SPOTLIGHT ON ART

By Carolyn Henderson

Special to Dayton Chronicle

DAYTON–Rock and stone sculpture and carving Sandra Matthew-Sarve is the featured artist at Wenaha Gallery through February 22.

We've all heard about the elephant in the room–it's a great metaphor. The sheer absurdity of a two-ton pachyderm lumbering around the kitchen, and nobody noticing, is a visual and mental treat.

But there are lots of things we don't notice, whether it's because we don't want to, we're obtusely unobservant, we're focused on something else, or we don't see the significance of what is literally all around us.

Take rocks, for example.

"Rocks are just another item most people consider useless and ignore or toss aside," says Sandra Matthews-Sarve, a stone carver from Walla Walla who enjoys looking beyond the expected uses of objects–like rocks–and finding their unseen potential.

"We live on a rock. This planet is a rock. Most people take it for granted."

Not so Matthews-Sarve, who works with both carving stone like marble, alabaster, and soapstone, as well as common roadside rocks that she and her husband discover on drives through the area. In her garage and driveway studio, where she employs angle grinders, chisel and hammer, files, Dremel, rifflers and rasps, she creates everything from garden ornaments to miniature plant pots, not to mention a tiny Zen garden complete with tools. Some items, like pen holders, are functional; others are purely a celebration of sinuous form and beauty.

Because of the unpredictability of the medium–rocks and stone hide cracks, fissures, and small pieces of gravel that the carver doesn't know about until encountering them–the rock itself has a say in how the completed sculpture will look. One must always be willing to change direction and sculpting plans, Matthews-Sarve says. That's the challenge, and the joy.

"Most things can be useful or beautiful. Sometimes we just need to look beyond the expected uses, and beyond the normal ideas of beauty."

Weneha Gallery is located at 219 E. Main Street, Dayton; open Monday–Thursday from 9 a.m.–5 p.m., Friday 9 a.m.–4 p.m..