Busacca Gallery

This stone carving of a Soda Can was created by award winning artist Robin Antar of Brooklyn, NY. The over-sized soda can is 19"h X 11"w X 10"d was carved out of solid piece of stone. Yale marble. Antar uses many tools to carve and sculpt this particular type of stone. Among them are air hammers and various grinders to get the exact shape desired. Then she spends many hours polishing the stone to a high gloss. The upper portion of the Soda Can is painted with silver paint; the tab is added with additional materials and is also painted silver to give it a three-dimensional appearance. Robin Antar’s passion as a sculptor involves a technique she uncovered more than 20 years ago — the precise art of creating "virtual records" of contemporary culture — capturing common, everyday items in stone. Essentially, she replicate these items on a real life-scale, complete with meticulous detail. she achieves this absolute realism by incorporating parts of the actual object, as well as custom-made stains, paints, plastics and gold leaf. It's more than art imitating life, it's art mirroring life. Robin Antar’s works have been exhibited in various shows and galleries including: Sotheby’s, NY; the National Art Club, NY; Nabisco Gallery, NJ; Fine Art Management Enterprises, Miami, FL; the City Museum of St. Louis, Mo.; the Provincetown Art Museum, Provincetown, MA; the MGM Grand Hotel, Las Vegas, NV, and others. Recent commissions include: Dr. Marten Boots, England; Sketchers Boots, USA; California and Chateau Haut-Brion wines, France, as well as commissions for private collections. Antar has been featured in newspapers including The New York Post, where they compared her to Michelangelo, and The New York Daily News where they said "she's become Brooklyn's answer to Andy Warhol", and Las Vegas Tribune among others, as well as magazines such as Fashion Manuscript, Art Business News and Sportswear International. Antar has also been awarded The Allied Artist of America (Gold Medal of Honor and asked to become a full time member), Match Up (first prize) in sculpture, work selected to be in Best of America Artists and Artisans, Best of New York Artists Books (second place) in sculpture, United Creators, (second place), and Sculptural Pursuit (4th place in their national annual), among others.

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stone_sculpture#Roughing_out

The work begins with the selection of a stone for carving. The artist may carve in the direct way, by carving without a model, creating a form or figure from scratch, with only the idea in his mind as a guideline, sketching on the block of stone and developing the work along the way. This method can be inspiring but can also present major problems when too much stone is removed in previous stages. Or the sculptor may begin with a clearly defined model to be copied in stone. Frequently the sculptor would begin by forming a model in clay or wax, and then copying this in stone by measuring with calipers or a pointing machine. This method leaves much less chance for error, so the desired result can be achieved as expected. This method is also used when the carving is done by other sculptors, such as artisans or employees of the sculptor.

Some artists use the stone itself as inspiration; the Renaissance artist Michelangelo claimed that his job was to free the human form trapped inside the block.