Mythology of Stone

“I have worked on all varieties of stones and responded to the differences each stone asked for in the way of treatment. But now I no longer work in all stones; I have chosen to express myself in limestone. Its natural gray color does not interfere with the forms. Often a pretty stone such as marble covers up bad forms because people don’t really look at the forms that respond to the veining of the crystals in the stone. Limestone, a rough, ragged stone, bears traces of the sea: sea animals are locked into and within the crystal structure. Limestone is American. The hills I was born in are made of this material, and it gives me pleasure to work in Texas limestone. It’s friendly, and it reminds me of my roots. Limestone has good tensile strength, allowing thin slab forms to be cut. It has the strength as well to withstand the noxious air of an urban city.”

“Art galleries no longer show much carved stone sculpture which makes the show by Bradford Graves something of an anomaly. He wants it to say stone in the traditional sense, but he also tries to make it a vehicle for contemporary sculptural language. This results in work that looks a bit other worldly, as if it had dropped in from another planet ….The sculptures look archaic, like archeological artifacts. On the other hand their abstraction is organic and totally contemporary which sets up a rather vigorous clash of sensations. …Either way, it gets your attention.”–The Philadelphia Inquirer

“Bradford Graves sustains the greatest amount of interest through his low-keyed and highly evocative works of profound originality….His work combines pallid, subtly textured rock with water that rests in a track-like indentation that runs down the length of limestone. The elements slowly fuse….In other works Graves evokes his haunting rhythms, stimulating quiet contemplation of his most unusual and visionary gems of sculpture.”–Barbara Cavaliere, Arts Magazine

“The limestone carvings of Bradford Graves are a celebration of profound perplexity and mystery. They explain themselves neither quickly nor easily….Stimulating the exercise of imagination, the sculptures challenge to invent their own relevant meanings…these silent pieces of chiseled rock plumb the sublime. In their unique way they illuminate mystical depths…there is a growing coterie of admirers able to appreciate the majesty implicit in Graves’ language of form.”–Burton Wasserman, Art Matters

Literary Nonfiction. Essay.