Materially Speaking

See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com   Kevin talks about his childhood in South Armagh, Northern Ireland, and how the experience of his teenage years coloured his life. He opens up about how his work explores family relationships - sons, fathers and toxic masculinity. He studied at art school in Dublin and Chicago, before doing a masters at Goldsmiths in London. During art school h...

See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com Yemisi currently lives in Stockholm but has worked in Pietrasanta since 1999. She lived here for 15 years and creates in marble, granite and bronze. Yemisi's love of animals started at a young age and they are a frequent theme in her work. Yemisi had four aquariums in her room as a child, and tells us why she finds the animals’ anatomy so fascin...

Guarda le immagini e leggi di più su materiallyspeaking.com. See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com  including a full English transcript. Questa settimana incontriamo Franco Casoni, maestro intagliatore del legno, per scoprire come realizza le polene, ovvero le figure di prua delle navi. This week we are meeting Franco Casoni, a master wood carver, to find out how he creates ships’ f...

See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com Widely recognised as the inventor of organic cubism, Pollès has created his own private laboratory for the creation of his singular sculptures. In this episode, we invite you to watch a special video interview with Pollès and enjoy a rare glimpse inside his home and workshops. Watch on YouTube: The World of Pollès

See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com Ko Yamazaki was born in Japan but at 17 he went to Paris to study before finding his second home in Italy, working with marble. Today Mike Axinn and I are back in Studio Pescarella, on the outskirts of Pietrasanta to chat with Ko Yamazaki. Originally from Kyoto, Japan, Ko has been coming to carve in Pietrasanta, Italy, since 1992. We find him wo...

See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com Sculpture Vulture is a podcast which we love, and if you haven’t discovered it yet, we’re sure you’ll enjoy it. Produced and presented by bronze conservator and restorer Lucy Branch of Antique Bronze in the UK, it offers insights shaped by her specialist work in sculpture restoration, war memorial conservation and bronze maintenance. Lucy hosts...

See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com Renowned sculptor Alex Seton tells us about his journey from a rural Australian upbringing to becoming a prominent artist known for politically charged marble works. He speaks about how he became fascinated with marble at a very early age, and how he was influenced by his unconventional upbringing near an historic quarry. His family spent his ch...

Guarda le immagini e leggi di più su materiallyspeaking.com See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com Questo episodio continua anche il nostro desiderio di produrre un episodio per stagione in italiano. In keeping with our desire to produce one episode per season in Italian. Inoltre, ora avete la possibilità di guardare questo episodio come video o semplicemente ascoltare l'audio. In ad...

See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com Originally from Zurich, Maja was always keen to leave Switzerland and with an Italian grandmother perhaps Italy was always going to be her destination. She moved to Italy in 1991. She speaks to us about how her approach to work has changed. When she was young she liked seeing the impression her hands made on the work, while now she seeks smoothn...

Guarda le foto e leggi di più su materiallyspeaking.com Ursula è nata a Seravezza e vive e lavora ancora nella zona di Pietrasanta e ha anche trascorso un periodo di apprendimento delle tecniche speciali di mosaico di Ravenna e Spilimbergo. Facciamo un giro nel suo studio e tra le sue numerose scatole di tessere. Quando le chiediamo quanto sia importante la luce nella composizione di un mosaico, U...

See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com Dutch artist Anne-Claire trained and worked as a lawyer until she followed her heart to become an artist. She moved to Pietrasanta, where she lived, and worked, for 15 years. Now she divides her time between the Hague and Pietrasanta. After the pandemic she was looking for a way to capture peoples’ thoughts and emotions in order to make a three-...

See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com A sculptor and painter born in Damascus, Usama tells of the impact of being brought up in Syria and of continuously dealing with people from different religions with diverse ways of looking at things.  Usama’s studio space, and home, is tucked away in the shadow of the statuario marble quarries. Usama bought the space in this historic marble are...

See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com Originally from Oregon, John moved around America a lot as a child. Although he was not formally schooled as an artist, he received his education at a young age while travelling with his family through Europe and the Middle East. There he took in many of the great works of antiquity. John came to sculpture in his thirties from a background in pa...

See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com Sandy first came to Italy to be with her partner, the sculptor John Fisher, and enjoyed the influences of the Italian Renaissance, and the detailed work of the Baroque. From observing the sculptors she learned about shadow and light, negative shape and profile lines. However, she was offered a three month artist residency in a paper making villa...

See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com On 15th April, 2019 a catastrophic fire broke out in Notre Dame Cathedral. Parisians watched in horror as the spire fell and most of the roof was destroyed. In the aftermath it became clear that a large area was contaminated with toxic dust and lead. The iconic building, which has dominated the Île de la Cité island in Paris since the Middle Age...

See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com The flags are out, the bunting too, and the red and white mascot Burlamacco is everywhere as Viareggio eagerly awaits the start of Carnival. The trees are heavy with oranges, the sweet fried dough, chiacchiere , are in the pastry shops - there’s excitement in the air! Dating back to 1873, Viareggio’s Carnival attracts thousands of visitors each...

See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com Gabriele talks to us about his upbringing in Genoa, his self-taught artistic training, his love for the history of art, and for photography. He explains the process of creating pebble mosaics, including the selection of stones and the use of lime mortar. He also discusses the importance of preserving the skills and techniques of mosaic making an...

See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com We settle down to chat outside Robin Bell’s home at a sheltered table with a spectacular view of the sea, from Pisa to La Spezia, and the never ending horizon. An exterior storage space against a yellow wall reveals shelves laden with maquettes and sculptures in various stages of completion. Robin discusses his move from working with marble to b...

See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com The long, narrow, glass-walled studio of Janice Mehlman is perched half way up the steep garden of her home, on a hillside near Pietrasanta. Many of her abstract photographs are hung on crisp white walls, and she welcomes us inside to look at some of her work from the last 30 years. She explains how she started as a photographer, focusing on bla...

See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com Steaven Richard evolved his craft as an apprentice to several artisan blacksmiths over many years and in many countries, before establishing his own atelier in Paris specialising in artistic metalwork Soon demand for his work, from architects and designers, grew - and he needed more space. To accommodate this, he moved to a large warehouse in Va...

See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com Xavier Montoy grew up in a family of doctors and was always keen on biology. When he chose an artistic route he wanted to focus attention on endangered insects to highlight how we should honour and conserve them. As part of our Paris series, Mike Axinn and I go to the 11th arrondissement of Paris to meet Xavier and see how he creates jewellery w...

See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com Judith’s workshop is in the 10th arrondissement, tucked away in a courtyard behind huge iron gates where tall white buildings house workshops, and motorbikes and cars are squeezed against the walls. There are lines of plants in terracotta pots and a small white dog. Judith greets us in her office where a history of her instruments line one wall...

See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com Sylvain always loved cooking and when he discovered a passion for working with metal and wood he trained so he could create kitchen knives for chefs. Mike Axinn and I travelled to Paris to meet four artisans. In the first of our series we talk with Sylvain Maenhout who took the decision to retrain as an artisan in his late 30s. Becoming an artis...

See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com This spring Mike Axinn and I went to Paris to see how artisans are able to practise their craft in a vibrant, urban setting. We wanted to discover more about the relevance of traditional skills in a world of 21st century technologies. First we met Sylvain Maenhout who gave up a conventional career and moved his family out of central Paris to dev...

See pictures and read more on materiallyspeaking.com Ron Mehlman grew up in Brooklyn and came to Pietrasanta in the 1980s. No materials are off limits in his quest for creating sculpture infused with spirit and life. As we settle down to talk by his warm log-burning stove, Ron describes the two walls of his studio with their alphabet of colourful abstract sculptures – created from stone, wood and...