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Stone is like fire.

No matter how hard, unwilling, and unforgiving stone might seem, the act of carving it reminds me of nothing so much as watching a fire. The spell they both cast--the way they consume your attention and move you into an elemental world utterly devoid of dishonesty-- is nearly identical

I carve stone in order to set myself to stone's rhythm.

Carving stone allows me to experience a sustained awareness of my physical existence as a living being in a living world. To fully appreciate this experience, I try to understand stone--and the story it tells--so completely that my interaction with it occurs on the level of instinct. So I carve directly, intuitively; paying the closest possible attention to how the stone is directing my behavior.

My work is a description of the way stone feels.

Pavement, cubicles, alarm clocks, and the fierce logic of the computer will never tame us. We will always be animals--animals with a basic, undeniable hunger for constant sensory clues reminding us of our physical existence within nature. We need to touch dirt, watch fire, smell grass, and witness the way, for example, a piece of stone falls apart. Without this information, we are like orphans, left alone in a world where we need to piece together memory, myth, and secondhand reports in order to console ourselves with a sense of nature's extravagant generosity in sharing its beauty and sanity.

I carve stone in order to confront this alienation. My work is a kind of illustration of an experience of direct physical contact between stone and human, intended to communicate the message that in spite of everything that the manmade world may indicate to the contrary, nature still owns us.

Sue Nees lives and works in Virginia, U.S.A. Her direct carving process in granite, soapstone, alabaster, and other stone is a study in physical experience which searches for an instinctual understanding of stone's behavior in relation to the human hand. Sue is a member of Fukashi Gallery, a gallery in Matsumoto, Japan which specializes in stone sculpture and public art planning. Her work is featured in numerous collections, including the EDA Garden Museum in Yokohama, Japan.

The work of Sue Nees can be seen at: http://www.cistern.com/suenees/

You can email Sue Nees at suenees@yahoo.com