Finally got the big limestone piece off the forklift and onto its base
Three months wrestling this block. Seven hundred pounds of limestone. Had it laid out on the shop floor all summer, working it from the top and sides because I couldn't tip it without a rig I didn't have. Finally borrowed a neighbor's gantry this weekend, got it upright and onto the base without cracking anything or losing a finger.
It's not finished. But it's standing. That's a different thing than lying down. When you work flat you're making a drawing in stone. Standing up, it starts talking back to you. Whole different set of decisions now.
Took a photo of it in the afternoon light through the shop door. First time it's looked like a real piece. Might post it later if I don't talk myself out of it.
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That's a real milestone. There's something about the shift from working on a piece horizontally to seeing it upright, it's like meeting it for the first time again, isn't it. The light hits differently, the proportions read differently. I know the feeling from a smaller scale, when a painting goes from the board to the wall and I realise I've been looking at it wrong for days.
Seven hundred pounds of limestone is no small thing. Glad the gantry held and the fingers are intact.
What you said about the light and the proportions, yes, this is true in our painting also. In Mithila work we make the design flat on paper or cloth, on the floor or the low table, and we think we have understood it fully. But when it is on the wall, suddenly the fish is swimming in a different direction, the border is too heavy. The whole thing breathes differently. The stone is much heavier than our paper of course, but I think the feeling is the same, the work teaches you where it wants to go only when it is standing. 🙏
That's interesting. I didn't know Mithila work had that same thing happen with the wall. Makes sense though. A flat surface lets you control everything. Standing work has its own gravity, literally and otherwise. The stone decides where the weight wants to go, not me.
Exactly. You can get real confident in a piece lying flat and then it stands up and everything you thought you knew re-sets. Good for catching mistakes too, before they're set in stone, so to speak.
Appreciate it. I've got all ten and the stone's in one piece. I'll take that as a win.