A Day With Alfonso – Sept/Oct 2000

It was one of those perfect summer days. I had been looking forward to this day since the Camp Brotherhood auction where I had joined with Arliss Newcomb, Brian Berman, Dennis Joram, Ken Barnes and Sondra Nice to bid for a day of instruction with Alfonso Rodriguez. (Alfonso had been one of the instructors at Camp Brotherhood this year and had donated, among many other items, a day of sculpting instruction.)

We met at my home at 10 a.m. and set up our respective carving areas in a gravel area behind the house. I had also invited Alfonso’s family: his wife, Luisa, his son-in-law and daughter, Jim Russell and Maria and their delightful children and my daughter who lives next door.

We had decided by consensus to each carve a head using only hand tools.

Arliss had chosen to sculpt a baby’s face out of marble, Brian a self-portrait, Dennis had a photo of his daughter, Ken started on a male head and I chose a Buddha. While the children amused themselves with the garden, toys and playing with clay under the watchful eye of their father Jim, Maria translated. Luisa, Sondra and Rhoda watched, asked questions, took pictures, and helped where they could.

Alfonso showed us how to sharpen our chisels and we were ready to begin. In no time at all it was evident we were privileged with an excellent instructor, as we learned how to lineup our stone and set up points from which to carve out the features of a face.

Around midday we stopped to share a delicious Mediterranean pot luck on the deck. After a wonderful lunch and exchange of thoughts about the sculpture process and other interesting subjects we returned to our waiting stones.

All throughout the day with Maria providing expert translation, Alfonso, a tireless and dedicated instructor, helped each of us with our individual art works.

Something happens in the learning process when an action is viewed repeatedly; over time it translates into mental knowledge which then becomes kinetic knowledge and after much practice can be honed to a skill. As Alfonso helped each person with their piece, seeing him moving around the stone, I had a far greater understanding and appreciation of carving with hand tools.

By the end of the day each of us saw a face emerge from what just a few hours before had been a raw piece of stone. We had a wonderful time and I hope we can get together again soon to carve, even though Alfonso wont be here in person, his presence will be guiding us.