A photograph of Frost in her studio. Photo by Sarah Katherine Davis For LVA (2016), — *A photograph of Frost in her studio. Photo by Sarah Katherine Davis For LVA (2016),*

Artists often talk about their relation ship to materials or medium. These revelations strike at the heart of why they make art at all, expressing the universality of creation through the very specific terms of their own process. Lindsay Frost works with wood, taking a material that begins as monumental and nearly unyielding and fashioning objects of great delicacy.

“My art is very personal to me,” explains Frost, “…and I want to share it with those who have never really looked at the inside of a tree the way I do. There is an amazing inner beauty hidden inside a tree. The containers I create reveal the grain and color, the different funguses, all the unique properties that are hidden from man inside a tree.”

An inside look at Lindsay Frost's studio. Photo by Sarah Katherine Davis For LVA (2016). — *An inside look at Lindsay Frost's studio. Photo by Sarah Katherine Davis For LVA (2016).*

*"#458 (Footed Tulip Poplar Bowl)" by Lindsay Frost, wood, 4x5in (2016)*

The reverence for trees as both a form and a living entity that not only shares the earth with humankind and is essential for our very existence is a deeply spiritual sentiment that belongs to history. “That is what I try to do, to release that inner spirit so the wood can again please man. Each piece tells a tale, of the struggles in growth, success in reaching the sun, imperfections from lightning and insects, drought and fire.“

You can visit Lindsay Frost in her studio on the east side of Louisville during OPEN STUDIO WEEKEND, November 5 & 6, 2016. The event benefits scholarship programs for Louisville Visual Art and University of Louisville’s Hite Art Institute and tickets may be purchased here. She will also be a part of Art for the Senses in Jeffersontown, KY on November 11.

Hometown: Manitowish Waters, WI, but now Louisville, KY
Education: BA in Art from Lindenwood University, St. Charles, MO.
Website: http://www.lindsayefrost.com
FaceBook: http://www.facebook.com/LindsayEFrost
Gallery Representation: Edenside Gallery in Louisville & Berea Artisans Center in Berea, KY.

*"Meditation Bowls" by Lindsay Forst, wood, approximately 3x1.5in, $22*

*"Acorn/Lichen Buttons" by Lidsay Frost, wood, 3/4 to 1in D. x 1/4in, $4.00each*

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Please contact josh@louisvillevisualart.org for further information on advertising through Artebella. — *Please contact* *josh@louisvillevisualart.org* *for further information on advertising through Artebella.*

Sculpture

Q&A: Sculptor Mike McCarthy

Josh Jenkins · September 15, 2016

"I can’t not do my art. My art is a part of who I have become." — Mike McCarthy

Mike McCarthy is a stone sculptor working in limestone, soapstone, alabaster and marble who does both abstract and realistic work. He is a member of PYRO Gallery in Louisville where he will be exhibiting with Debra Lott in a show titled Human-Nature, running August 25 –October 8, 2016.

When did you first think you would be an artist?

I knew I wanted to DO art at around age 8 when I first started carving wood with my grandfather. When I was in high school I started taking art classes and figured out pretty quickly that I really wanted to be an artist, to the point of deciding that I would major in art in college. But it was in high school that I first started identifying myself as an artist. I think I always considered myself an artist but never really knew what that meant until a few years ago. I didn’t really take my art seriously or truly make a commitment until then. So, I guess the bottom line is I really KNEW I would be an artist well after I THOUGHT I would be an artist.

Who or what inspires you now?

My wife. She is my biggest fan and my biggest critic, both of which are necessary, but without her support, it would be very difficult to spend the time and effort art required for what I do. She also puts up with me doing my art when there are a lot of things that need to be done around the house, listens to me while I am constantly talking about art, going with me to all the art events I love to attend, and generally being ok with my obsession with art.

More specifically, viewing any type of art inspires me. I love to think of the thought process it takes to create a work of art. I am in awe of other artists and seeing their work. While some specific pieces of art do not inspire, the creative process always fascinates me. I think: “How in the world did that person get that idea.” Viewing other work, no matter what it is, always makes me have to go home and carve.

As for local artists, Don Lawler, Meg White, Bob Lockhart, Matt Weir, Don Cartwright and Albert Nelson inspire me the most. I strive to make work that is on the same level as theirs. Beyond their work, I am very appreciative of their generosity of time, encouragement, and advice. It is not always what they create, but the fact that they created it that inspires me.

Historically, my two inspirations are Michelangelo and Bernini. My wife and I visited Italy and went to see Michelangelo’s “David”. While it was absolutely stunning, the unfinished work leading up to the David was actually more inspiring to me. I would have loved to carve over the same lines and see what the stone and the tools told me. Just remembering it now makes me want to not finish the rest of these questions and go carve.

*“A View From Above” by Mike McCarthy, 17.5x12x6.5in, Brazilian Soapstone and Walnut Hardwood on a Steel Base. This piece will be available for sale at McCarthy's show opening.*

If you could do anything else but make art, what would it be?

I can’t not do my art. My art is a part of who I have become. I am a happier and better person because of my art. After I graduated college, I lacked the confidence to really pursue it. I didn’t have a place where I could carve and I am color-blind so I never really felt confident in my ability to paint or draw. I went to work at a graphic design firm for a year, left that job and went to work for the YMCA, left the YMCA and started my own business, all of which felt so consuming that I thought I didn’t have time for my art. I didn’t really seriously start back until about 6 years ago. I often think now that I am close to 50 years old, how long will I be able to carve? It is really the only fear I have. I think: how can I carve till the day I die. What adaptations will I have to make to be able to carve when I am older. I haven’t answered the questions yet, but for me to be happy, I have to carve so I will have to find a way. I have been through a long period of time where I wasn’t doing my art and I never want to go back there again.

What advice would you give a young artist just out of college?

What ever it takes, keep doing your work!! The only regret I have in my life is that I didn’t continue to work on my art after school. I think, the improvements I have made in the past 6 years, I could have made 20 years ago. You can’t get that time back. Your life will be so much more satisfying if you just stick with your art.

Tell us about an important moment of transition for you as an artist?

Two events happened in 2012 that totally changed my art career. First, through the prodding of Bob Lockhart, I applied for and was accepted into the Yew Dell Garden Sculpture Show. My piece “Sylvanus” was selected as the program cover piece and sold the opening night. It was the first time I had ever worked on a monumental scale. That piece drove me to work even bigger. At the same time, Bob had been pushing me for some time to apply to PYRO Gallery. Bob invited me to show with him and I sold all but 2 pieces, the majority of them on the opening night. While I still struggle with self-confidence, these two events went a long way to helping me put my work out in public.

If you were given a $100,000 what would do with it?

Well, anyone who really knows me would laugh at this, but I would have to use at least a little to buy more stone. I am not a hoarder at all, but when it comes to stone, I can’t get enough. With the majority of the money though, I would buy a piece of land and create a sculpture park! At the park we could do carving symposiums. I attended the Indiana Limestone Symposium this past summer and it was AWESOME! There are not many symposiums around. We could also open the property up to beginning artists who didn’t have a place to carve.

“Fearsome” by Mike McCarthy, 12x3.5x7.5in, Southern Oregon Soapstone on Wood Base, $600 | BUY NOW — *“Fearsome” by Mike McCarthy, 12x3.5x7.5in, Southern Oregon Soapstone on Wood Base, $600 | BUY NOW*

What does art mean to you?

I carve every night. I get lost in it. I actually have to set an alarm on my watch to tell me it is time to stop carving and clean up and go to bed. If not, before I know it, the sun would be up and another day would be starting. If I am not making my art, I am thinking about it or looking at other’s work. People ask for the meaning behind a piece and I am always at a loss. The image or the “thing” I have created does not hold the meaning of the piece. The creation of the piece is the meaning of the piece. The creation of the piece is what I have to do, so the piece becomes me. Imagine putting yourself on a pedestal and inviting a bunch of people in to a big room and saying tell me what you think of me. That is why I collect art. Yes, my wife and I buy pieces that we like visually, but I am more likely to buy a piece from and artist at an opening where I can meet them and try to understand them. After all, I am buying part of them.

How do you feel about local art scene in Louisville? Would you change anything about it?

Most artists I meet are great about sharing or helping or just taking time to talk with you about their art. I love the variety of work that is available. We have a great visual art community, but we are also rich in other arts as well. We have some amazing public parks that are art in and of them selves. The arts are some of the first to venture out to revitalize neglected areas. I would like to see more outdoor sculpture parks!! On a trip to Washington DC, I spent time at the Smithsonian Modern Art Sculpture Park, the National Mall, and the Hirschhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden. It was amazing. How great would it be if some of our parks took some of their vast land and created small sculpture parks!

“From the Wild” by Mike McCarthy, 12.5x12x6.5in, Southern Oregon Soapstone and Steel on a Wood Base, $900  | BUY NOW — *“From the Wild” by Mike McCarthy, 12.5x12x6.5in, Southern Oregon Soapstone and Steel on a Wood Base, $900 | BUY NOW*

How long do you usually spend on a specific piece of art?

This really varies depending on the scale and type of stone I am using. Some of my small soapstone or alabaster pieces I can do in a day or two. Most of the time I have a few weeks in the medium sized pieces or marble pieces. Then for the monumental scale work I have done, I have not finished any of those pieces in less than 9 months.

What's the most challenging part when starting on a piece of work of art?

Actually, starting a piece is never a challenge for me other than picking the idea I want to work on. I have more ideas in my head than I will ever be able to complete in my lifetime. For me, the more difficult thing is finishing. When I used to carve wood, if I didn’t it, it went in the fireplace. That way, I didn’t have to deal with the problem I was having with a piece. With stone, you can’t put in the fireplace, and for the large-scale pieces you need a crane to get rid of it, so it has forced me to work through problems. I think it is making me a better artist, although, some pieces still sit there staring at me because I can’t solve the problem with them. There are many times when I wish stone burned!!

Name: Mike McCarthy
Hometown: Chicago, Illinois
Age: 49
Education: BA in Fine Arts, Bellarmine University
Website: http://www.mikemccarthysculptor.com
Gallery Representative: PYRO Gallery and Revelry Boutique Gallery (Louisville), KY Artisan Center (Berea)

“Majestic” by Mike McCarthy, 23.25x20x13in, Black Pearl Soapstone, $3000 | BUY NOW — *“Majestic” by Mike McCarthy, 23.25x20x13in, Black Pearl Soapstone, $3000 | BUY NOW*

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Sculpture, Public Art

Feature: Ed Hamilton

Josh Jenkins · September 12, 2016

"Ed Hamilton's Studio" Photo by Sarah Katherine Davis For LVA (2016) — *"Ed Hamilton's Studio"* Photo by Sarah Katherine Davis For LVA (2016)

*Photo from Louisville's Hometown Heroes.*

On the west-facing side of the Glassworks building in downtown Louisville you will find an over-size image of sculptor ED HAMILTON with the legend, “Ed’s Louisville.” Part of a series of such tributes to native sons and daughters located throughout the city, the placement of this particular portrait is significant because the west side of town is where Hamilton came of age. Although born in Cincinnati, he grew up on what was then Walnut Street (later rechristened Muhammad Ali Boulevard); a stretch from 6th Street west to 18th Street that he describes in his autobiography as, “…my street, and I owned every crack and every weed in those concrete sidewalks.”* So it is appropriate that his visage is cast out onto what truly was Ed’s Louisville.

It also explains why the renowned artist has never let fame lure him away. His heart is here, where his parents, Edward Hamilton, Sr. and Amy Jane Hamilton, ran the family business, a tailoring and barbershop, in the early Mammoth Building at 6th and Walnut Streets. Hamilton’s first steps as an artist were at Parkland Junior High School, where art teacher Harriet O’ Malley nominated him for the Children’s Free Art Classes (CFAC) operated by Louisville Visual Art, then called The Art Center, located on the University of Louisville campus.

*"Ed Hamilton working in his studio" Photo by Sarah Katherine Davis For LVA (2016)*

Hamilton becomes animated talking about this turning point: “If that teacher hadn’t picked me out for CFAC - she could have picked any of those other kids – but she picked me. I never would have gotten there on my own. I had no thought, no ambition to be an artist. That’s an example of why teachers are so important.”

Jean Mulhall, a professional medical illustrator taught that CFAC class, but the human form was not a subject. “We were mostly outside. We drew all over campus.”

Later he attended Shawnee High School, where his art instructor was Patsy Griffiths. In his autobiography, Hamilton describes the contentious atmosphere created by the push for “total” integration in the city schools: “I still remember the animosity and disrespect from white students in that school.” So the fact that Griffith, a white teacher, fostered the talent of a black student in the midst of such tension made an important impression on the budding young artist. When Hamilton graduated in 1965, she pushed him to apply for a scholarship to the Art Center School, which was located in the same building where he had taken CFAC classes. When he returned, with portfolio under his arm, for his interview, he was taken aback: “It had been a few years, and I was still young,’ he laughs, ”and I kept thinking, ‘this place sure seems familiar’.”

*Art Center building,ULUA.001.0026, University of Louisville Archives & Records Center, Louisville, Kentucky*

The Art Center building was located on South First Street on the U of L campus, and Hamilton used to hang out between classes at a café in Bigelow Hall that was a gathering place on campus for Black students. It was there he met his wife. “I made my move… and introduced myself. When she said her name was Bernadette…well, the name alone was enough for me!” For their 50th Wedding Anniversary in 2017, the Hamiltons are planning a trip to Europe to celebrate.

Of course, there is a lot more life and history between that meeting and today. For 49 years Ed Hamilton has built a career and a reputation that now positions him as one of the foremost American sculptors of public work. Yet his studio is surprisingly modest considering the scale of some of his most famous pieces: the Lincoln Memorial in Louisville, the Joe Louis statue in Detroit, or the Martin Luther King, Jr. memorial, in Newport News, Virginia. It is a reminder of Hamilton’s humble roots and that, whatever his preeminence, he remains a hard-working artist.

His latest commission is a life-size bronze bust of George DeBaptiste to be installed in a park development in Madison, Indiana. DeBaptiste (1815-1875) was a freeborn black man who settled in Madison before the Civil War and was a conductor on the Underground Railroad, ferrying slaves across the Ohio into Indiana, and later a key figure in the abolitionist movement after riots forced him to move his family to Michigan. It is a subject that fits very well into Hamilton’s oeuvre of African-American History. Taking on such stories as the mutiny of the slave-ship Amistad, African American soldiers during the American Civil War, the migration of southern blacks to the western United States, or the contributions of such individuals as Booker T. Washington and Medgar Evers, seems a natural task for someone with such an acute sense of history. Hamilton does extensive research into the historical background of each project just to prepare his submission, long before he has been formally selected. “I’d like to think it makes the difference – one of the reasons they choose ME.” Even 25 years after completing the Amistad Memorial in New Haven, Connecticut, he speaks extemporaneously and in great detail of Cinque’s mutiny aboard the notorious slave ship and the landmark Supreme Court ruling that finally allowed he and his compatriots to return to their native Sierre Leone twenty years before the Civil War. Should Hamilton ever wish to “retire” from making monuments, he could easily forge a lucrative career as a guest lecturer in history classes, just don’t expect that retirement to come anytime soon.

A 360° video featuring the "Bust of George DeBaptiste" (Madison Indiana commission of an Underground Railroad conductor) by Ed Hamilton.

*"Ed Hamilton" Photo by Sarah Katherine Davis For LVA (2016)*

*The Birth of An Artist: A Journey of Discovery, by Ed Hamilton, Chicago Spectrum Press, 2006

This Feature article was written by Keith Waits.
In addition to his work at the LVA, Keith is also the Managing Editor of a website, www.Arts-Louisville.com, which covers local visual arts, theatre, and music in Louisville.