Doug Honeycutt's Stone "Critters" and "Goomers"

The simple joy Doug Honeycutt brings to his creative work is inspirational. He's not one to talk much about what he's doing, because he spends most of his time just doing. Whether that's playing a few songs down at the Coffeehouse on guitar, analyzing and mapping land survey data, or his favorite endeavor, carving stone. Sculpture is often solitary work that requires a quiet patience and persistence as well as meticulous attention to detail. However, the end result is a piece of art that you view not only with your eyes but also with your fingertips. I heard from Doug that he'd finally gathered some of his creations together for a couple of upcoming shows. I asked him to let me coax a few words out of him to describe what he's been working on over the past several years.

How did get started sculpting stone?


Some friends of mine from Pennsylvania brought me some serpentine and I picked one piece up and did that little ram in the portfolio. Otherwise for years all I had done were paintings. Then I got "gung ho" after the ram and went to the library and got all the geological survey information for South Carolina because I had heard there was some soapstone in the area. Using that information I went to a site and found some. But after a while they fenced in the space and now there's a fine for going into the site.

What were doing before sculpting?

I was doing a bit of painting, but mostly all left-brained work Land Surveying. I was doing so much mathematical work I didn't have any time to be creative. The left is the side that tells you to run if you see a tiger in the woods. The right brain wants to see it and make a painting or a sculpture out of it. I suppose wanting to do that makes me an "odd-ball," but artists are usually perceived to be rather odd.

How did this portfolio of work come together?

It takes up to a year to work on a piece sometimes. It's taken many years just to build up a body of work. I've been hauling soapstone around like a gypsy for 5-6 years now. The pieces I've sold are mostly down in Shelby now. There was one of the pieces sold that was theoretically of a lady in Saluda, but it was an abstract. I eventually had to sell it to keep the peace at home. I don't even have a photograph of it.


I like to do abstract sculptures because then people read something different into it. Everything I do is an abstract. I have no plans before I start, but work with the symmetry of the rock until it finally represents either an animal or a human. I used to call all of them either a critter or a goomer. Another piece I sold I thought of as a sparrow, but others see it as an eagle or hawk or albatross. I used a little different technique on it. I painted on it with a brushed stone crushed rock which made a pigment so that it came out kind of copper and green.

Some of my work has been shown at Saluda school. Kids really seem to like it. I've shown at Saluda Fine Arts owned by Beverly Whitmire just out front working on pieces during the Saluda Art day or working on a piece while minding the shop. I could have sold some if I'd only had them finished, which is what people kept telling me I should do. There's something psychological about finishing. When it's done then you have to worry about selling it. I had some pieces in a juried art show at the Upstairs Gallery. Juried means a group sits down and judges the pieces in the show. I took second place to the former Landrum High School art teacher and sold the sculpture that was supposedly of a lady.

Sculpture takes a long time and while I'm working on a piece people will read something into it of their own and suggest I make changes that I have to disregard. My favorite place to work is the beach because people that come by just give me positive statements. The sand makes a really good anchor for the piece and several of the pieces I've done have their origin from the seashore.

In October I'll be showing my sculptures at 16 Patton in Asheville, as well as Martin Gallery in Charleston, SC.

How did you learn to sculpt stone?

I went to Atlanta school of art and one of my mentors is a fellow named Ford McDonald who was my high school art instructor. I took lessons from him over the years whenever I could afford it. He's in the "big leagues" now. There was a sculptor named Felix and even though I never knew his last name, he probably gave me the most advice. He told me not to ever copy or look at other people's sculpture because I might be influenced by it with out meaning to be. He also said electric tools didn't have any place in sculpture and you should only use hand tools. I disregarded him and tried using power tools for a while, but after breathing a lot of dust I started to think he might be right. There's nothing like something completely built by hand. So now I used a series of different sized and different shaped rasps and wet and dry sandpaper and chisels of course. He also suggested I move on to marble, but I haven't done that yet because I can't afford the marble on my starving artist budget. You have to start somewhere so I started with rocks that were free or didn't cost very much.

What are you working on right now?


It's a piece that's going to look kind of Mayan. It's the first "Mayan-ish" looking piece I've done. I'm going to make some earrings out of green serpentine to inlay into the red soapstone. I've gotten it about 80% complete. But, I didn't try to copy the Mayan style; it just came out that way. A guy asked me the other day why my pieces look like Inuit Indians. I told him that if they look that way to you then that is the reason. To me they are all abstract.

What do enjoy most about sculpting?

Being able to reach my inner child through the reward I get from seeing something go from just a rock to something that gives other people joy and I get joy from it too. But mainly it's nice to see other people smile because that's what I have to share.

You can reach Doug Honeycutt by phone 828-243-2784 or write to him at P.O. Box 576 Saluda , NC 28773.