“Mock up” or Artist’s Study
carved
in preparation of final sculpting
of the Restauration image for
the Slogvik Slooper Monument Stone – The
bautastein.
Sculpting done by Ira Kessey
At Turlock
Marble & Granite Works, Turlock, California
This was carved on a bottom piece of
the Slogvik stone from Tysvær, Rogaland, Norway. This small section was cut off from the rest
of the stone, as it would have been buried in the concrete foundation
anyway. This way stone carver Ira Kessey could get a feel of just how
this stone would be to work on.
This piece of stone is about 16 inches
(40.6 cm) high
by 30 inches (76 cm) wide,
6 inches (16 cm) at thickest point –
weight roughly 80+ pounds,
the sloop image
being approximately 1 foot (30.5cm) square.
Kessey says that the
final sculpture on the top of the bautastein will be about twice this
size. He also said that this experimental piece has taken him around 35
to 40 hours. Kessey hopes to make castings
from this image, possibly in glass, to be for sale at a later date.
A
drawing will be held during the evening banquet of the dedication day, Saturday,
May 15, 2004, for this
Artist's Study. “Raffle” tickets on this original art piece
are available for a donation of $1.00 each, receipts to help defray additional
expenses of processing the stone and staging the dedication ceremony. Kessey
estimates that, as an original piece of art on a stone brought all the way from
Norway and with all of the history and story behind this stone, would be valued
in the $1,000 to $1,500 price range. A booklet with this "Slooper
Story" will furnished to the winner. This “Artist’s Study” will be on display
at the San
Francisco Norway Day Festival along with the completed
large bautastein.
We are very proud of the work
Ira has been doing at Turlock. We are very thankful for the
generous underwriting of this project by the great folks at Turlock Marble and Granite Works – owner
Norwegian-American Stewart Saugstad, his wife Jo and their competent and
enthusiastic crew!
