For most of my life, when asked about my artistic abilities, I\u2019d say, \u201cSorry; I\u2019m artistically impaired.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And I thought I was speaking the truth. I can\u2019t draw to save my life; the light-and-shadow-play of painting and pastel-work eludes me; and while I\u2019m proficient at thread-craft, I can\u2019t work without a pattern, so my thread-work is really an expression of someone else\u2019s artistry. Creating art by putting materials together \u2013 pencils, charcoal, pastels or paints onto paper, board or canvas \u2013 is just beyond me. Despite all my efforts, even with the helpful teaching of others, I can\u2019t do it; I\u2019ve no instinct for it. Artistic ability? Feh. Not me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But not long ago I was with a group of friends on vacation by the lake, and one of them was carving a crouching cat out of soapstone. I was, to be honest, madly envious of her work. She\u2019d started with a small, grey, rectangular block, and this beautiful little dark-green cat was emerging from it under her hands. It looked like so much fun; so tactile and creative; and in conception, almost miraculous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But of course, I thought, I could never do that. I can\u2019t make anything artistic. Two-dimensional artwork is impossible for me. Three-dimensional art\u2026 I can\u2019t even conceive of it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I voiced this to my friend as she worked. \u201cYou might not be right about that,\u201d she said. \u201cCarving is a different kind of process. Drawing and painting are additive \u2013 you\u2019re putting lines and colours there that weren\u2019t there before. But carving is a subtractive art. You\u2019re removing the parts that don\u2019t belong.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That was something I\u2019d never thought of. To my surprise, it struck a chord with me. When we got back to the city, I went with some other sculpting friends to a sculpture supply place, and bought myself a rock. Armed with a set of wood-chisels, a tack-hammer, some rifflers and a rasp \u2013 I hadn\u2019t yet been exposed to the point-chisel, much less the scutch \u2013 and with the support of my friends who loved carving, I began the process of subtraction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I knew what I wanted to make \u2013 a Japanese mythological creature called a Tanuki. So I\u2019d picked out my rock according to the shape that seemed most likely for it. I looked at pictures of Tanuki in books, at the cast-porcelain ones, the carved wooden ones\u2026 even a little Tanuki figurine I\u2019d found, and was using as a guide to Tanuki anatomy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As I began to work with the rock, discovering how to use my chisels and rasps, I discovered something else, something remarkable. Three-dimensional subtractive art made sense to me, in a way two-dimensional additive art never had.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After a while, it no longer felt as though I were making a rock into a Tanuki. Instead, I realized the Tanuki was hiding in the rock, and I was getting rid of the bits of rock that weren\u2019t a Tanuki. I\u2019d heard that clich\u00e9 before, but never realized what it meant, what mental process it referred to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Tanuki in the rock wasn\u2019t standing in the way I\u2019d thought he should be. He wasn\u2019t an upright, chipper Tanuki. He\u2019d drunk a lot of sake, and he was bombed out of his skull, leaning against a wall and grinning pie-eyed at the world. His straw hat was crooked, distorted a bit because of the way he was leaning. Instead of the traditional fresh sake flask and promissory note that he was supposed to be carrying, he had a empty cup in one hand, and an open flask in the other, which he was thinking of pouring from if he could only manage the coordination. From the look on his face, he wasn\u2019t quite sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I continued removing non-Tanuki layers of soapstone, and the more I subtracted, the more individual he became. And he looked, I realized, not like Tanuki statues I\u2019d seen, but like my own subconscious impression of a Tanuki: fun-loving, sake-loving, not terribly reliable but basically good-hearted, looking for the next party and not concerned with outward appearances \u2013 he could shape-shift if he wanted to, but this one couldn\u2019t be bothered. He was having too good a time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019m still working on him. I need to remove some more stone that\u2019s keeping me from seeing all of him, and then begin the process of sanding him smooth. He\u2019ll be shades of gold and beige and dark green, in a pattern that reminds me of the fur of wild raccoon-dog tanuki, the basis for the legendary Tanuki who inhabit Japanese lore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s amazing how much pleasure I\u2019m getting out of not being artistically impaired!<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/sculptorstouch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/12\/Tenuki-1024x387.jpg\")
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