On this page you can view images of slate carvings from the past twenty years or so.
Try it - it's easy!
An early slate carving, the subject of which occured to me in a dream. Many months later while traveling in Paris, I saw the same subject represented in stencilled spray paint on the stone walls along the Seine. I don't know what the significance of the image may be.
A carving on purple Vermont slate dating from the time after I returned to Ohio to visit family after travels in Europe and West Africa.
A carving in blackboard slate near the beginning of a series exploring the mysteries of these questioning semi-mythical beings. The sphinx demanded that we recognize ourselves in the young and in the old and decrepit. These beautiful beings became the monsters of our collective subconcious, much as any god we worship can become our greatest fear, or the beautiful princess may become the evil queen. Our illusions of desire must be incredibly tedious to longer-lived beings who have seen it all before.
A carved blackboard from the series completed for a 1989 exhibition at WCET Gallery in Cincinnati, Ohio. These pieces do best with a raking light source.
This piece was inspired by a fresco from I think the fourteenth century at the Pallazzo Publicco in Siena. That piece depicted a glorious crusade.
I experimented with puncturing the material, which is only 5/16 or 3/8" thick, and maintaining the illusion of depth created by the shallow relief carving. I made this piece at the Pea Cannery studio I shared with Taylor Mott in Bozeman, Montana.
This relatively ambitious blackboard carving, 42 inches wide, was a response to the prospect of the first Gulf War in Kuwait. Though slate has huge laminar strength, it broke when lifted improperly. I used the pieces for various other applications.
This carved slate mantlepiece was inspired by Stephen Jay Gould's book, Wonderful Life. Though some of his conclusions have since been debated and/or refuted, he presented a fascinating tour of the creatures represented in the Burgess shale formation from the "Cambrian explosion." I made this right after my daughter was born and survived daunting challenges to her existence. She will forever be my greatest hero.
In tribute to Jack Fisher, Jr., 1956-2006