In July, the 38th sculpture on the Boothbay Region Sculpture Trail/Sculpture Boothbay was installed at Kerr+Jones Gallery in East Boothbay. Trail board members and sculptors Bill Royall, Andreas von Huene and Joseph DiMauro, with the artist Chris Lewis, installed the white marble sculpture “Seed.”

“Seed” is one of the original four sculptures Lewis created in Italy in 1996 while studying with Andrzej Lemiszewski in Pietrasanta that spring. Here in the States, he has studied at San Francisco’s Academy of Arts and City College, and in the Hudson Valley of New York.

Previously, Lewis’ studio in the Hudson Valley had been home for “Seed” for many years. “I’ve been holding on to it for sentimental reasons,” Lewis said during a phone interview. “I’ve been especially fond of that one; I consider it to be my first successful piece, but I knew eventually I’d find a home for it up there in Maine with the whole Sculpture Trail thing.”

“Seed” is his second sculpture on the Trail. “Untitled,” another of his four original white marble sculptures created in Italy, debuted at Boothbay Harbor Region Chamber of Commerce seven or so years ago. It had also been at East Boothbay General Store before its current location at Southport General Store.

Lewis’ dream life, particularly dreams from childhood, continue to influence his art. Here’s the “Seed” dream: He was flying an airplane to Brazil and crashed in the middle of nowhere... “Somehow, I had developed the ability to carve a stone that was there by using an airplane propeller that had broken off. That’s how I came up with the repeating pattern that’s in the sides of “Seed”… From there, it was letting the stone dictate what it wanted to be; accentuating the low and high spots,” Lewis said. “The vision of those shapes I had as a kid, angular while still gracefully curving, have stayed with me.”

Never a fan of the serpentine curve, Lewis developed a style of interrupting the serpentine with a hard corner, edges, points.  Lewis explained, “So, it is still graceful and dynamic, has the sweeping flow to it, and at the same time it’s always a French curve, or a perfect radius of a curve, that gets interrupted by an intersection and then will take off again in another direction.”

Lewis’ love of working in marble began in Italy where working with white marble was the norm, specifically Carrera marble. Pietrasanta was a town next to Carrera. Its translucence and very little veining are some of the qualities that make Carrera marble such special stone. Lewis described working with this marble as “joyous,” and said the dust makes your skin softer as opposed to the granite he worked with in his youth that was comparatively “brutal” and not as pleasant an experience.

Shortly after returning to San Francisco in ‘96, crates of raw marble and his four marble sculptures arrived. His mentor Lemiszewski had wanted Lewis to stay in Italy and, if not for the great life he had in the City By the Bay, Lewis said he would have. He recently learned that “Lemi” (Lewis’ nickname was “Lewi”) was still alive making art. Lewis plans to return to Italy at some point and pay the man a visit.

Lewis has studios in California and Arizona, in addition to Hudson Valley. Today, he sources his favored material from Cochise marble in Mesa, Arizona. In a show this spring, Lewis’ work was in black marble, or, as it’s known, Cochise marble. “It is the creamiest, yet hardest marble,” Lewis shared. “Jet black with white veins and these tiny flecks of gold. The gold could be why it’s called Cochise marble …”

Lewis shared the lore about the Apache Chief Cochise and members of his tribe who purportedly came away from a raid with lots of gold that the Chief stashed in the mountains, gold that has yet to be found – and that’s not for lack of people trying. 

See Chris Lewis’ otherworldly “Seed” at Kerr+Jones Gallery. White marble so smooth, cool, and soft to the touch fairly beckons you. It’s in a lovely spot at the Gallery. Sunlight filters through trees and alights on the sculpture. Let your hands glide over every curve, every angle, as you make your way around this ethereal piece, its tales to impart to those open to receive them.

For more on the artist, visit chrisbuildseverything@gmail.com

As with all sculptures on the BHRST, “Seed” is for sale with all proceeds going to the artist. This, however, does not include any other work by Chris Lewis at Kerr+Jones Gallery.

Kerr+Jones Gallery is at 268 Ocean Point Road. The gallery is open through Oct. 13 Wednesday - Saturday 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. and on Sunday 11 a.m. - 4 p.m. The gallery, which also features goods from Morocco, Mexico, Peru, Africa and Guatemala, is open by appointment November - May. For more information, visit https://kerrjones.com and/or call 207-380-1766.