All the way from Italy!

All the way from Italy!

Sue Taves

The stone is here! After a six week long voyage, the Singapore Express went past Whidbey Island on May 16 where I was able to snap a photo as it headed to the Port of Seattle. Then it began its journey to the Freeland Art Studios. The container got delivered to Marenakos Rock Center (thank you Scott Hackney!) on a Tuesday. Eirene (one of my fellow sculptors from Italy) and her husband Zack packed up the truck and trailer on Wednesday and came to Whidbey Island where Tamara (sculptor # 3) joined us. On Thursday the great unpacking at the Freeland Art Studios happened. It was a beautiful day and it was exciting to be reunited with our sculpture and marble.

I hope you’ll come see sculptures I started in Italy and the raw stone at our Ninth Annual Open House at Freeland Art Studios on Saturday, June 15, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

This is the journey of the stone in photos. Enjoy!

The container leaving Studio Pescarella in early April.
The Singapore Express sailing past Robinson Beach on Whidbey Island on May 16
  • Crossing the scale at Marenakos Rock Center
  • Breaking the seal
  • Starting the unloading
It only took 30 minutes for the great crew at Marenakos to unload! A two-forklift day. Orlando and Jon were awesome!
Eirene and the line up of stone at Marenakos Rock Center (thanks Scott and Teri for your help!)
  • There wasn’t much space left on the truck and trailer
  • Starting the unloading the next morning
The unloading. 5 crates and two pallets, over 100 pieces of stone.
  • Eirene and Tamara opening the first crate
  • …and another!
Unpacking one of the crates of sculpture (Eirene, Justin, Tamara, and Zack)
  • Lloyd moving the crates
  • Another two-forklift day
Lloyd reloading a crate for Eirene and Tamara with Zack’s help on the truck.
My stack of stone, once it all got organized in one pile. Well, not counting the other piles…
A great unloading crew! Sheila the dog, Justin, Tamara, Lloyd, Eirene, Sue and Zack. Thanks for extra help from Ben Mefford, Lane Tompkins, and Therese Kingsbury
“Team Washington,” one of our last days at Studio Pescarella. Photo by Sandy Oppenheimer.

Ciao!

Sue

12 thoughts on “All the way from Italy!”

  • Can’t wait to see you and your stone. We won’t be there in June but later in July. Best wishes, GistSent from my iPhone

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    • I look forward to seeing you both! Later in the summer I should have more of the sculptures from Italy finished. Enjoy your Spring!

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  • We have so enjoyed the Stone Trail stories! Can’t wait to see your creative visions displayed in stone!

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  • Wow! Christmas came early! Happy the load made it there safe and sound! Was it overwhelming once you had it all in front of you😄? How long will your portion of the haul will last you? Lisa

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    • Christmas and all the holidays, it’s been fun to share the excitement! I have to admit that I have accumulated some other fairly large piles of stone. I need to sculpt A LOT and live a very long time as it is. If I just focused on this shipment I would probably sculpt it all in a year or two. Of course, I won’t neglect all the other stone I already have so some of these pieces may be around longer. I hope by the end of the summer I have quite a few finished ones from the ones I started in Italy that I can show!

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    • We just got a lockdown order tonight for Washington State for the next 2 weeks. Up until now it’s been fine going to the studio and it’s only 4 miles from home so it’s been easy and all our working spaces are separate enough. Not sure now, I’m going to have to read the new guidelines. I saw that Studio Pescarella was shut down which is really sad but seems to be the necessary thing to save lives. All my memories from last March keep coming up with lovely images from last year. All the best to you Neal and the whole crew!

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