STONE CARVING
How old are your traditions?
Walter Arnold first apprenticed in Pietrasanta, Italy with two stone carvers who together had over 110 years of experience. He then worked with fifth generation carver Vincent Palumbo on the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C.
One day at the Cathedral a fellow started chatting. He had worked on the Cathedral in the 1940s, but his first job was with the Chicago Tribune Tower. He ended up giving me a box of his tools. A couple of years later I was doing restoration work on the Tribune Tower using tools that belonged to someone who had done it in the first place. I would pause a moment, “how had it been done originally?” and it was exactly the way that I would have anyway, confirming that I was directly out of the tradition of this person who gave me the tools, Carl Frey. He had worked on the cathedral, he had trained people there, who had trained people that I worked with—there was a direct line. I am not doing this all on my own. I am part of an ongoing continuum. I am doing it because they did it.
More information on this art form and artist can be found in our Teacher’s Guide.
Additional Resources
Artist Website: http://www.stonecarver.com/
Movie: The Stone Carvers
Book: The Stone Carvers
Book by artist: Staglieno: The Art of the Marble Carver
