonstrations held on opening weekend. It will be held on a 7-acre residence at 11356 Vance Jackson, San Antonio, Texas. Contact Gilbert E Barrera at 210 696-9813 or gilbertebarrera@hotmail.com. See www.sculptorsdominion.com

The Sculptors Dominion offers offers an large scale outdoor show and has a sculpture school, gallery and guild under development set to open April of 2006. The show is financed out of the credit cards of its sculptor founder Gilbert E Barrera and the support of his father's law firm Nicholas & Barrera of San Antonio. There have been two Invitational shows that thus far have grossed around $100,000 in sales of about 55 sculptures. On the Web site are over 1000 photos of sculptures from both shows representing some 150 sculptors from several states and Mexico. Barrera has also toured some 2000 school children and their teachers and chaperons. The Web sites of the participating sculptors are also kept as a diary of each show. Last year's show of 2004 has a slideshow in PowerPoint of each sculptor's portrait and some of his or her works and achievements. The opening of 2004 featured a live bronze pour by Vince Villafranca, foundry man and sculptor.

[Sword Dance by Ben Woitena, Dominion]
Above: "Sword Dance" by Ben Woitena. Photo by Gilbert E. Barrera.

This year up to 10 sculptors from Mexico and the U.S. and Romania will demonstrate on opening weekend and or build a sculpture live over the duration of the six weekend show.

All of the participating sculptors of 2005 can be seen on the Web site. Some of them are Johannes Eyfells of Iceland, Mircea Tocaci of Romania, James Muir, Woitena, Priour, Van Vranken and Fox of the United States, Benini of Italy, Alvarado of Mexico and many more. Plus there will be a special re-showing of John Houser's 14-foot Andalusian horse portrait from his colossal 36-foot, full figure "Horse of the Southwest". The range of styles is from modern abstract to contemporary stylistic to classical figurative which include the themes of traditional and dramatic and allegory all the way to humorous and the very weird. The patron will see materials of bronze, glass, granite, ceramic, limestone, wood, welded/painted metal, marble, fiberglass, cement, volcanic stone and other contemporary resins.

[Aphrodite stone carving by Gilbert E Barrera, Dominion]
"Aphrodite," a stone carving by Sculptor's Dominion founder, Gilbert E Barrera.

[Bronze Black Rhino, artist Julio Sanchez de Alba, Dominion]
"Black Rhino", a huge bronze by Julio Sanchez De Alba. Photo by Gilbert E Barrera.

Outdoor Sculpture is Big in Texas

What: Sculptors Dominion Invitational 2005
When: April 16 - May 22, 2005
Where: 11356 Vance Jackson, San Antonio, Texas.

Hours: Weekends 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Thursday Evenings 6 p.m. - 9 p.m.

Admission: $10
Phone 210 696-9813
gilbertebarrera@hotmail.com
www.sculptorsdominion.com

Umlauf Sculpture Garden & Museum Staff: A Welcome, and a Farewell

by Kelly Borsheim

USG&M has just hired Theresa Bond as the Umlauf's new Education Coordinator/Volunteer Coordinator. Pictured together below after visiting sculptor Vasily Fedorouk's talk at the Umlauf Sculpture Garden & Museum on March 29, 2005, is (l-r) the Umlauf's new Education Coordinator Theresa Bond, museum volunteer (and Sculptfest 2005 Co-Chair) Mary Thrasher Griffin, and the Umlauf's outgoing Education Coordinator Marjorie Van Beekum. By publishing date, Marjorie will be working her new job at the Elizabeth McNay Koogler Museum in San Antonio. We will be hearing from her in the future as well! Congratulations to both Theresa and Marjorie from TSOS.

[Education Coordinator Theresa Bond, with Mary Griffin, and Marjorie Van Beekum]
Above: 05 March 29, Education Coordinator Theresa Bond, with Mary Griffin, and Marjorie Van Beekum at the Umlauf Sculpture Garden & Museum. Photo by Kelly Borsheim

Sculpture Lives in Central Texas

by Al Carp

Our city is starting to take the visual arts more seriously with the appointment of an "arts czar" and better funding for the visual arts, and exciting things are happening in the private sector as well. One is my school, which I will not advertise here, and another is the Benini Sculpture Ranch which I will plug here.

Any artist or lover of art who has not been out to the ranch needs to go. It is a bit of a drive from Austin, but it is well worth the trip. Benini and his wife Lorraine own a 140-acre hilltop ranch that just screams sculpture. Once a month they hold a "Meet the Artist" series where you can sit in the lecture hall in the huge gallery and sip on a glass of wine while listening to sculptors, painters, photographers and other artists talk about their work.

The ranch and gallery are also works of art in themselves. The ranch flows from a hill country dirt road outside of Johnson City and as you drive in you view modern works in stone and metal. As you walk through the gallery you are treated to a visual feast. On display are paintings and sculpture from Benini himself, local and world renowned artists. Texas sculptors Randy Jewart, Michelle O'Michael, and Marshall Cunningham have pieces there as well as Icelandic sculptor Eyfells who now also lives just down the road from the Beninis. The gallery is an enormous renovated quonset hut that feels like a gallery, workshop, lecture hall and library on the inside. Website: www.sculptureranch.com

[Guardians by Michelle O'Michael at Benini Sculpture Ranch]
Above: Michelle O'Michael has installed her sentry sculptures, "The Mother and Father Guardians," at the Benini Foundation and Sculpture Ranch in Johnson City, Texas. Painted Steel, 2001. Photo by Mona Searson.

Stone Carving Students Enjoy Vasily Fedorouk Workshop

by Kelly Borsheim

I wanted to say thank you to all of you who helped make this first-time event a success. We had a total of eight participants throughout the 4-day stone carving workshop at my home studio in Cedar Creek, Texas. Instructors were Chicago-based Vasily Fedorouk, a Ukrainian-born and trained master sculptor, and Myles Schachter (aka Myles Mountain), a carver and tool and stone supplier from Lawrence, Kansas. Attendees were: Patricia Axe, Boone Fields, David Foster, Dale Gibson, Philip Hoggatt, Pat Moberley Moore, Mike Tulkoff, and Jim Woodruff.

Vasily is a generous artist who was well received by everyone (based on the gushing toasts he received at the dinners!) and Myles supplied many of the tools for sculptors to try out on their stones. Thankfully I had a lot of help with the serving of lunches (included in the workshop) and the dinners, thanks to cooks Vasily, Myles, and John Borsheim. These meals were also great learning and social occasions and we were blessed with wonderful weather throughout the workshop.

[Vasily Stone Carving Workshop]
Vasily Fedorouk giving a demonstration on Patricia Axe's limestone project at a recent stone carving workshop in Cedar Creek, Texas. Photo by Kelly Borsheim

Although everyone went home pretty happy, I am a bit exhausted. So we have not completely decided whether or not to repeat the event -- although Gilbert Barrera would like to move it to San Antonio. If interested in this type of stone carving workshop again, please contact me at borsheim@tsos.org or 512.303.3929.

Tom Foster Invents Tilt Table for Artists

by Laura Legg

Austin native Tom Foster grew up watching his inventor father design and patent everything from toys to clutches on tanks for the US government during WWII. Having inherited his father's inventive mind and with a mechanical engineering background, Foster has continued the family legacy with a number of patents of his own.

In the early '80s Foster began sculpting, first in clay then moving into stone carving. Foster has more recently settled into portraits of children in clay and has learned to make molds. In the process of sculpting portraits and building molds for casting bronze and cast marble, he found that working on nose and chin areas was awkward and tiresome. The engineer in him could not help but feel the need to make the process easier. Using his machine shop experience, he came up with the Artists Tilt TableTM.

The innovative, patent pending table attaches to any existing work surface or table and allows artists to work on a piece at any angle while it is held securely in place. The artist's hands are freed; work-in-progress is not damaged while other areas are worked on. The table top is made from an environmentally friendly product called WoodstalkTM that, unlike conventional fiberboard products, does not contain formaldehyde. The unique material has superior moisture resistance and durability and also emits fewer volatile organic compounds.

This worktable promises to be a new essential to sculptors as well as mold builders. It is already being hailed as an "incredible tool" and a must-have for sculptors by Jon David of the Sculpture Journal. Once again, Austin has another success story we can be proud to call our own.

For more information, visit www.ArtistsTiltTable.com. or call (214) 727-9016.

TSOS MEMBER & SCULPTURE NEWS

Mark Yale Harris: Success in Art and Business

Submitted by Yvonne Montoya

Santa Fe, New Mexico -- After 35 years as an incredibly successful businessman, Mark Yale Harris has unearthed an artistic passion, becoming a reputable artist throughout the country. In order to pursue his art, Mr. Harris sold his company in 1996. Since then, Harris has begun creating an evolving body of work in alabaster, marble, limestone, and bronze.

With the same enthusiasm and success that Mr. Harris approached business, his career as an artist has flourished. He has shown his work in numerous galleries and Museums (San Angelo Museum - San Angelo, TX; Thomas R. Riley Galleries - Columbus, OH; A New Leaf Gallery- San Francisco, CA and recently SOFA Chicago - Chicago, IL). He has also participated in many prestigious juried exhibitions including "The Sea", National Sculpture Society - New York, NY; and Texas National 2005 - Nacogdoches, TX.

"The American West", presented by the National Sculpture Society, will host the work of Mr. Harris, at the Park Avenue Atrium, 237 Park Avenue New York, NY, May 2 - July 29, 2005.

For the fifth year in a row, Mr. Harris has been invited to participate in Sculpture in the Park (22nd annual), Loveland High Plains Council - Loveland, CO. Sculpture in the Park 2005, is open to the public August 13, 9:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. and August 14, 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Benson Sculpture Garden, located at 29th and Aspen Drive, Loveland, CO.

Mark Yale Harris will be shown at Crossroads Contemporary in "Santa Fe Sculptors," a group exhibition. A Public Reception will be held Friday August 5th, 5-7 p.m. The exhibition will run August 1 to 31, 2005. Crossroads Contemporary 203 Canyon Road, Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Mr. Harris states, "The purpose of my artwork is to provoke a perceptual, internal, and intellectual response for the viewer; A visual that speaks to life's experiences. To create symbols of universal connection and the relationship that one has to another and to nature."

[Stone sculpture, Mark Yale Harris, Portuguese marble]
"The Way We Are," by Mark Yale Harris. Portuguese Rose Marble, 17" x 30" x 20". Photo by Steve Yadzinski.

More Member News

Bob Coffee Wins Top Award at Regional Sculpture Show

The Texas Sculpure Association announces that a bronze by Austin sculptor Bob Coffee has won First Prize in the Texas Sculpture Association (TSA)'s Annual Membership Exhibit recently held at Dallas's North Park Mall March 13 -27. Coffee's whimsical bronze entitled Pop the Whip was one of 114 entries by 72 sculptors in the exhibit. Pop the Whip will be shown at the Sculptors Dominion Invitational 2005 in San Antonio, Texas, April 16 - May 22.

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Texas Society of Sculptors
P. O. Box 49291
Austin, Texas (USA) 78765-9291
www.tsos.org