Sue Taves

In March of 2019 I’ll be spending a month in Italy trying to soak up as much marble dust as I can. Studio Pescarella is located between the towns of Carrara and Pietrasanta on the coast of northern Tuscany at the foothills of the Apuan Alps about 20 miles north of Pisa. The Apuan Alps are the source for marble famous for many renaissance sculptures including Michelangelo’s “David,” and has been a source for famous marble for hundreds of years.

This area is full of stone yards, studio spaces and sculptors visiting from all over the world and speaking the common language of stone sculpting. My trip partners are two friends from the Northwest Stone Sculptors Association. We plan to immerse ourselves in stone and creativity and we’ll also leave ourselves time to explore the area and enjoy the people, the history and of course, the food!

We’ll return in April and our crates full of sculpture and raw stone will arrive a month or two later. I’m not much of a writer but I will be posting photos and some thoughts about my experiences here on this Italy blog. I’d love it if you’d follow along, just click the “Follow” link on the bottom right of this page (it means you’ll get an email notification when I post a new blog which will be once or twice a week).

Studio Pescarella has made space available for visiting sculptors from around the world and we’re happy to make this our temporary studio away from home. If you want to follow along with the weather (right now 60 and sunny) just look up the weather where we’ll be staying in a lovely home in nearby Strettoia.

This trip wouldn’t be possible if it wasn’t for all the support and encouragement from my family, friends, and supporters. Thank you! Special thanks to those helping to fund my trip by having purchased my sculptures, and to the crews that are covering for me while I’m on this big adventure!

Stop by at Karla Matzke’s Sculpture Park and Gallery for a new show March 2. I have three sculptures in the show and 3 new ones for the show coming up in April.