By Chuck Boxwell
Every summer since 2018, I have driven to Colorado for the annual MARBLE/marble Stone Carving Symposium. Nestled high in the Colorado Rockies, the annual Symposium has been attracting sculptors, from beginners to experienced professionals, for 35 years.
Its hometown of Marble gets its name from the historic Yule marble quarry that started operation there in the late 1800s. The area's signature white stone has been used for such historic works as the Lincoln Memorial and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington Cemetery, as well as many other prestigious buildings across the United States.
Forty-five stone carvers and about 15 staff members share a unique blend of natural beauty, artistic challenge and communal spirit. Each participant is provided with a 200- to 400-pound piece of Yule marble, a carving site with compressed air and electricity, use of sculpting tools, workshops and individual support from the instructors. An optional meal plan is offered for the eight-day event.
For me the real magic of the Symposium isn’t just the experience of carving stone outdoors in the beauty of the Colorado Rockies with the input and help of the highly qualified staff, but rather working and interacting with other like-minded artists from around the world. This is a very different experience than carving alone in my Eldorado workshop. Seeing what others create and how they approach their work has been very rewarding for me.
The days that I spend in Marble Colorado each summer have been a highlight of the year for me. In many ways it is like when I went to summer camp as a young man, meeting and interacting with new people and expanding my horizons – in this case artistically. Marble Symposium’s enduring legacy isn’t the sculptures created each year but rather the transformative experiences that resonate long after the last day’s dust settles.
• Members are invited to submit “Notes from the Field.” Such notes should be short narratives or reflections (not over 400 words in length) about important experiences outside the studio – i.e., from the field – that have contributed in some way to their artistic practice.
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