President’s Message – July/Aug 1998

I’m writing this in the early morning at Camp Brotherhood. Around the coffeepot, sculptors have gathered in their ongoing study of whether caffeine replaces sleep. The pace is picking up and soon laughing people swapping stories about stones, tools, ideas and visions will surround me. Then we’ll be off to the field to the roar of the grinder, the scream of the saw, the gentle tap of hammer on chisel against stone.

By the time you read this, the air hoses will be coiled and packed away, the last stone chip will be picked up and the diverse group of people gathered here will be dispersed to work in their own studios, garages and backyards for another year. I am in awe of our ability as a group to work together to produce an event that affects so many artists so profoundly. I am grateful to the organizers and instructors who have given so freely of their time in order to assist their fellow sculptors.

I am especially grateful to a larger group, however. You-everyone who comes to Camp Brotherhood with a mind to work together to form a physically and emotionally safe place, where each of us receives the freedom and encouragement to try new ideas, to really look inside to find what it is that helps us make our art. To everyone who made the symposium, I hope you can carry that spirit with you until next time. To those who weren’t able to attend, I hope the NWSSA can help somehow in your own creative quest.

Sculpt Proud!