Portraits & Faces

My very first stone sculpture was of the head of a man. Wanting to take a course with a sculptor from Montpellier, France, he brought me a rectangular building stone made from fossil shells. He gave me two hours to carve something out of that stone before he would decide whether to take me as student.

I was lost in front of a block of stone with no inspiration whatsoever. Then I saw a hole on top of the stone. When I looked into this hole, I saw an eye looking up towards me! There seemed to be someone in there…so I carved that man out. He looked like Neptune.

When the master-carver returned, he was astonished and asked how I did it. I explained that I had to free this man, and then he told me the story of Michelangelo who saw an angel in the stone awaiting to be freed. He saw it as a sign and agreed to teach me.