Don Ramey - stone carver - sculptor
I earned a BFA, cum laude, from the Cleveland Institute of Art in 1985 with a major in sculpture and minor in drawing, after a few years studying marine science and engineering at the US Coast Guard Academy and Cornell University.
My approach to my artistic life has been pragmatically rooted in my working class background. I have devoted my time and energy to honing my skills and expanding my talents by making sculpture, whether it is mine or someone else’s; fine art, cemetery monuments or architectural detail and ornamentation. I've done foundry work, pattern and mold making, repairs and restorations in a wide variety of materials. My work for other artists has included many large scale public and corporate commissions in Detroit, Traverse City, and Ann Arbor, MI; Cleveland and Columbus, OH; and Arlington, VA and numerous stone sculptures and fountains in private collections. I have managed some parts of the processes at stone fabrication plants, including: laying out blocks for the sawyers, making machine templates, insuring engineered connections are done to specification, and specifying plumbing for fountains. When hand shaping is required I do that personally in most cases. Since I am often involved with, if not directing, the installation, I have experience with working on deadlines and coordinating with other contractors. My personal work, which I have recently begun devoting more time and energy to, is primarily figurative in stone and bronze, with an emphasis on sensuous forms and carefully considered finishes. I've had a long term interest in breaking down the figure/ground interface to express the fluidity of matter/energy, as a way of exploring manifestation, especially of the human species. But the philosophy is secondary to the reason I choose to do this. It is the simple hands-on act of making; the process of creating something beautiful or interesting from ordinary materials that gives meaning and satisfaction to my life. |
REVERSE CHRONOLOGY OF SELECTED HIGHLIGHTS OF MY ART HISTORY
2010
Participated with four other sculptors in the Marble Sculpture Symposium at The Carving Studio and Sculpture Center in West Rutland VT.
In 30 days, I completed an untitled nine foot tall sculpture depicting a life size figure in high relief in "tree pose" integrated with a loosely carved tree.
2008
Visiting Sculptor at SIAS International University in Xin Zheng, Henan Province, China. Carved in four weeks, “The Peoples Seat of Harmony and Friendship”;
a monumental granite sculpture
2005
Assisted fabrication and managed the installation of “Potomac Garden” at the new Environmental Protection Agency Office Building in Arlington, VA
for Kokoro Carvers
2004
Temporary Adjunct instructor at Green Mountain College in Poultney, VT. Taught one course in figure sculpture
Taught one week workshop in Figure carving in stone at the Carving Studio and Sculpture Center. Also taught this workshop in 2002, and 2005
2003
Visiting Artist at Northwest Stone Sculptors Association 16th Annual Symposium in Mt Vernon Washington. Demonstrated granite carving techniques
2002
Managed fabrication and installation of stone components of two major environmental sculptures for artist David Barr - Michigan Labor Legacy Project: "Transcending” Twenty-four large half-sawn boulders in Detroit's Hart Plaza; and "Liberation": thirteen large granite and marble sculptures at Pfizer Corporation's Research Headquarters in Ann Arbor.
2001
Marble portrait relief of company founder Henry Carris for Carris Reels of Rutland, VT
2000
Attended the 9th annual Symposium of Open Air Sculpture, a part of the Pusan International Contemporary Art Festival, in Pusan, South Korea, and
completed, in three weeks, a large scale two piece sculpture in basalt, titled "Love Flows from the Mountain"
Completed and installed a life size relief carving for the Viet Nam Veterans Memorial of Rutland, VT. Dedicated on Memorial Day 2000. Done pro bono
1999
Carved building parapet ornaments in marble for 110 Center St in Rutland VT, a renovation of a Federal style historic structure
Managed millwork and installation, and did carved detail on "Synergy", an outdoor installation of a dozen sawn and polished serpentine boulders at the
Dennos Museum in Traverse City, MI for artist David Barr.
1996
Portrait relief carving in marble for The Carving Studio's Jack Veller memorial
1993 - 2008
Execution of many sculptures and fountains in marble and granite for Sculptor David Barr of Novi, MI, working from drawings and models, and sometimes in collaboration with Granite Importers of Barre, VT including a large fountain installation inside the Wildlife Interpretive Center at the Detroit Zoo in 1995.
1991 - Present
Occasional assistance to Glenn Campbell of Campbell Plaster and Iron, West Rutland, VT. This has involved a variety of work, including making patterns
in clay, wood, and wax and all phases of foundry work.
1991
Commissioned sculpture for the town of West Rutland, VT memorial to marble industry workers. Designed and sculpted clay relief, then cast it in plaster
for carving by Dino and Derno Ambrosini of Gawet Marble and Granite. Done as part of the State of Vermont Bicentennial Projects
1989
Assisted sculptor Karl Rosenburg of NY, NY with installation of numerous very large scale sculptures in the Walden Galleria Mall in Cheektowaga, NY,
suspending fabricated aluminum sculptures from steel cables.
1988
Spent eight months in La Coste France, on the staff of La Coste School of the Arts, where I provided instruction in stone carving, mold making and other
sculpture processes
1985 - 1990
Model making for Kotecki Monument Company of Cleveland, OH. Made approximately twenty life-size and over life-size models cast in gypsum cement
for automated execution in granite. Also did some stone carving as needed.
1985 - 1988
Worked at Studio Foundry in Cleveland, OH; learning the full process of lost wax, solid investment bronze casting. This included mold making on originals,
making and gating waxes, investing, welded assembly and chasing of bronze castings.
1985 - 1986
Studio assistant to the late David E Davis, an internationally known sculptor in Cleveland, OH. I was one of two assistants that fabricated and installed
“The Wall of Sound” an eighty feet long by twenty feet tall wall sculpture in the lobby of the Ohio Bell Building in Cleveland.
2010
Participated with four other sculptors in the Marble Sculpture Symposium at The Carving Studio and Sculpture Center in West Rutland VT.
In 30 days, I completed an untitled nine foot tall sculpture depicting a life size figure in high relief in "tree pose" integrated with a loosely carved tree.
2008
Visiting Sculptor at SIAS International University in Xin Zheng, Henan Province, China. Carved in four weeks, “The Peoples Seat of Harmony and Friendship”;
a monumental granite sculpture
2005
Assisted fabrication and managed the installation of “Potomac Garden” at the new Environmental Protection Agency Office Building in Arlington, VA
for Kokoro Carvers
2004
Temporary Adjunct instructor at Green Mountain College in Poultney, VT. Taught one course in figure sculpture
Taught one week workshop in Figure carving in stone at the Carving Studio and Sculpture Center. Also taught this workshop in 2002, and 2005
2003
Visiting Artist at Northwest Stone Sculptors Association 16th Annual Symposium in Mt Vernon Washington. Demonstrated granite carving techniques
2002
Managed fabrication and installation of stone components of two major environmental sculptures for artist David Barr - Michigan Labor Legacy Project: "Transcending” Twenty-four large half-sawn boulders in Detroit's Hart Plaza; and "Liberation": thirteen large granite and marble sculptures at Pfizer Corporation's Research Headquarters in Ann Arbor.
2001
Marble portrait relief of company founder Henry Carris for Carris Reels of Rutland, VT
2000
Attended the 9th annual Symposium of Open Air Sculpture, a part of the Pusan International Contemporary Art Festival, in Pusan, South Korea, and
completed, in three weeks, a large scale two piece sculpture in basalt, titled "Love Flows from the Mountain"
Completed and installed a life size relief carving for the Viet Nam Veterans Memorial of Rutland, VT. Dedicated on Memorial Day 2000. Done pro bono
1999
Carved building parapet ornaments in marble for 110 Center St in Rutland VT, a renovation of a Federal style historic structure
Managed millwork and installation, and did carved detail on "Synergy", an outdoor installation of a dozen sawn and polished serpentine boulders at the
Dennos Museum in Traverse City, MI for artist David Barr.
1996
Portrait relief carving in marble for The Carving Studio's Jack Veller memorial
1993 - 2008
Execution of many sculptures and fountains in marble and granite for Sculptor David Barr of Novi, MI, working from drawings and models, and sometimes in collaboration with Granite Importers of Barre, VT including a large fountain installation inside the Wildlife Interpretive Center at the Detroit Zoo in 1995.
1991 - Present
Occasional assistance to Glenn Campbell of Campbell Plaster and Iron, West Rutland, VT. This has involved a variety of work, including making patterns
in clay, wood, and wax and all phases of foundry work.
1991
Commissioned sculpture for the town of West Rutland, VT memorial to marble industry workers. Designed and sculpted clay relief, then cast it in plaster
for carving by Dino and Derno Ambrosini of Gawet Marble and Granite. Done as part of the State of Vermont Bicentennial Projects
1989
Assisted sculptor Karl Rosenburg of NY, NY with installation of numerous very large scale sculptures in the Walden Galleria Mall in Cheektowaga, NY,
suspending fabricated aluminum sculptures from steel cables.
1988
Spent eight months in La Coste France, on the staff of La Coste School of the Arts, where I provided instruction in stone carving, mold making and other
sculpture processes
1985 - 1990
Model making for Kotecki Monument Company of Cleveland, OH. Made approximately twenty life-size and over life-size models cast in gypsum cement
for automated execution in granite. Also did some stone carving as needed.
1985 - 1988
Worked at Studio Foundry in Cleveland, OH; learning the full process of lost wax, solid investment bronze casting. This included mold making on originals,
making and gating waxes, investing, welded assembly and chasing of bronze castings.
1985 - 1986
Studio assistant to the late David E Davis, an internationally known sculptor in Cleveland, OH. I was one of two assistants that fabricated and installed
“The Wall of Sound” an eighty feet long by twenty feet tall wall sculpture in the lobby of the Ohio Bell Building in Cleveland.