Martin Cooney
MARTIN COONEY SCULPTOR
Woody Creek, CO, Colorado, United States
"Stone Sculptor"
Sculpture
Explore the artistic vision and craftsmanship of Martin Cooney
San Rocchino
It is with the greatest of pleasure that I present San Rocchino… the fourth sculpture of my Autumn of 14 Collection of Colorado Yule Marble and my latest hand carved marble bowl. Inspired by the magnificent grounds
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Terrible Lizard
I was actually a little surprised at some of the blank looks I got when I told people the name of this piece. Some
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About the Artist
I was born and raised in Preston, Lancashire, within a loving family in the North West of England. As was the custom back then (the 1960’s) I also relished a degree of independence to roam and explore my home town with a level of unfettered freedom that is (unfortunately) unimaginable to the children of today… and explore I did, at every opportunity. So perhaps it wasn't so surprising that at the age of 21 I left my home town on a bicycle and embarked on a journey that continues to this day.
Travel and adventure proved sufficient motivation to keep me captivated for many years, traversing the globe twice and basking in the sheer magnificence, diversity and stunning beauty of our gorgeous planet.
But eventually mere observation just wasn't enough, it was time to create!
Wherever my travels took me I always sketched and photographed my surroundings and in actual fact I have always sculpted and re-arranged my environment in one way or another, but it took a chance encounter in the beautiful Georgian city of Bath, in the southwest of England, as the last century was drawing to a close, for me realize my true passion lay in carving stone.
On graduating from The City Bath College with NVQ Level 2 qualifications I worked as a Banker Mason in the surrounding villages from 2000 to 2003, learning to carve architectural stonework fast and accurately by working alongside men who served as the latest generation in a traditional industry stretching back in an unbroken line almost a thousand years.
For the past decade I have my made my home in Woody Creek, 8 miles north of Aspen, Colorado, at around 7,600 feet in the Rocky Mountains where I enjoy the stunning natural beauty of the Roaring Fork Valley with Kris, my wife, and our tall ski-mad son Joseph.
My workshop-studio sits just yards from the log cabin wherein I write this and it is there that I have made the crucial transition from banker mason to sculptor.
These days I have the good fortune to live just 32 miles (as the crow flies) from the quarry producing the finest white marble in the United States – the same marble used to build the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Monument and a great many of the nation’s most prestigious and important architectural landmarks.
Ready access to such magnificent marble allows me to explore the wealth of possibilities presented to contemporary sculptors of today. Utilizing the advances made in diamond blade and abrasive pad technology in recent years I lean heavily on my experience as a banker mason, as well as global traveler, to create work that I feel is relevant, original and innovative in its design and execution.
‘Curvilinear Reductionist’ is the term I have coined for my signature marble sculpture, and while I still hold a great deal of affection for the more traditional limestone carvings you will find on display here at martincooney.com it is the pursuit of curvilinear perfection that has captured my imagination and propels me ever onward, to the point that I aim to devote the rest of my life creating marble sculpture that is light, airy, aesthetically intriguing and entirely radical in nature.
The next phase in the journey will take me to Italy for the months of April, May and June, 2014, in order to apply my curvilinear reductionist techniques to the world famous Carrera marble. After which I will be back to my old ways and traversing the globe once more, but this time around I'll not only be taking in the splendors of our wonderful planet but transforming all the marble I can find into the sleek and sensuous carvings that are the hallmark of my sculpture.
Artist Statement
As a professionally trained and experienced stone sculptor I am proud to be able to carve any and everything whether it is in the form of a private commission or an idea conjured in my mind’s eye. However I find myself increasingly drawn to Reductionist sculpture, a relatively new development that is capturing increased interest from sculptors and collectors around the world.
I coined the term Curvilinear Reductionist in reference to my own particular brand of Reductionism as I feel it best describes the impulsive energy, sensual curvature, and graceful linear component that permeate and serve to define my marble carvings. In removing the bulk of material from a block of marble I am able to produce carvings that weigh a fraction of the mass while maintaining an exterior dimension matching that of traditional sculpture. And while this may appear at first glance to be a frivolous consideration this mobility of movement sets the sculpture free and serves to integrate it into the home environment. But not only is the relative lightness and ease of movement of my Curvilinear sculpture advantageous, often the marble is carved so thin the very nature of the sculpture is transformed as light is transmitted through the stone causing it to be illuminated from within and allowing the subtle hues within the marble to flair under both natural and man-made light (even candlelight), an aspect of marble that prior to Reductionism has never previously been revealed throughout its long and complex association with human civilization.
These are in fact very interesting and exhilarating times. In order to create my Curvilinear Reductionist sculpture I rely on recent advances in diamond blade and abrasive disc technology that present a whole raft of options quite unimaginable to previous generations of sculptors. Without getting too technical the latest developments in hand-held diamond blade and spinner pad technology now enable a sculptor such as myself to routinely remove 80 or 90 percent of the original material with a speed that would have made Rodin’s head spin!
My approach differs from many free-form sculptors in that I do not use maquettes (scale models); I do not set out to rigidly impose my will upon a block of marble but actually enter into a collaboration with the stone. The finished sculpture will hinge on a variety of factors such as the grain, the texture and the characteristics of the stone, as well as a splitting process that I often use in order to shape the rough block. Plus there is the inexplicable and ingenious entity that I can only explain as ‘Mabel, The Spirit of the Stone’ a force of nature deeply embedded in the marble that simply refuses to be ignored.
Finally, I would like to draw your attention to the fact that I create all my sculpture entirely with my own hands, and that each Curvilinear sculpture is engraved with its Serial Number, along with my ‘Mark’, on the underside of the base.
Thanks for reading this.
Martin