At the time I began to conceive of the concept for Pelican Lips, I had already realized several compositions in my Lips series. I had started to see all sorts of shapes in human lips, most often birds. When I examined this hard brown marble I had bought from a Canadian quarry and saw the patterns and color in the stone, brown pelicans naturally came to mind. This marble was created in very obvious layers, and in some ways carving was similar to that of Fish Lips without the zigzags. I knew that if I carved in at 90 degrees to the mostly parallel lines, I would see all kinds of wild patterns, so that is what I did. A lot of people who have seen this work have commented that this marble looks a lot like petrified wood. Pelican Lips has been sealed, like all of my other stones, and is a very hard marble. It should be fine to display either indoors or out.

Carving "Pelican Lips" - Contemporary Stone Sculpture

11 March 2006: I had already cut into the stone before I remembered to take the "before" shots. This stone weighed 159 pounds when we started. She is a very hard marble from Canada.

11 March 2006: No stone carver I have ever seen uses these to split stone. I think they are bricklayers' tools. However, I had access to them when I needed something and they were cheap. So far, I have managed just fine. Because I was going "against the grain" on a very decidedly layered stone, I scored the marble on all sides before trying to split it.

1 April 2006: After some guests left, I returned to my stone around dusk to sketch what I would carve away at my next opportunity. Unfortunately, Pelican Lips was one of those works that I had to keep setting aside (too many times) in order to take care of other deadlines and projects. I worked on sanding this marble in Indianapolis; Chicago & Decatur, Illinois; Hickory, North Carolina; Summerville, South Carolina; Florida, and I finally finished her in my home studio in Texas on 3 August 2006. She now weighs 70.25 pounds and she's glorious!

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