NINE TONS OF MARBLE

The Show Must Go On

2011-10-12T12:21:00.000-04:00

This is my living room. It is also my studio. Don't feel too sorry for me; it's a big space. We have a sofa and a TV, and other living room accoutrement. Even still, I thought I'd be in a great studio location by now. Studio or not, the show must go on. I need to make four sculptures by the end of the year. The scale models need to be done before I can even start on the five-foot ones. Here I go.

The silver lining in all of this is that I am saving a tremendous amount of money. For this project, my budget is very, very tight and I need to stretch my dollars as far and as wide as I am able. So, I sculpt in my living room, listen to Pandora, drink coffee brewed by me just the way I like it, and enjoy the time alone.

Nonetheless, a grand studio project is underway. It involves more people and more money, so the logistics are still being worked out. Stay tuned...

First Annual Art Walk in Grove City

2011-09-03T14:43:00.000-04:00

The arts are coming to town! The arts are coming to town!

Olde Town is hosting its first Autumn Art Walk on Thursday Sept. 15th 4-8PM. Select merchants will host regional fine artists in their storefronts; the artists will be on hand to discuss their artwork, and many will have pieces to sell. The walk will also feature art demonstrations, entertainment and refreshments. Art from George Jr. and Hillview Summer Art Camp will round us out with student art. Olde Town is a great place for art!

Hempel Studios will be up to something fun and will love to see you.

Re-Openings, Re-Awakenings

2011-09-03T14:40:00.000-04:00

In the past three years, I've moved from a vibrant arts city to a small town far away from everything. I closed my studio, finished up my Master's degree, adopted a child and adjusted to a new life as a stay-at-home-mom. It's taken me a Herculean effort to adjust, but now I find myself more peaceful, healthier and happier than ever- even if I do miss Frederick, Maryland and her beautiful downtown, arts opportunities, and glorious spring weather! (Not to mention my dear friends, a fantastic organic co-op, Clay Oven, brunch at Firestones, Baker Park, etc. *sniff* *sniff*)

Enter the fall of 2011, I am preparing myself to be a working-outside-the-home mom! I have contracted with St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish in Carnegie, Pennsylvania to sculpt four niche sculptures: Sts. Joseph and Mary, St. Luke, St. Ignatius, and St. Vincent de Paul. My hours and the nature of my work will not be typical for working moms, but it will nonetheless require a significant amount of time and energy. I'm working hard to be more organized at home and to focus my attention on my daughter while we are home together. (Our time together is still quite significant, but compared to all the time, it seems like a lot of time away.)

I have also partnered with two other wonderful artists, Stacey Hogue of Green Pine Tree Studios and Grace Ellis Barber. (Yes, that very same Grace with whom I showed together for our senior show way back in 2000 at Hillsdale College. It's been a dream of ours for eleven years to have a studio together. Here we are!) We are working together to get a studio downtown Grove City (location TBA). It will be a sanctuary for the three of us to get to work as well as a place to host open drawing night, workshops, lectures, film night with discussion and open studio. We also want to be a place of sanctuary for other artists who may not feel supported or nurtured in their art. Artist's Way group, anyone?

On that note, I leave you with a fabulous quote from Chuck Close:
"The advice I like to give young artists, or really anybody who'll listen to me, is not to wait around for inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightning to strike you in the brain, you are not going to make an awful lot of work. All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself. Things occur to you. If you're sitting around trying to dream up a great art idea, you can sit there a long time before anything happens. But if you just get to work, something will occur to you and something else will occur to you and something else that you reject will push you in another direction. Inspiration is absolutely unnecessary and somehow deceptive. You feel like you need this great idea before you can get down to work, and I find that's almost never the case.".

(HT Mary Landavere)

March Musings

2011-03-12T09:59:00.000-05:00

It's snowing outside. It has been wet, cold, white, grey for months now. I waged war with February and managed to come out alive. I've learned to swim this winter. There is something magical about being at the pool while the wind blows snow into the windows. March 20th is around the corner, which means spring will certainly come to us. Here, it is already full-blown winter when the solstice arrives and still under a blanket of snow when the vernal equinox announces the arrival of thaw. There is all together too much winter here.

While the snow melt has leaked into our basement, I've been wading through two inches of water, dusting off sculptures and heaving them up the stairs and onto my kitchen counter. I really need a studio.

Nonetheless, having these sculptures around feels like home. My hands in action, moving clay, raking over the surfaces with tiny tools, feels like home. The smell, home. The heaviness of the armature, clay, board, pipe, somehow home, too. And yet, in this place, I am not entirely sure how to do this. I am at last comfortable in my role as Asha's mom and think that it might be possible to be "sculptor mom." It isn't that. It's the network of mold-makers, welders, sculpture movers, marble carvers, models and a vibrant drawing group that I've lost. How do I do sculpture here, without all of them?

Something new must be born. A new way of working, a new scale, new materials. I have discovered there here in Grove City, there are many creative people- artists, musicians, craftsmen, dancers. But, until recently, it seems that they have been hiding. A wonderful artist, Stacey (Please, please, please look at her blog. You will fall in love with her paintings!) moved to town about the same time I did. In fact, she and I looked at the same houses when we were shopping for real estate. She has brought a fabulous art show to our local coffee shop and enlivened this city! The next show will be soon: March 25-26th! I'll be doing a sculpture demonstration on the 26th from 10am-4pm.

Creativity has been steaming under the surface in Grove City and is now bubbling out. I am in fervent prayer that this place will open itself to creativity. I, also, have my eyes on a studio downtown that I hope will be a sanctuary for other "artist moms." Keep posted for more news on that!

the Nude and the Christian

2011-03-07T15:38:00.000-05:00

As an artist who specializes in figurative sculpture, I have spent countless hours in the studio working with nude models. It is a time-honored practice in the Classical tradition, employed by artists throughout the centuries. Depictions of the nude are an important aspect in understanding the history of art in the West. The Department of Art at Gordon College states that the study of the “nude has much more in common with medical knowledge than with popular sexualization of images in advertising and movies. An art studio with students or artists surrounding a model is akin to the operating theater. Knowledge is being gained and a professional activity is being practiced.”

Many of those who oppose the use of nude models for Christian artists do not draw a proper distinction between pornography and fine art, between naked and nude. Pornography seeks to tear body from spirit, rendering flesh disembodied, and exploiting that which was made in the image of God. Pornographers reduce humanity, usually women, from temples of flesh to tools of debased pleasure in exchange for money. The nude in art celebrates the beauty, the mystery and the delight of God’s creation. The artist marvels at the complexity of the human form, the perfection of original design, even as it is broken, marred by sin. Exposing Christian eyes to redemptive images of humanity can work as an antidote to the damage done by pornography.

God created the heavens and the earth, the sky and the moon, the sea, the fishes, birds, land and all that inhabit it, plants and animals alike. When He was finished at the end of each day, He was pleased with His work and called it “good.” On the sixth day, He created male and female in His own image. Satisfied with His work, He called it “very good.” Humans, made in the image of God, are the crowning glory of His creation.

That we are fallen and that sin has entered the world does not negate the “very good-ness” of God’s creation. He sent His only begotten Son—incarnate, that is “in flesh,” like us— to live among us, to die, and resurrect, destroying death and the grave. As we look forward to the Heavenly Jerusalem, we groan in this fallen world. Some of us are called to create artwork that hopes for and imagines that glory to come. When we receive garments in the world to come, they will not be to hide our nakedness, for there will be no shame in the Heavenly City. Rather, we will receive robes as adornment.

To be a Christian artist, redeemed by the Son of God, is to have a holy imagination, celebrating the very handiwork of God, and bringing glory to the astonishing creativity and goodness of our Creator.

------
I highly recommend going to Gordon College's website and reading their statement on nude models at a Christian college.

Maternity Leave

2009-07-18T19:56:00.001-04:00

Sarah will be taking a year-long maternity leave after the arrival of her daughter, Srushti, from India. Srushti was born June, 2007 and will be adopted in the United States by Erik and Sarah Irani. You can follow our adoption journey at our family blog, Cafe Irani.

Rejection

2009-06-29T15:44:00.000-04:00

"Your request for a grant was considered at a recent meeting of the Trustees and we regret to advise you that you are not a recipient of an award. You may re-apply on or after June 11, 2011."

Oh well. I was rejected in 2001 as well. Keep trying.

Moving Joe... Again

2009-06-22T08:10:00.000-04:00

A pattern has been emerging at Hempel Studios: moving stuff. I have numerous blog posts about moving Joe, especially the momentous day we installed St. Joseph at Our Lady of Mercy in May, 2007.

St. Joseph's carver's model has been on quite an adventure around the world. On a crisp day in February, 2005, Erik and I crated up St. Joseph, put him in the back of a truck and sent him off to Italy. It was the same day that I closed the studio on Fifth Street.

He traveled to Pietrasanta where Studio Antognazzi copied the sculpture in marble. When the plaster came back to the US, the big question on every one's mind was "where do you put a giant sculpture of St. Joseph?" He went into storage at Canal Street Studios in Buck's County, PA. Andrew Logan, proprietor at CSS, runs a sculpture installation operation, as well as a bronze foundry and a sculpture studio where he creates his own work.

Finally, this weekend, he came home. The first challenge what to load him up.

Then we drove the six or so hours back across the great state of Pennsylvania and had to back the truck down the long, narrow driveway. In the crate, St. Joseph was too heavy to move, so we had to get him out.

We ended up sawing him out.

He is light enough that we were able to scoot him onto a dolly.

And push him to the hydraulic lift, which not-terribly-gently lowered him to the ground.

Once he was on the ground, we wheeled him into the garage. The next challenge was to get the crate out. We weren't as careful not to drop the crate and we did, in fact, drop it. We're going to turn the crate into a fun tool shed or a playhouse!

Road Trip

2009-06-16T09:41:00.000-04:00

Way back when St. Joseph was installed, I had the plaster carver's model sent back to the US from Italy with the marble sculpture. The marble went into Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church and the plaster went into storage. Well, his time in storage has run out so we're going on a 725 mile road trip across the great state of Pennsylvania. One wonders what to do with a giant statue of St. Joseph and a small cottage in the Pennsylvanian countryside. Anyone want to "borrow" a big statue?

Sarah in Exile

2009-06-02T16:49:00.001-04:00

My on-line persona is "Sarah in Exile." God brought me out of a beautiful and thriving city and plunked me down in the middle of the Pennsylvanian countryside. My husband and I both agree that we see the hand of God at work and that it was His Spirit who led us into exile, but it is exile nonetheless. I've been here nearly six months; it is a place where no one knows me.

God has stripped me down and crushed me ego. I went from being somebody to being nobody. I liked to fancy myself a big-shot artist who felt very proud of her accomplishments at such a young age. I was in the local paper so many times that I stopped saving clippings. I made local television appearances more than once. People knew who I was. Let me be honest, I loved it. I don't care much about money, but give me popularity, acclaim, even fame. It is delicious to me. I can eat it and never get full.

I can never get full because fame and popularity do not satisfy the longings of our spirits. God has so dearly loved me that he has crushed me. He is a jealous God. He has taken me into exile. Here I am nothing more than a middle-class, suburban housewife. My social status has been taken from me and it hurts to die.

But I see the hand of God. God has not given me this talent, this training and these opportunities so that I may be great, but so that I may be an extravagant lover of God. He gave me these gifts so that I can praise Him. In yesterday's post I poured out the misery I have felt as an artist over the years. "I DON'T WANT TO DO THIS ANYMORE!" I scream at God. "You have made a mistake in making me with this personality and these gifts. They don't work together. I cannot be an extrovert and work alone. I will die."

Exactly. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. (Matt 10:39)

If I know anything about God it is that He does not make mistakes. For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. (Psalm 139:13-14) God created me exactly as He intended to. I am His design, extrovert, distracted, fanciful, whimsical, artist and all.

But here in exile I have come to know that my calling is first to be a lover of God. "The most important [commandment]," answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' (Mark 12:28-30) In his letter to Christian artists, Michael O'Brien tells us that the "essential task remains the same... to seek the will of the Father and the guidance of the Holy Spirit with your whole hearts. A life of prayer and sacraments—of union with our living savior Jesus—is absolutely essential, if we hope to bear good fruit in the world.

So, here I am in exile, learning to love God because he first loved me. I cannot seek the art, only Him. The irony is that the less I seek art and the more I seek Him, the greater the art will flow to my fingertips and the more Beautiful it will be. Only this time I won't be in my own personal hell like I have been in the past, but I will be nourished with a food that does not leave me hungry.

A Beautiful Letter to Artists

2009-06-01T22:20:00.000-04:00

A Letter to Artists by Michael O'Brien

" They must understand that their first vocation is always the sacrament of marriage, and the call to art a subsidiary vocation.

"Many of you who have written to me are not married, and yet the essential task remains the same for you: to seek the will of the Father and the guidance of the Holy Spirit with your whole hearts. A life of prayer and sacraments—of union with our living savior Jesus—is absolutely essential, if we hope to bear good fruit in the world."

Art Woes and Her Story

2009-06-01T10:54:00.000-04:00

I'm a very burnt-out artist and I think I've been burnt-out for a long, long time. I shot out of college, eager to make this dream happen. I worked as an apprentice for a year and then started on a big commission. I worked with another artist and as our relationship became tangled in life and in the work, I became unraveled. We finished the commission just in time, but that year I had hardly slept and I had cried more than any other time in my life. I was spent. When things dissolved I was broke, applying for and being rejected by grants and awards. I did win one award, though. It sent me to Lyme, Connecticut for a sculpture competition and one of the worst weeks of my life. When I returned to my home in Maryland, I was severely depressed. For seven months I had no work, and hardly any friends. I lost weight. I could barely get out of bed every day. The only thing that brought me to the studio every day was the responsibility of feeding Ivan the studio cat, who was my only friend at that time.

During this time of severe depression, I was competing for a big commission to sculpt Joseph and Mary in marble for a church in Potomac. It took months and months for the church to determine the winner. It was the summer before my twenty-fifth birthday.

Just after my birthday, I was awarded the job and life seemed to be looking up. I worked on small models of the sculptures in preparation for the large ones. That summer I found the studio of my dreams and spent a lot of time fixing it up, painting it and making it mine. I thought that I had arrived in the Promised Land. I started work on the enlarged sculptures. I was lonely. Painfully lonely. Months would pass without touching another person. My mother would visit. I just wanted a hug. I'd go out dancing, just for the joy of human contact. I was an extrovert; I couldn't do this.

Finally, I got a part-time job at the local college down the street. It was my lifeline. Not only did I now have some supplemental income and health insurance, but I could eat at the dining hall for only a few dollars and be there with other people. I had students who worked in my office who I would grow to dearly love. Many of these students are grown now and getting married or off to graduate school. I feel like a proud mother hen.

Completing those two giant sculptures was agonizing. Every time I heard about someone who'd wake up every day excited about his job, I'd want to throw my shoe at him. I was living the dream and yet I dreaded every day. How could it be possible?

While I was working on this insurmountable project, I was asked to do things that were beyond my maturity level. I was importing marble, working with a broker, working with different sub-contractors- enlarging, casting, carving, models, installation, the client. I had a hundred problems that I had to solve. I had to find a customs broker. I had a crew of Italian carvers working in Italy. I was not yet thirty years old.

Somehow the project was completed. It was only by the grace of God, for I was incapable on my own. I got married in 2005, closed my dream studio, left my job at the college and got really really lost artistically. I moved the studio into our basement, but I could not work in isolation. So, I got a group studio in Kemp Hall, downtown Frederick. In many ways, I accomplished a lot of personal work there. Unfortunately, the studio was in the hole and I had to take out of loan to pay my rent and cast some pieces. we had to leave Kemp Hall, so I moved my studio back to fifth street, but in a different location. Then it happened. The Move. The Big Transition. I closed that studio in December 2008 and haven't had one since. That loan still haunts me and keeps my studio from moving forward. I cannot afford one more thing. This means no models, no studio, no new materials.

My whole life I've wanted nothing more than to be an artist. I went to college with the intention of being a working artist; I was an apprentice to a very successful sculptor; I took on big commissions and ran my own studio for seven years. Here I am, on the eve of thirty-two totally burnt out on art. I think about art all of the time; it haunts me. Yet, however I've been doing it has not worked for me. The isolation, the business of it, the deadlines and clients. It has nearly killed my spirit.

I am an extrovert. I am a visionary. God made me this way. I cannot work in isolation. I do not flourish. I whither and die. Many artists work alone, but there are those of us who are cannot.

My next creative task is raising a child. There is no person on earth more creative than the human child. I haven't forgotten about making art and about my calling, but I refuse to let it destroy me like it nearly did.

Christian Artists' Bookshelf

2009-05-26T10:13:00.000-04:00

I forgot to mention the two books I am currently reading:

Refractions: A Journey of Faith, Art, and Culture by Makoto Fujimura and

Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art by Madeleine L'Engle

I haven't finished reading them, so I'll refrain from comment, but do any of you have any imput on these books?

A Christian Artist's Bookshelf

2009-05-22T10:02:00.000-04:00

Being and artist in a Christian community is often as difficult as being a Christian in an arts community. This seems odd in light of Western history insofar as the Church has been largely responsible for commissioning some of the greatest pieces of art that has ever been created. Now, it is widely accepted that the Christian artistic community is largely irrelevant. There are so many changes on the horizon, however. Many Christian arts organizations are popping up, such as CIVA (Christians in the Visual Arts) and the Foundation for Sacred Art. Not to mention, Image Journal and the International Arts Movement. Sadly, only a few Christian colleges are really taking their visual art departments seriously. I think that this is changing for the better, though! A lot of culture-making Christians have seen the danger of eschewing the arts and have done a lot of culture work to change things. Beauty is not irrelevant for Christians, as much as our Manichean cultural poison would have us believe.

What books, essays or articles can we turn to to help shape the minds and practice of Christians in the visual arts today? A few of my favorites are:

Art And the Bible: Two Essays (Ivp Classics) by Francis A. Schaeffer and Michael Card

State of the Arts: From Bezalel to Maplethorpe, by Dr. Gene Veith

Rainbows for the Fallen World: Aesthetic Life and Artistic Task, by Calvin G. Seerveld

Body and Gift: Reflections on Creation / Pope John Paul II's Theology of the Body in Simple Language, Vol. 1, by Sam Torode and Christopher West

Purity of Heart: Reflections on Love and Lust / Pope John Paul II's Theology of the Body in Simple Language, Vol. 2 by Sam Torode and Christopher West

From the blog, Aesthetic Elevator: "The Nude Figure and Christianity"

"Religion and the Arts in America" by CAMILLE PAGLIA in Arion: A Journal of Humanities

What articles, books, essays, blog posts would you recommend?

The Critic

2009-05-19T12:21:00.000-04:00

My studio is now in the foyer of my 1930s cottage. It isn't exactly the place to make big sculptures. So, I've been painting. I don't see myself as someone who is very skilled at mixing color and my paintings tend to be very monochromatic and more like drawings with paint than anything. Let me introduce you to my Critic. If you are an artist, writer, musician, runner, student, or any other type of person you probably have an inner Critic who is always cutting you down and trying to talk you out of living out your calling. In Christianity we call this voice the Devil, Satan, whatever. In the arts, he is the Critic. My Critic is cruel and relentless, but he is never creative. When I started this particular painting, the conversation went a little like this:

Critic: This painting sucks.
Sarah: I've only been working on it for three minutes.
Critic: Well, it probably will suck, then.
Sarah: I don't care, I'm having fun.
Critic: Don't you have better things to do than make a sucky painting?
Sarah: Shut up and let me paint.
Silence
Critic: Your painting sucks.
Sarah: Would you shut up. I'm having fun and it doesn't matter.
Critic: Sucks.
Sarah: Groan.

And so it goes and so I paint. The Critic doesn't leave me alone there. When I sit down to write my thesis, he says the same thing. "You'll never finish this thesis. It's terrible anyway." Or in sculpture, "Your best work is behind you, you might as well give up now." Or in my day-to-day "You are a lazy, good-for-nothing, Sarah." I try to show him my resume, which has many fine points and awards. He isn't impressed. "Well, so-and-so has a PhD and you don't." I can't win with him. So, I'm trying to silence him. Kill him. Off with his head!

Channeling Whistler

2009-05-19T08:09:00.001-04:00

I just love this painting, The Lady in White by JM Whistler. Perhaps it is the sculptor in me who loves the white-on-white. She's a sculpture against a white backdrop, but her flesh is real. Sculpture come to life; it is all of our fantasies. She isn't alive because she is realistic, however. Hyper-realism doesn't make a painting or sculpture come alive! It is rather the presence of the work. Do you know how you can tell if another person is in the room, even if you cannot see him? This painting is that way. She's in the room with you, alive.

MA Thesis

2009-05-11T12:20:00.001-04:00

This past year has been more writing than sculpting. That's because I've been working to finish up my degree before the baby arrives. Just to clarify, I'm working on an M.A. in Humanities with an emphasis in Medieval and Renaissance Studies. My thesis is on Piero della Francesca's Polyptych of the Misericordia.

I am sure that you are all wondering why a sculptor would be getting a degree in the Humanities and writing a paper about a panel painting. For one, I do not see the history of art and the making of art as two separate disciplines. It is very important for my work that I know quite a lot about the history of what it is that I'm doing, and not just what is being made now or even recently. Why have humans made art historically? We now see art as an expression of the self, as being therapeutic, as something we make because we want to and then we struggle to market it. As far as human history is concerned these ideas about art are very new. In the Renaissance, no one would think to make art just because. There was an intended purpose, a patron and a payroll. Most artists worked in groups as a part of a workshop under a master. The myth of the reclusive, anti-social artist who works obsessively alone on things that express the inner workings of his soul may describe a few contemporary artists, but it is not the norm. In fact, many of us contemporary artists who work better in groups, are generally clean and cheerful and who would like to earn a decent wage feel like we phonies because we do not live up to some invented stereotype based off a few eccentrics.

So at the end of all of this, I'll have a Master's degree, not in studio art, but the art history, culture, philosophy, theology and literature of a time when the West commonly sees as the pinnacle of art. Until then, my nose is pressesd firmly to the grindstone as I try to get this done. It feels like a monumental task, but the words of my uncle echo in my mind, "One shovel full at a time." Or, for me, "One sentence at a time."

Kudos

2009-05-10T20:26:00.001-04:00

A nice little mention by First Things!

Nine Tons of Marble

2009-05-10T20:09:00.001-04:00

My uncle tells this beautiful parable about achieving a monumental task. Many years ago, he and his young son had to lay a sewer line in the back yard. They had to dig a forty-foot trench by hand, too poor to afford any machinery. His small son asked, "Dad, how will we ever dig such a long trench?" And he replied, "One shovel full at a time." Some time later, the father and son team were finished. When the men came to deliver the pipe, they asked, "Where is all of your equipment?" My uncle told him that they didn't use any. "But how did you possibly dig all of this?" And my young cousin piped in "One shovel full at a time."

While I was working on the Virgin Mary sculpture, I had literally imported nine tons of marble from the Cararra Mountains in Italy. How were we ever going to get an image of the Virgin out of that enormous block of mountain? It seemed like forever that we worked on this sculpture and the only way that it was going to get done was one bit at a time. In fact, this is the only way that art is ever finished, one brush stroke at a time, one note at a time, one blow to the chisel at a time.

And so this blog offers a glimpse into the shovels full of creativity that I dig up along my journey. Some days I don't work and lately those days seem more and more, but the ache to create grows more and more intense. I hope that I will have more to report in the coming days.

To Make Way for Advertising...

2009-02-07T10:43:00.000-05:00

This morning in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette I read about a large-scale sculpture that is being removed to make way for advertising.

"The airport authority notified artist Peter Calaboyias in a Feb. 3 letter that his sculpture, 78 feet long and 8 feet high, was being removed to clear the way for advertising. It had begun taking down the work yesterday."

Ouch! As if art isn't underappreciated enough already. This had to have hurt. Upon closer investigation, this artist turns out to be a professor at Grove City College. Perhaps I ought to send him a condolences letter.

Art vs. Advertising. Let's see who wins.

Hempel Studios News- Winter 2009

2009-02-07T10:36:00.000-05:00

Dear Friends of Hempel Studios,

As many of you may already know, Hempel Studios has pulled up stakes from the studio beneath the Blue Elephant in Frederick. I have not yet established a new physical studio space, so there are sculptures in process in the foyer of our new little 1930s cottage. We have yet to sell our fabulous little bungalow in Frederick. Please send real-estate well-wishes in our direction!

For the next few months, I will be working on the final capstone project for my Master's degree at Hood College. I've been taking classes part-time for the past four years and now I am nearly complete! My course of study has been a chance for me to delve into the history and tradition of Medieval and Renaissance art. The final paper will focus on a fifteenth-century Italian altarpiece by Piero della Francesca. Bruce Cole says of Piero della Fransceca that “while basing his art firmly on time-honored traditions, principles, and types, he was able to create a highly original style and interpretation.” This is my goal as well and I hope that I am able to take away from this paper some valuable things that I can incorporate into my studio work.

If you would like to receive e-mail newsletters from Hempel Studios, please go to the Contact section of http://www.hempelstudios.com/. In the case that you would like to be a part of the mailing list, please include your mailing address in your request. Otherwise, you can always find the latest updates here on the Hempel Studios blog. My New Year's Resolution is to update this blog more regularly.

Many Blessings,

Sarah

Big Changes

2008-12-24T10:47:00.000-05:00

These past few months have been extremely stressful with the other half of my household living a million miles away while I stayed behind to finish my last semester of coursework at Hood College and wrap up a graduate assistantship in the Dean's office. Yes, it's true: we're moving.

Hempel Studios is heading out of town. As if six studios in eight years weren't enough, here we go again! This time we're headed way off Fifth Street. Hempel Studios will be located in the basement of our new cottage until a more permanent location is established. This does not mean that Hempel Studios will be in complete hibernation, however.

As for 2009... We move into our new home officially on January 19th. Most of my time will be spent working on my Master's thesis for the next several months. Then, hopefully, we'll get the call to go to India to pick up our daughter, Srushti.

I am also praying for a teaching position at a local university. It'll have to be part time, but I am planning to take a good year off to spend with our daughter. I love being a part of a university community and will miss Hood College tremendously when we move. I have positioned myself for a job teaching young, budding artists as they enter college. I didn't get an MFA because I was too busy working on giant marble sculptures for a church, but I did manage an MA in Humanities. Well, almost. I still have that pesky thesis to write. I'm hoping that the university will see the fancy degree, but look harder at my work and all that I've managed to accomplish in the past eight years.

We're off on a new adventure and it is an exciting time, full of possibilities!

Tuesday Nights...

2008-07-29T22:38:00.000-04:00

...will be on summer vacation for the month of August. See you in September! In the meantime, I'm working on a bust for the museum figures company in Baltimore and a repair job on a lovely little Blessed Mother sculpture whose hands have seen better days. I am always grateful for the work that I get, even when I grumble about being overwhelmed! It's feast or famine in this line of work and this feast is certainly welcome after a very hungry summer.

In the meantime, class is going well. We're working hard on our self-portraits and doing a little bit of self-discovery in the meantime. I'll get some pictures up soon.

In Print

2008-07-16T12:38:00.000-04:00

An image of my sculpture of the Virgin Annunciate is in the current issue of Dappled Things.*

*Dappled Things is a new literary magazine dedicated to providing a space for young writers to engage the literary world from a Catholic perspective. The magazine is committed to quality writing that takes advantage of the religious, theological, philosophical, artistic, cultural, and literary heritage of the Catholic Church in order to inform and enrich contemporary literary culture. Dappled Things pledges complete faithfulness to the teachings of the Catholic Church as expressed by the Bishop of Rome and the Church's Magisterium.

From Drawing to Sculpture

2008-07-16T09:46:00.001-04:00

Last week's drawing inspired me to make a bas-relief of Leda and the Swan. This image shows the work in process.

Consider the poem by W.B. Yeats:

A sudden blow: the great wings beating still

Above the staggering girl, her thighs caressed

By his dark webs, her nape caught in his bill,

He holds her helpless breast upon his breast.

How can those terrified vague fingers push

The feathered glory from her loosening thighs?

How can anybody, laid in that white rush,

But feel the strange heart beating where it lies?

A shudder in the loins, engenders there

The broken wall, the burning roof and tower

And Agamemnon dead.

Being so caught up,

So mastered by the brute blood of the air,

Did she put on his knowledge with his power

Before the indifferent beak could let her drop?

Tuesday Nights

2008-07-16T09:44:00.000-04:00

Last week:
This week:

Tuesday Night

2008-07-02T13:56:00.000-04:00

Every Tuesday night we get together and draw. We hire different models, some are nude, some wear costumes. We always have fun and sometimes produce some good drawings. I'll try to post some of the drawings that I've done. This is from last night:

No Class this Week

2008-06-18T10:39:00.000-04:00

The portraiture and drawing classes have been cancelled until further notice. If you are interested in participating in a class at Hempel Studios, please e-mail info@hempelstudios.com and you will be placed on a interest list.

Thank you.

First Saturday Gallery Walk

2008-06-07T17:43:00.000-04:00

I have spent the day doing a sculpture demonstration downtown Frederick. I had a model from a local high school who sat patiently on a stool for my while I modeled a portrait. It was 101degrees on my car thermostat and felt every bit as hot. I drank a half-gallon of water and three tall glasses of iced tea. I started at 10:00am and wrapped up around 4:30pm. I am at home cooling off before I head back into town to open my studio at 7:00pm for an Open Studio night. I hope to have a lot of visitors and a lot of fun!

New Images

2008-05-28T21:05:00.001-04:00

The new images are on the website now! The photographs are courtesty of my studio neighbor Barry Oxendine.

Photo Shoot

2008-05-26T17:07:00.000-04:00

All day Saturday I shot slides with my studio neighbor, Barry. He is a lighting director and photographer. We had such a great time setting up shots and lighting my work. Many of the pieces are a shiny bronze, which is especially challenging to shoot without having white hot spots. We listened to Bob Dylan and old British pop and talked art and lighting. It was such a fun time! The shots turned out great, but something didn't go right when we put the images to CD, so I've got to go back to the studio and get the images uploaded to my PC.

Soon, the new images will appear on the website!

Portrait Demonstration

2008-05-23T12:54:00.000-04:00

I just talked with the folks at Downtown Frederick Partnership about doing a portrait sculpture demonstration downtown and they loved the idea! So, it's official; I'll be sculpting a portrait all day on June 7th at the corner of Market and Patrick Streets outside the BB&T Bank Building. I'll begin work at 10:00am and wrap up when I get tired, probably around 5:00pm. When I wrap up downtown, I'll move all of my equipment back to my studio at 4 West 5th Street and invite folks in to see the studio for a few hours.

I've done portrait demonstrations before and people seem to really enjoy watching a sculpture come to life! It ought to be fun.

Hope to see you all there.

Sneak Preview

2008-05-06T08:41:00.001-04:00

It is not so often that folks get to peer into the artist's studio. I took a snapshot when I was working last week. I have several sculptures waiting to be photographed, so very few people have seen them yet. You'll also notice drawings up on the wall. Every Tuesday I gather with some other artists and we share the cost of a model. Tuesday Night Drawing has become sacred to us, drawn us together as friends as well as enhanced our abilities as artists.

Last week, Walter of the Yellow Barn, shared with us his color lecture. In honor of this event, I brought a box of chalk pastels for drawing! I have had them since I was a child, but color has always unnerved me. I started drawing the figure in orange and added the shadows with blue. Then I added some red and went hog wild with color!

Walter has also inspired me to start painting outdoors. While I was on a mini-vacation this past weekend, I packed teeny canvases and enjoyed the beach while painting the sailboats pulled up on shore. Right now, painting is just for fun, but hopefully Hempel Studios will not only feature sculpture!

Website Launch

2008-04-29T08:16:00.000-04:00

I redesigned the Hempel Studios website so that it is easier to use and hopefully more cohesive in design. The new site has some kinks to work out still, but I wanted to announce my upcoming classes for this summer.

SUMMER CLASSES and WORKSHOPS at HEMPEL STUDIOS

Isolating the Features Workshops

Thursdays from 6:00- 9:00 pm

May 15th- Sculpting the Nose

May 22nd- Sculpting the Mouth

May 29th- Sculpting the Eyes

June 5th- Sculpting the Ears

Bring a sketchpad, a flat board and clay. $35.00 each class.

In these workshops, we'll isolate the features of the face, study the anatomy and spend time looking closely at each one.

Sculpting the Portrait in Clay

Thursdays from 6:00- 9:00 pm, June 19th- August 7th

In this eight-week portrait sculpture intensive we will cover the anatomy of the head and neck, learn to model a likeness in clay, and look at ways to make the portrait expressive. Registration required.

Tuition: $400.00, includes armature, clay and model fee.

Materials list will be provided the first day of class.Casting and Finishing are optional and additional.
FOR MORE INFORMATION...

February 2008

2008-02-26T14:30:00.000-05:00

Exhibition Updates

Final Tour Schedule for Redeeming Beauty:

March 7 -- May 12, 2008: Ave Maria University (Naples, FL)
Reed Armstrong will give a lecture, "Images of Christ through History," at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, March 9 in Ave Maria University's Oratory (5251 Avila Ave, Ave Maria, FL 34142).
The exhibit opening will coincide with Ave Maria's annual Festival of the Arts.

May 23 -- July 25, 2008: National Shrine of Mary, Queen of the Universe (Orlando, FL)

August 9 -- October 24, 2008: University of Dayton (Dayton, OH)

November 16, 2008 -- January 9, 2009: Cathedral Arts Project, St Cecilia Cathedral (Omaha, NE)

Beginning March 10, the Foundation will be located at the following address:

The Foundation for Sacred Arts
1413 K Street NW, Suite 1000
Washington, DC 20005
www.thesacredarts.org

Autumn/ Winter 2007

2008-02-24T20:09:00.000-05:00

Dedication Mass

After many years of hard work the sculptures of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Joseph were dedicated in a special Mass on November 17, 2007 at Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church. Her work on this project was featured on the cover of Lutheran Forum magazine in their Winter 2007 issue.

Redeeming Beauty:Religious Works of Contemporary Artists

Two works have been accepted into a traveling exhibition sponsored by the Foundation for Sacred Arts . The show opened at The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception on August 30, 2007. The exhibit was on display at Christendom College, Front Royal Virgina, from Oct 24th to December 9th. It will be going to Ave Maria College, Naples, Florida, starting on March 8th, 2008.For more information visit: www.thesacredarts.org

Sarah Gets a New Studio

The weekend after Christmas we moved everything out of Kemp Hall, hauled it down the street and settled into the new workspace on 5th Street. This makes this space my fourth studio on 5th Street!

Summer 2007

2008-02-24T19:55:00.000-05:00

St. Joseph is Installed!

A very long awaited day has finally come! St. Joseph was installed at Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Parish on May 24th, just in time for Pentecost. Andrew Logan of Canal Street Studios and his assistant, Katie, were great. They picked up the marble sculpture and plaster carver's model from the US Customs inspection office in New York, trucked it down to Potomac, placed the stone and finished the job by dinner time. Our Lady of Mercy is planning a big celebration for both St. Joseph and the Virgin Annunciate some time in the fall. A date has not yet been set.

In other news, I am joining the artists of the Mother of God Artists Guild for a group exhibition at the Washington Theological Union. The show runs until the 12th of July and there will be an opening on June 20th at 4:30-6:30.Two works have been accepted into a traveling exhibition sponsored by the Foundation for Sacred Arts. The exhibit will open on August 31st at the National Shrine in Washington, DC. An opening event will be held the evening before, August 30th, beginning at 7:00 pm.It's been a busy and rewarding summer and I am excited to start some new projects. Thank you to all of you who have encouraged me through this very long and difficult project and a big thanks to everyone at Our Lady of Mercy for taking a chance on a young sculptor. (Pictured below, left: St. Joseph gets a ride on the fork lift. Right: Sarah and Andrew pose in front of the installed sculpture at the end of a long, hard day.)

Winter 2006

2008-02-24T19:45:00.001-05:00

The Virgin is Installed

How many people does it take to move a two-ton sculpture of the Blessed Virgin out of the studio, into a truck, sixty-five miles down the road and into a niche in a church? We had quite a crew out there! I arrived at the studio of Malcolm Harlow in the Shenandoah Valley at ten in the morning. Malcolm was there with the Cambodian sculptor who had helped carve the piece, Chantou Oeur. The two of them were building a ramp to move the sculpture laterally out of the studio. They "got all Egyptian on us," as the Australian sculpture-mover quipped, and put wooden rollers beneath the base of the sculpture. They rigged a chain and cable to a giant old tree with a wrenching system. JC, the woodworker who did the door handles in the Harlow's home, was there operating the wrench. He'd adjust the chain and the sculpture would move forward a few inches along the wooden rollers. Then Chantou and Malcolm had to attach straps to the sculpture to lift it ever so slightly in order to move the rollers to the front as they rolled out the other end. Somehow I got in charge of operating the pulley system to lift the sculpture. "Pull up, Sarah!" It is amazing that a woman of my stature was able to lift such a heavy object using physics. (To all you kids out there- pay attention in science class, you'll need it!) Then the folks from Canal Street Studios, Andrew Logan and his brother Chris visiting from Australia, arrived with the crane and a truck. So how many people does it take?One stonecarver, a Cambodian artist, a woodworker, a sculptor (that's me!), another artist, two Australian sculpture-movers, a photographer and a small audience.

Once we got the sculpture on the truck, the movers wrapped her in a blanket and strapped down the marble. We were on our way! When we got the church, there was no problem using the crane to lower the Virgin onto a dolly designed especially for extra heavy objects. (Again with the physics!) They got the Virgin into the church with no problem, but we had to erect a pulley system able to lift the object and place her in to the niche. The sun set as fatigue overwhelmed our crew. So, we decided to get some rest and resume work the next day.

Work resumed the following morning, but we still couldn't get it in place. So, we had to leave things undone while the crew from Canal Street Studios went home in search of better equipment. They returned with a small fork lift.

Autumn 2006

2008-02-24T19:36:00.000-05:00

Off to Italia

The past few weeks Erik and Sarah spent in Italy. They visited Rome, Pisa, Florence, Siena and San Gimignano, and Pietrasanta. After Sarah completed the clay sculpture of St. Joseph she had a plaster cast made and sent it to Studio Antognazzi in Pietrasanta, Italy. The stone carvers there selected a piece of marble from the mountains surrounding the Italian town. The sculpture is nearly complete and Sarah even learned a thing or two about wielding a chisel! (Pictured below: Sarah poses with St. Joseph in Pietrasanta with a pneumatic hammer and an official stone carver's paper hat.)

Virgin Nearing Completion

After so much work, the journey is coming close to an end. The Virgin Mary awaits at the carver's studio for final approval. The next step is to coordinate a team to install the nearly two ton sculpture at Our Lady of Mercy Catholic Church in Potomac, Maryland. (Pictured below: The Virgin nearly complete, August 2, 2006, at Malcolm's studio in Virginia.)

Winter 2005

2008-02-24T19:25:00.000-05:00

Sarah M. Hempel and Erik A. Irani were married in Frederick, Maryland on the eighth of October!www.erikandsarah.us

Back to School

Sarah had the semester off due to her October wedding and lengthy honeymoon. Classes will resume in the Spring semester at Hood College. Sarah's goal is to finish with her course work by the 2006 fall semester, so she can begin working on her thesis in the Spring. She has also scheduled in some art courses to keep her fingers and mind nimble.

Studio News

The past few weeks have been a whirlwind of contractors and paint as the Iranis have been working hard to retrofit their small townhome basement into a suitable studio space. This is a temporary situation as Sarah works her way through school and the couple starts a family.

Summer 2005

2008-02-24T19:16:00.000-05:00

St. Joseph in Stone

We are wrapping up the carver's model of St. Joseph and shipping him off to Italy in the next few months. There, he will be carved by a team of Italian carvers in Pietrasanta. This has been a lengthy and difficult project, but seeing it come closer and closer to fruition is tremendously rewarding!Meanwhile, the Virgin Mary is in the process of being completed at the stone-carver's studio and we hope to have an installation date this fall. These two sculptures have been a huge undertaking for this young artist. All of the bumps and bruises along the way have been tremendous learning experiences. Sarah hopes that her client will feel that the wait was well worth it and enjoy these two marble sculptures for many years to come!

Wedding Bells

October 8th, 2005 with be a big day for Sarah Hempel. It will be on this day she marries her beloved Erik Irani! The couple got engaged last year at the National Gallery of Art, when Erik got down on one knee in front of a sculpture fountain. You can read more about their plans, how they met and how he proposed at their wedsite: www.erikandsarah.us!The two will honeymoon at a top secret location and then fly to Michigan for a reception there with friends and family before returning home to Maryland and resume work on the 31st of October.

Studio Sabbatical

In the next few months, the soon-to-be Mrs. Irani is taking a short sabbatical from large-scale commissioned work (unless of course she is given an offer she can't refuse!) She plans to resume work after the New Year. She has many other irons in the fire as well: she plans to finish up her Master's of Arts degree as well as working on her first publication. Sarah is changing her name to Sarah Hempel Irani, but you can still find her here at www.HempelStudios.com!

Summer 2004

2008-02-24T19:01:00.000-05:00

The Virgin in Stone

A plaster cast of the full-scale Blessed Virgin has been delievered to the stone-carver's studio in Virginia. Using the ancient method of splitting stone, Malcolm, the carver, and his assistant drilled holes in the stone and inserted dowel rods. The rods were then filled with water and as the wood expanden the stone split! Then they began with the hammers and chisels. We are planning an Advent installation celebration.St. Joseph is underway in the studio now. He is almost ready be draped and finished. (Pictured below: Sarah stands on the nine-ton block of marble she and Malcolm had imported from Italy.)

Traveling in the Summer

The summer has been a busy one this year. In addition to working at Hood College and managing things at the studio, Sarah has been here, there and everywhere! She traveled with her beau, Erik, to his neck of the woods, New York City, and visited the MET for the first time. Then off to her mom's hometown, Chicago! Chicago architecture has always inspired Sarah and she hopes to have some statuary grace some buildings of comperable beauty. (Pictured right: Sarah at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.)

Spring 2004

2008-02-24T18:42:00.000-05:00

Madonna Ready to Go

After months of being at the studio, the Blessed Virgin, or the Madonna as some are want to call her, is ready for stone. The benefactor and some other representatives from Our Lady of Mercy made the trek up to Frederick for final inspections on the 14th of February. They gave me an enthusiastic "thumbs up" and the next step was to load her up and send her to Baltimore in order to be cast in plaster. The stone from Carrara, Italy is waiting patiently in New Jersey. I plan to bring the cast of the Virgin to the carver's studio sometime this week or next. We are aiming for the Feast of the Assumption in August as a possible celebration and dedication of the piece.Now we are ready to begin St. Joseph. He is currently a humanoid armature surrounded by piles of clay. I anticipate having a model in this week to launch the figure. (Pictured below: How many sculptors does it take to load a four-hundre pound Virgin into a truck?)

Sarah at Hood College

Since November, Sarah has been working as the interim Coordinator of Visual Resources at Hood College's slide library for the Art History and Archeology department. The job has official been published externally and she has an interview on St.Patrick's Day. May the Luck o' the Irish be with her!In addition to working at Hood College, she has enrolled in the Master's program with an aim to pursue Medieval Studies. This semester she is taking a course on Dante and Giotto, which just so happens to be taught by the editors of the Cambridge Companion to Giotto.

Winter 2003

2008-02-24T18:36:00.001-05:00

Gallery Walk

On the 1st day of November, incidentally Sarah's birthday, Hempel Studios hosted its very first open studio as a participant in downtown Frederick's First Saturday Gallery Walk. It also happened to be Sarah's 26th birthday, so there was much celebration! Amidst the merriment, tragedy struck: Sarah lost the only corkscrew at the studio! Her friend and produce supplier, Jim, asked for a power drill, a 3" drywall screw and a pair of pliers. As her brother, Buck, held the wine bottles, Jim inserted a screw into each cork and pulled it out with lineman's pliers. Meanwhile, Reiner, Sarah's favorite model, ran to the corner liquor shop (only a half block away) and bought a new corkscrew for a dollar. "Yeah, we could have done that," Buck and Jim replied in unison. Well, at least the crisis was averted!

(Pictured to the right: Sarah upstairs in the gallery space of the studio at 116 1/2 with artwork by Grace Ellis Barber. Below: Farmer Jim and Brother Buck with drywall screws and pliers opening some merlot!)

The Blessed Virgin Update

The Blessed Virgin is well on her way to being completed-at least in clay! Sarah ordered the stone from Italy and it is on a barge somewhere in the mid-Atlantic right now. She anticipates having a plaster carver's model to the stone carver by January, when she will begin work on the enlarged St. Joseph as well.

Summer 2003

2008-02-24T18:27:00.000-05:00

Update on the Blessed Virgin

A visit to Pat McEvoy's studio, Baltimore. McEvoy, using a Cartesian box, has been working diligently enlarging the 1/3 scale Mary maquette that Hempel designed for Our Lady of Mercy's sanctuary. Hempel will transport the six-foot Mary to her studio in October for final revisions and detail. A summer 2004 installation is anticipated.One can see the Cartesian box (left) surrounding the scale plaster model and the enlarged clay piece. The box allows the artist to take measurements in three dimensions!

First Open Studio

The first of hopefully several "open studios" is being planned for the first day of November. The city of Frederick hosts a First Saturday Gallery Walk. Every first Saturday over 50 shops and galleries keep their doors open late offering light fair and special exhibits. Come to the open studio at 5th Street after perusing all the shops uptown!