Pencil Sculpting

Everyone needs pencils to draw, but I never realized that the pencil itself could be a form of artwork. Dalton Ghetti carves artworks from pencils. He does not use a magnifying glass as others may assume, but rather opts for a simple razor blade and needles to create these magnificent and unique pieces of art. He states that he's always known he was the pencil guy, but never knew it would take him to such heights in his art. Gehtti says he just does it because it is fun for him. At 49 years old, he is not married, and works humbly in barn space provided by Sandy Lefkowitz and her husband, Larry, in Connecticut. He lives simply, with about as much material possessions as a nomad or a monk, and solely focuses on his art. However, he also loves to camp and coaches volleyball at his local YMCA, this is why many of his pieces take years to create.

He says, when asked why he works with pencils rather than some sort or other material, such as wood, that graphite is much simpler than wood, and sculpts much more easily. It all goes in one direction, rather than dealing with the grain of wood, and, even though its delicateness, the material is surprisingly easy to sculpt. Dalton is also very humble. He is completely unaware of just how unique his talent is. As a child, he carved bark, soap, chalk, before settling on graphite sometime in high school.It has taken him around 3 years to complete the alphabet, a year to complete an Elvis bust with sunglasses as well as a tiny shoe that looks strikingly realistic.
Dalton does not sell any of his work, but simply gives it away to friends. He says its a gift from the heart. The last gift he's given away was the chain pencil, pictured at the top with him. It was carved out of a single pencil and contains 23 looped chains. It took him 2 years, he has given it to his father for his 80th birthday.
He does not use artificial light to carve his pieces. He states that if it is not  sunny inside, he will work outside, always holding his piece himself. He has made over 100 pieces, but he does not have a favorite he says. His favorite is always the piece that his is working on at the moment. The most frustrating thing about working with this soft, fragile, yet malleable material is that a piece would break months after he had started working on it, and there is no way to fix it, except to start over.
Many would wonder how much he spends on pencils to keep his hobby alive. But the truth is is that over the 25 years he has been doing this, he has not spent a dime on pencils because he uses ones given to him by friends asking him to sculpt for them, or he uses ones that he finds on the streets.

As of today, he is working on a monumental piece to honor those who were killed in the September 11th tragedy. He is carving one rice sized tear drop for the over 3,000 people who lost their lives that day. He has been working on it since 2002 and says it will take him around 10 years to create and finish. He makes one teardrop every day, it takes him under an hour to complete each one. In the end he says, he'd like for them to be displayed in some sort of case in the formation of a large teardrop from afar. Then as people move closer they will see that it is made of individual teardrops, each handcrafted.

It amazes me that one person could do this without any sort of magnifying glass, artificial light, or even using something to hold the pencil steady. He truly takes the art of carving to a new level. To think that he carves this all by hand, and with a sewing needle, razor, and sculpting knife is insane to me. And to think that he actually like to do it! That is pure insanity!
I really like all of the detail he puts into his pieces. Each one unique and each one made for a specific person in mind.  This is such an extraordinary talent!

Frank Gehry

Originally born Frank Owen Goldberg on February 28, 1929. He was born to Thelma Caplanski, of polish decent, and to Irving Goldberg, of Jewish heritage. He was one of two children including his sister Doreen. He and his father made business calls when he was very little, so he learned the business life early. However, he attributes his success and inspiration to his mother, who first introduced him to the arts, and his grandmother, who encouraged his artistic talent by helping him build small buildings out of sticks and glue. When asked what his biggest influence is after his grandmother, Gehry says fish. This comes from an old nick name he had in grade school.

He holds dual residency in Canada as well as America, since he was born in Toronto, but later the family moved to LA because of his fathers health problems.
Gehry was very fortunate to have many opportunities to study all around the United States. These schools included USC school of Architecture, where he graduated from in 1954, as well as Harvard Graduate School of Design where he studied city planning. 

After graduating from Harvard, he was married to Anita Snyder in 1952 before serving in the US Army in 1954. He says that she was the one to convince him to change his name to Gehry, which after his families approval, he did. Unfortunately they were divorced in 1966, after having two daughters together.However, in 1975, he was married again to his current wife, Berta Aguilera. They have two sons.

Deconstuctivism is the best way to describe Frank Gehry's style. Some times referred to as Decon. Architecture, Frank Gehry's style goes beyond the current boundaries of structure and redefines how the public views buildings. He is a post-structuralist; he believes very much that he has no rules, that he is not required to "reflect certain social or universal ideas" in his art. His work may seem, to some, unfinished, but in stark contrast, it is finished according to the California "funk" movement of the 60s and 70s. There are no strings attached to his art, it is simply Frank Gehry.  

His most famously known piece of work would be the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain. It was constructed in 1997. It has given this Spanish city a real name and has made it an attraction for tourists from all over the world.

During the construction of this building, Gehry encountered some firsts. This was the first building that he used titanium on. This created even more critic's and more importantly, even more admirers of his work. Some consider every building made my him "sculpture", a sort of artistic view of how he sees the world. Many critics view the Guggenheim as his "crowning glory", his masterpiece. 

Another one viewed as a masterpiece is the Dancing House in Prague. This is personally my favorite building done by Gehry. This building portrays movement because of the windows and how they seem to move up and down with how they are placed on the building. Also,the building sways and curves as if they are dancers stuck in time. Well in fact, in Gehry's drawings and sketches two words appear constantly, Fred and Ginger. These are the names of the two tower's in the Dancing House. Ginger, being the girl in the dancing couple, has a glass dress which connects to a tower, Fred, being the leader of the couple. It was named this after Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. It building was completed in 1996, and is a center for cultural revival and focus in Prague. 

One of the more interesting buildings that Gehry has done is the Chiat-Day Building. It was built during 1985-1991. 

It was built for the Chiat/Day Advertising Agency; however it now houses other agencies. It is most know for its large scale binoculars that serve as a car and human entrance, as well as conference rooms in the upper levels. The remarkable building is located in the Venice area of Los Angeles. It is one of the newest Frank Gehry's and most definitely a tourist attraction.
Frank Gehry has changed the way architecture is viewed in today's society.He has the unique ability to build things with geometric shapes and interesting planes, but with a functional armature as a building. He has built something with bones and then "stretched" titanium, metal, and wood over these "bones" to make a useful and interesting building.