Natural Stone Is Art In Sculptor’s Hands

By Nancy K. Crevier

Ethan Currier is pleased to be a part of the Newtown Arts Festival coming up Saturday and Sunday, September 15 and 16, at Fairfield Hills. The Bainbridge Island, Wash., resident and sculptor is using a three-week vacation to visit family and kick up some rocks at Sticks and Stones Farm on Huntingtown Road, owned by his father Tim Currier and Annie Stiefel.

He is using the first few days back home to create more of the representational stone sculptures for which he is best known, including one of a rooster that will be displayed at the Arts Festival, where Mr Currier will be exhibiting his works.

“I think it was Paul Mangiafico [one of Newtown Arts Festival’s organizers] who sent me an e-mail earlier this summer and said they wanted me to take part in this event,” said Mr Currier. “They wanted Sticks and Stones to be represented there, too,” he said. Somewhere along the way, the idea of a rooster sculpture was suggested as a centerpiece for the festival.

“I enjoy the challenge,” said Mr Currier, and added that normally he would never focus on such a specific idea for one of his sculptures. “The rooster is a challenge. I have made birds, but it might not be instantly recognizable as any one specific bird, or in this case, as a rooster.” That is because this sculptor does not work with chisel and carve out details. Using naturally formed stones, he composes various rocks into sculptures, some towering several feet high, held together by steel pins running through, others compact enough to hold in the hand.

He prefers to let the natural stones speak for themselves. His many human figurines do not have faces, other than what nature has sculpted there with cracks and crevices.

“People can put any face they want to my sculptures, and I think I preserve something in my sculptures that other sculptors don’t [by working in this fashion],” he said.

Mr Currier has been making sculptures out of found stone since 2001. “I just put together rocks and made this man. In 2003, I took the whole summer off to just sculpt, and it became my primary income until about 2008,” he said. When business dropped off in New England, he moved to Washington and returned to another craft he loves: detailing and varnishing large boats. He has continued to sculpt while living there aboard his 1940s Navy trawler, doing commissioned pieces as well as creating freely. His sculptures are in private collections worldwide, from Venezuela to Canada, from Spain to Germany, and across the United States.

Visitors to Sticks and Stones Farm will see dozens of Mr Currier’s larger sculptures poised on rocky ledges, leaning against tree trunks, and balancing near the barn.

“I probably have 60 sculptures around here,” he said, “and over 100 in Washington in my studio and outdoor gallery space.”

In Washington, Mr Currier has focused on smaller sculptures and puzzle sculptures, he said.

“I don’t have the machines that I have at Sticks and Stones out there, for moving and making huge pieces,” Mr Currier said. “Coming back to Sticks and Stones is sculpting nirvana for me. I’m a product of the farm. Everything I want to do, I can do here. What I can create here is off the charts,” he said.

The rooster is a relatively simple sculpture, though, said Mr Currier. It is comprised mainly of three large rocks fitted together to form the main parts of the bird, and two pieces that act as legs. The whole thing is mounted on a recovered granite pillar, standing close to six feet tall overall.

The design of a sculpture is not something that takes months, or even weeks, for this sculptor, but no project is entered into without forethought. He did spend one day collecting rocks in Washington and trying to imagine the rooster.

“Should I go really big? Should I go really abstract? I originally thought that this piece would be bigger,” Mr Currier said.

But as often happens, the rock dictated the sculpture. Walking the 60-acre Sticks and Stones property this week, he came upon a rock that he recognized right away as the rooster’s tail, and worked from there. “I’m confident and happy about where it’s going,” he said, adding that it was still under construction.

The art is in helping people to see the “rooster” in the rock, Mr Currier said. “It’s gratifying,” he said, “to have the ability to make other people see in a stone what I do.”

The 600-pound rooster sculpture will be moved by crane and truck to Fairfield Hills and be on display at Newtown Arts Festival for both days, and then displayed at Sticks and Stones Farm after that, said Mr Currier, “unless someone buys it.”

Then, he will be happy to arrange delivery of the sculpture, or any of the other sculptures or furniture that will be exhibited at the festival. Small stone works and intricately sawed stone puzzles will also be part of Mr Currier’s exhibit at the Newtown Arts Festival.

“I hope they have a good turnout. I’m excited about the festival, and about displaying the sculptures I have, and about being part of the first festival,” he said. “I’m just trying to lay my fingerprint on the planet while I’m here.”

Mr Currier will be one of many vendors, crafters, artists, musicians, and entertainers populating the grounds of Fairfield Hills on September 15 and 16. Events are scheduled from 9 am to 6 pm each day. Admission is $5 and children under 12 are free.

For ticket information and a full schedule of the weekend visit www.NewtownArtsFestival.com.