Adrian Smith

Stone’s elemental nature, its natural, enduring quality, and the focus of mind derived from working with a mallet and chisel in a creative process have continued to captivate me since I was introduced to the medium in a high school art class in 1992.

My more formal training took place in Kathmandu, Nepal where I had the great fortune to study under a master carver from 1999-2002.

In learning to carve stone Buddhas, I was taught that the eyes are “opened” last and it is at this point that the statue comes alive. Likewise I find that while carving animals in stone imbues them with an ancient fossil-like quality on the one hand, once their eyes are “opened” they come to life with expressions of alert presence.

Currently I primarily carve slate, mostly quarried from New York and Vermont, as well as old roofing tiles salvaged from the same locations.