"All the Great Men are Dead, and I'm Not Feeling
Too Well Myself"
A Narrative Biography
I was raised in the Mid West United States. Pursuing a lifelong interest
in art, I went on to attend the School of the Dayton Art Institute in Dayton,
Ohio, where I studied sculpture and design. This background qualified me
for entrance level employment at the once world dominant Vermont
Marble Company in Proctor, Vermont. There I advanced in what would
be called the classic Italian sculptural method under the watchful eye of
the last remaining Italian masters still working at Vermont Marble.
Between the years 1974-1978 we labored on such
projects as the fabrication work for the U.S. Capitol Building restoration,
the Library of Congress, and the Everett Dirkson Senate Office Building.
I came to specialize in the cemetery memorial shop where I got a lot of
experience in relief carving and lettering. It was a harsh and demanding
environment that taught me all about determination and discipline. One mistake
could cost the company thousands of dollars and stop your prospects for
advancement right in their tracks.
Those old Italians were real characters, full
of pride and temper. They weren't interested in nouveau art theory. They
wanted results to conform exactly as architecturally specified. To indulge
in "artistic license" would likely get you fired. To this day
my respect still grows for those old spaghetti twirlers who I would watch,
spellbound, as they plied their craft, hoping against hope that I would
someday also be able to master.
Now, 29 years later, those from which I learned call me a master carver, which means more to me than any degree from any institution. I think back on what a lucky young punk I was to have had the opportunity to learn this dying trade, for it has diminished to the point of near extinction.
Head Sculptor Renzo Palmerini, used to come into
the shop in the morning, size me up and say "You know my little buddy,
all the great men are dead, and I'm not feeling too well myself." It
cracked me up at the time, yet how close to the truth it was. It was the
prophecy of a dinosaur. Real traditional stone carving is just about a goner.
Even in Italy very few young men are interested in investing the years and
years it takes to learn this trade.
And alas, in 1978 the once great Vermont Marble
was bought out and the carving shop was closed. Seeing no future there I
struck out on my own, thinking that I would earn my fame and fortune as
a sculptor. I've shown my work in galleries all over the Northeast, and
promoted craft items made in stone. At the same time I began working in
the building trades as a mason. A field also dominated by the Italians (I
just can't get away from these guys). It may seem like a step down from
the lofty heights of fine art, but in many ways contracting set me up to
deal with the real world in ways I would not have learned in the shop.
In the past 29 years I've gone from laying brick to being responsible for large commercial building restoration projects. I've dealt with all aspects of stone construction, new and old. I've learned to organize labor to efficiently execute a job, and can honestly say that anything you can possibly want done in stone, I can do, and do it well.
Currently my niche in the industry seems to be restoration. I've worked
on a lot of churches and cemeteries. I've spent my days hundreds of feet
up on steeples, or crawling among the dank and dark underpinnings of these
structures, confronting many a complex problem. It's hard figuring out how
to rebuild a foundation wall when there's a bizillion tons of church sitting
on top of it. On the high end, I've replaced a lot of hands, noses and wings
on stone ornament. If it can't be fixed, I can duplicate it.
...Which brings me to the basic thrust of my appeal on these internet pages. While still available for site work, I would like to move back into the shop doing what I do best, carving. Mine is a very specialized trade catering to a specialized clientele, and it's very hard for us to access each other. This medium I believe can overcome this problem, and prevent my trade from becoming totally extinct. Look under "Stone" and you'll find this stone age man walking the web.
