Today I had the pleasure of visiting with a local artist Claire McArdle in her super cool studio/workshop here in Longmont Colorado. A nice wood burning stove blazing in the shop with wonderful creative and inspirational sculpture in various degrees of completion everywhere. Marble, Travertine, Clay and well a little bit of every type stone. I have to write down all the different italian marbles because they were impressive. Here is her Bio straight from the web.
Claire McArdle is an internationally recognized sculptor. She grew up in the Washington DC metro area where she began studying art in high school. Her regular trips to the National museums at a young age exposed her to a wide range of sculpture from around the world. She was particularly inspired by sculpture of the European modern masters, Old Europe and Africa. After earning a Bachelor in Fine Arts she moved to Italy in 1988 for several years to work with the master carvers in Carrara and continues to travel to Italian quarries to rough out her travertine and marble work.
Currently she works between studios on the eastern shore of Maryland and her ranch on the front range of the Colorado Rocky Mountains. Her style has been influenced by classical figures and the soul that speaks within tribal art, but her figures emerge from her own personal mythology and archetypes. Her energy for exploring these mysteries and an insatiable passion for working stone, clay, and bronze, combine to create forms with harmonious balance and an ethereal quality.
