Biography
Vance Theoret is a man of few words, as are many who work with stone. But when he does get talking it takes little time to feel his passion for the stone that he works with! And of how he communicates with the stone in a manner hard to put into words but nonetheless very tangible.
Vance connects with each stone, allowing its ancient memory to speak to him. Using this first impression of what the stone has revealed, he applies a ‘direct carve’ approach, letting the design emerge. This rough image is then refined into a clean, solid sculpture, with precise, yet minimal, detail. “I let the stone tell me what it wants to be.”
“The results are far more exciting than if I forced my ideas on my material.” While Vance’s work portrays the physical presence of the stone, it also evokes a wide range of emotions – from humour to a sense of tenderness shared between mother and baby – and seems to touch you on a very primal level.
Working in alabasters, soapstones, slate, chlorite and Kissi stone, Vance carves a variety of subjects – but bears are by far his favourite. “Bears are like big kids that never really grow up. So I can get away with portraying a lot of human qualities in them. I like to explore the more playful, curious aspects of bears.”
Vance Theoret’s work ranges from small pieces for gifts to larger sculptures for private and corporate collections. His pieces can be found as far away as Germany, Switzerland, France, Holland, Taiwan and Japan.
Artist Statement
Firstly there are several ways to approach carving a piece of stone. Of these ways there is no right way or wrong way.Only the way that best works for that artist’s mental and visual processes. Some artists will make drawings and sketches and then use them as a guide for their stone work. Other artists will make small clay models and then reproduce them in a larger form. And still there are those, like myself, who will look at a piece of stone and see the shapes already inside waiting to be released and use what’s called a “direct carving” method.
Each stone I will look at from all angles until I connect with it and see those shapes that the stone suggests to me.This connection is what I call talking with the stone or having it tell me what it wants to be!
The stone that you see as you look at one of my carvings is many millions of years old. So in effect you are holding pieces of this planet’s history in your hands. Every piece of stone has been formed, reformed and changed countless times. I believe that stone has a memory of all those changes. Not a memory as we know it, but nonetheless memory’s stored in its molecular structure and make up. Although I’m unable to put it into words, this is without a doubt in my mind a big part of what it is I’m connecting with when the stone talks to me. And now through me it is able to talk to you! And you by your looking at this stone and mentally interacting with it have become a next step in its evolution.You have made it into a piece of art.