Abstract thinking in man is first indicated by the presence of worked stone tools, often hand axes. Logically the product of a mind conceiving of a picture and then taking the time to form the picture into a real object for which it has a use. This process of chipping stone goes as far back in time as we have been able to trace modern man, in some cases 2.5 million years ago or so. It is also the first indication of a concept of the future.

The tools that ancient peoples made out of stone are fairly easy to understand as to their practical use. It is when we get to the understanding of the use of stone objects that do not appear to have been simple tools, that we encounter the vast realm of sculpture, speculation, superstition, magic, fetishism, animism, religion, ceremony, belief, augury, and the divine etc.

For each of the cultures who have worked stone a different context for the finished stone object seems to have been in operation much like individual cultures have different languages.

In the work I have elected to exercise some of the various themes that have appeared to us in the context of past civilizations and cultures as, i.e. fertility, tranquility, pathos, humor, hunting, gathering, fishing, healing, the ineffable, warfare, animal husbandry, romance, monumental records of epic events or people, or whatever context comes along.

The cultural position of many themes has been long gone so I feel good about reinventing stone objects using the framework of what I know about the context. One of the benefits of the chain of events called history is that today one has the ability to look at many pre-existing cultures and try on their themes and ideas. Sometimes this means going there and being there. Occasionally it means reading all there is to know about the culture.

THE THE THEMATIC APPROACH

This is where I feel comfortable as a sculptor and I would hope that the work leaves a lot of room in ones perception for the types of questions that stone working man seems to have answered with various stone objects in the following ways:

First the vision quest for the object, perhaps coming in a dream, maybe an omen or portent appears, possibly a totem animal or an event, whatever it takes to receive the vision of the object.

Next, the 3 dimensional model or sketch of the object.

Then the act of chipping stone carried out by the exertion of a point of pressure on the stone until a flake comes off. The pressure is released, then another point of pressure applied and so on until the object takes shape. This action approximates the action of the universe; a point expanding and contracting. The stoneworker acts as an instrument of positive and negative, an agent of the universe. transferring specific human energy to the stone, besides what energy that is already there, has been the challenge of sculptors and stone workers ever since.

The work gets done by listening to the stone while making it into what it will do.

Next is the giving of life into the finished stone object or the process of finishing it. Historically this can be the infusion of oils into the stone or annointment; it might be moving it to various different positions in the sun for specific periods of time; it might be chanting or singing to the stone; perhaps paint was applied; it could be ritual sacrifice involving the stone; it may be in the placement of the stone in a special spot; or some other deliberate act of consecration that appears to us as religious/superstitious practice.

Finally the experience of the stone having life. This can mean hearing the stone speak; it can mean feeling the energy of the stone by touching it; or it can be feeling the life of it intuitively or spiritually; it may be physical in nature; or it may bring on a feeling of great peace and tranquility; It can be used in a ritual; or simply used for the purpose it was created for in the place it was supposed to go.

Jim Schwartz - sculptor