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| Notes of Sculpture by Malvina Hoffman |
Sculpture cannot be taught by books or the spoken word; it must be experienced by the artist. Art is a command. The hands must be trained by practice, the mind by constant acquisition of knowledge, and the heart by its undefeated faith and desire to overcome all obstacles. For sculpture is a thorny road beset by barriers, defeats, and disappointments.
Art is, however, made of the stuff that dreams are made of, and they say the dreamer is a favorite of the gods. To him they whisper their secrets, to him the moon reveals her innermost beauty, and the night will enfold him to her heart and guard him with her strong dark wings.
The poet and the artist must be ready to harness Pegasus to pull a heavy load. Labor and fatigue arc the inevitable price of accomplishment, for no great creation is easily conceived or express. Art has been called the Holy Land where the initiates seek to reveal the spirituality of matter.
(Malvina Hoffman) |
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| Sculpture is to carve |
To sculpt means to carve. Bronzes are a result of modeling, by true definition are bronzes not to be confused by sculpture, a product of carving.
Stone carving embodies the essence of sculpture; one can understand how to see and interpret sculpturally through stone sculpture.
Stone’s natural resistance demands that the carver have an intimate and solid understanding of form, material, and technology, and see beyond non-essential details that distract from purely beautiful sculptural form.
For the stone carver, the difficulty of a problem improves the quality of the solution. Stone is the best teacher for the sculptor, subordinating years of academic theory and argumentation. |
Sculpt
Sculptor
Sculpture
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Latin - scalptura
A cutting, carving, or graving in stone:
sculpt
sculpt- (ptp. s. of sculpere to carve);
sculp·tor
L, equiv. to sculp(ere) to carve + -tor -tor]
-tor
a suffix found in loanwords from Latin, forming personal agent nouns from verbs and, less commonly, from nouns: dictator; genitor; janitor; orator; victor.
[Origin: < L -tor (s. -tor-), c. Gk -tor (s. -tor-), Skt -tar-] |
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The span of life has run its course,
By stormy sea and fragile boat,
To the common port,
To enter which one must transcend
The whys and wherefores of all work
Both bad and good alike.
Michelangelo |
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