Hammer chisel stone simple tools for hard moments

[Music]

i’m a stone sculptor

i work mostly with granite using the

traditional tools of the trade the

hammer

and the chisel it’s an ancient motion

one of mankind’s first and unchanged

since we started to alter

our world around us

when i make this motion i can feel the

muscle memory in my body

it resonates beyond this time beyond the

present

and after decades of carving i still

experience that sense of

timelessness each time i pick up the

tools

i measure my sculpture progress in

seasons and years

the work takes real time stone is hard

and the process is physical

it’s slow and can sometimes feel

grinding

but rather than be discouraged by the

slow progress i seem to be making

i have come to relish the iterative

empirical process it requires

slowing down and turning inward has

helped talk me out of any number of bad

ideas

it’s given me time to ask the hard

questions

sometimes waiting years for the answer

it’s also given me courage

to tackle the big themes and work on

them

over long arcs of time

david brooks in his book road to

character

says that one should always have

a permanent commitment to tasks that

cannot be completed in a single lifetime

a single lifetime seems about right

since stone reminds me every day through

its resistance and

its unyielding permanence that the

things worth doing

take real time

let me offer a few examples

this sculpture contains 550 tons of

granite

that’s the equivalent weight of 250

small

trucks it’s one of four

forms that divide the rooms of a large

residence

some of the blocks measure nine feet by

twelve feet

that’s the scale of an apartment bedroom

this took four years to hand carve and

install

one of my latest works the resolute arch

took eight years to solve the

engineering

build the prototype and hand carve the

granite

this work is on a civic scale and one

could easily

drive a fire truck under it

when the stone carvers built the great

cathedrals of europe

it was not uncommon to spend 20 years on

the foundation

imagine spending your entire working

life on a foundation

that no one will ever see talk about

delayed gratification

masons spent their entire working lives

on these projects over hundreds of years

meaning and life purpose arose naturally

from

slow sustained contribution

from the rush of setting a single stone

into what i call

a position of certainty once placed

properly

stone stays put maybe for a millennium

maybe forever the fact that the

task was hard took real time and effort

is certainly part of it but there’s also

something about

leaving the world a little better a

little more beautiful

than when i found it whatever it is

i feel that i’m part of that sustained

contribution

each time i finish a sculpture and place

it on the ground

these days we often look to technology

to save us time

technology seems to offer us shortcuts

life hacks i am often asked

why do you still carve by hand when we

can cut by computer

or scan and squirt in 3d

indeed why talk to a person when i can

text

or simply swipe and like

working in stone has made the reasons

crystal clear to me

if i have done my work as an artist over

the decades i have built

thick neurologic cables between my heart

and my hands using these simple

ancient tools what i feel

is conveyed directly into my carving in

my hands

the hammer and chisel offer me an

unmediated connection there’s

nothing standing between what i feel and

the material

with modern technologies i’m i’m several

steps removed from the work

they can offer me a type of translation

but in the end technology cannot

transmit

the human soul this immediacy

this unmediated connection

is at the center of the great mystery

the magic

of how some artworks affect and stir

my family jokes that i still carve with

the hammer and chisel because

i just want to do everything the hardest

way possible

but what i’ve discovered is that when i

tackle hard and difficult things

two important things happen first

my body adapts and hardens for the task

how many of you have gone camping and

slept on the ground

the first night is universally awful

there’s no getting around it

but the next night is better and after a

couple more nights i’m fine

what started as hard turns out to be

not so bad as my body adjusts

but the other thing that happens when i

embrace difficulty

and this is really fascinating to me

is that my creative energy fires up

my inner resources awaken and rise to

the challenge

just like my body solving problems

turns out to be a great way to engage my

creativity

my best solutions have been born

of painful necessity

let me share a humbling example

carving this sculpture a mistake was

made

and the base of the larger form had to

unexpectedly shortened

i was devastated ultimately

i grafted another stone to the sculpture

using this unusual joint

the form and more importantly the

metaphor

were expanded the solution seems to

suggest that we are

standing on the shoulders of what came

before

and of course we always are

it’s a stronger sculpture for the error

and for the creativity it took to get to

the solution

when i’m missing something i need to

make a sculpture

my first impulse is to feel exasperated

and think

i cannot proceed but then i remember

that

the some of the best works of

civilization

were created with the most basic of

tools

obstacles just like mine fired the

creativity of ancient peoples

to tolerances we struggled to match

today

the inca civilization had neither the

wheel

iron tools nor a written language

yet they created these walls from hammer

stones

not even chisels

from ten ton blocks they dragged five

miles across a mountainous valley the

workmanship is so tight you can’t put

paper between the joints

the walls so strong they have survived

more than

50 earthquakes over 6.0 on the richter

scale

without losing a single stone i only

wish

that i had designed and built them

the pyramids at giza were built by

ordinary people who

placed by hand 800 tons of stone every

day

think of it 800 tons

shaped fabricated

moved to the site and installed

the needs of the project were so great

they had to first invent geometry

amazing earlier civilizations faced

many of the same threats we faced today

they had natural disasters and

heartbreaking pandemics they suffered

social unrest and unstable political

leadership

creatively they found

ways to succeed listen

i’m i’m not anti-technology and i’m

certainly not one of those pining away

for a time before anesthesia

but i work every day not to let the

promise of technology

rob me of my own agency or creativity

i absolutely refuse for it to make me

passive

or afraid to try and accomplish really

hard things

over long periods of time

technology is sexy and it seems to offer

shortcuts but what i find

is that it can also rob me of deeper

expression

and considered impact i try to remember

that

my creativity is not device dependent

on the contrary working more simply

forces my creativity into play it calls

it forth

demands my full attention and makes it

part of my tool set

so let’s try something let yourself

dream

of a project too big to complete in a

single lifetime

draw a sketch of your idea using paper

build a simple model using popsicle

sticks or

or cut it out of blocks of zucchini and

stack it up

tackle it with simple tools under

imperfect conditions

nurture that idea over weeks and then

months

chip away at it through the seasons do

it the hard way

see how your body adjusts first your

body

then your soul then your creative spirit

things feel hard right now

these are times requiring our creativity

thank you