29 Oct Artist Spotlights: Somers Randolph

Somers Randolph strives to uncover infinity within a block of stone. Whether monument-sized or small enough to hold in the palm of one’s hand, his sculptures often possess smooth, sinuous swirls and loops that curve back upon themselves like the Mobius strips so many of us made in grade school by giving a strip of paper a half-twist and then taping the ends together.

But Randolph’s creations in calcite, alabaster, onyx, marble, and other precious and semiprecious stones an take weeks of hand carving, back-aching work. His tools are a progression of manual and power-driven saws, hammers, mallets, chisels, wedges, grinders, sanders, and polishers, all of which he operates while wearing heavy gloves, goggles, and a respirator.

His sculpting process may look more like a contact sport than art making. For Randolph, it’s a kinetic, subtractive process that first beguiled him at age 7. On a summer trip to see family in Tennessee from his home in Washington, DC, his great uncle Alfred, a distinguished judge, taught him how to pass the time by whittling. On subsequent visits, Uncle Alfred always made sure that his young nephew carried a sharp pocketknife for that purpose and that he cut away at the wood using appropriate form. By the age of 15, Randolph had decided that sculpting was his life’s calling, and he graduated in 1979 with a BA in art history from Princeton University.

Argentine Blue Onyx | 29 inches tall | Photo: Wendy McEahern

He’s been making art ever since. In 1997, he established his one-acre home and studio on Museum Hill in Santa Fe, New Mexico, about a mile and a half from the Plaza. His carving process remains serenely intuitive. “You’ve got to have an idea of what you’re doing,” he says, “and then you just wander into the stone and simplify it.” Abstract as the resulting forms are, he abstains from giving his sculptures titles, instead simply naming each one for the stone from which it was fashioned. And he seems never to run short of inspiration. “People have asked me if I’m in pain,” he says of his arduous work. “And like everybody at 70 years old, I’m feeling a little creaky — except when I have tools in my hand and my headphones on listening to old rock and roll or a book on tape. Then, I’m completely blissed out.”

Italian Alabaster | 10 inches tall | Photo: Wendy McEahern

See sculptures by Somers Randolph on a visit to his home studio in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He’ll be debuting a hundred stone hearts in “The Art of Love,” a two-artist Valentine-themed show with painter Polly Cook, at Monthaven Arts & Cultural Center in Hendersonville, Tennessee, from January 17 to February 15.

Based in Marin County, California, Norman Kolpas is the author of more than 40 books and hundreds of articles. He also teaches nonfiction writing in The Writers’ Program at UCLA Extension.