Article from "Metal Stone & Glass"magazine Winter 2010 Volume 51
"Above and Beyond: The Magic of Michael Clark"
by Glenn Lawrence
There's been abit of a buzz building up around the opal and gem festivals for the last two or three years; a rumour that something special had come along. Turns out, it wasn't just a rumour.
When you first lay eyes on Michael Clark's opal sculptures it is nothing short of a breathtaking experience. Every aspect of these magnificent pieces, the forms, the balance, the beauty together with the sheer work and patience that they reflect defies superlatives and leaves the viewer more than a little humbled.
Hidden away in the hills behind Queensland's Sunshine Coast, in a lush tropical rainforest of their own making and made up of the most rare and endangered species to be found in Australia, Mick, as he prefers to be known, and Lorrae, his partner and artist in her own right, are literally carving an innovative, bold and adventurous path for themselves in both the opal and the art world.
Under the watch of the awe-inspiring, ancient Glasshouse Mountains, as well as the cheeky scarlet and emerald King Parrots, these two delightful, earthy people invite me into their secret garden. I feel as if I've stepped onto the set of Robinson Crusoe.
Here, raw stones, many of them large, heavy rocks that are covered in iridescent, glittering colours, lie in wait for their turn to undergo both a laborious, and yet miraculously transformation. One that is drawn from a rare and highly intuitive sculptor's eye, along with untold hours, days or even weeks of ardent toil and love that go into the creation of each and every sculpture.
Mick has been an artist of one kind or another for the last 25 years. But it wasn't until he discovered Queensland boulder opal as a medium for sculpture that a profoundly gifted, instinctive talent emerged along with a very daring way of approaching Australia's iconic national gemstone.
"The stone is not an object to dominate or bring into submission or conformity, but rather, a substance with 100 million years of spirit and stories of its own to be revealed and liberated," he tells me, "...an ancient treasure, waiting to be discovered; nature itself, speaking through the stone."
You would imagine when you see the quality of Mick's work, that the tools and machinery which he might employ in liberating such un-earthly beauty would be the best in the business. Yet, true to form, I find that his choice of implements and techniques are anything but high tech and far more about adaptation and achieving the desired result than a need for gadgets or tools. Watching him work, it is very clear that contact, manipulation, familiarity and even intimacy with the stone are absolutely essential to Mick.
In fact, people are invariably in awe not only when they see and hold one of Mick's exquisite pieces, but all the more when they see the relative frugality and humbleness of his studio. He seems to border on making these dazzling, ethereal creations almost with his bare hands.
This is nothing out of character for Mick or Lorrae, though. They built their entire solar powered, highly alternative home completely by hand. They used now power saws, drills or other electric tools of any description. Only hand tools. All materials were carried down a thin, often muddy, 500 metre forest track. They had no choice; there is unlikely to eve be any mains power deep within the rainforest that they call home and which, clearly, has had a profound effect on the creativity levels of these two forest dwellers and the artworks that emanate from deep within.
These days, however, Mick is in full artistic flight and is powered by both the sun and the most high tech (and the quietest) generator he can find.
While most of Mick's pieces are roughly the size of you fist, he explains that, all through the initial phases of carving his often very large rocks, he doesn't know what a piece is going to be like or how it's going to turn out. By carving swirls and curves in layered opal it is a process of coming down to the layers with the most beautiful colour or pattern without making the stone too thin, then playing with those layers to create different effects. All through this process he is acutely aware that, if he goes too far, the shape, or even the piece itself, may begin to deteriorate.
"Then it is finished," he says. "You can't take it any further without breaking the shape down or destroying the sculpture. It is a freeing process. You have no restrictions and there are no worries about doing anything wrong. Allowing for the structure of the opal itself, I just try to go with the shape and the form."
"It's incredible to see what emerges," he continues. "When something starts coming out or begins to show itself, then I give myself over to the flow and the excitement of what is happening. At that point, I am part of the sculpture and completely in the moment, one with the stone," he says in a way that, very much, makes me want to be a sculptor too.
Mick has also had a long and distinguished career as a landscape designer and forester. On this level his reputation precedes him far and wide. While, as an artist, he has worked and excelled in a wide variety of media. He is an adept and highly original oil painter and has sculpted large works in Hebel, sandstone and wood.
However, all this was mere preparation and recent years have seen Mick (and Lorrae) truly in the grip of "opal fever". They are years that have been dedicated solely, and with great passion, to mastering this most radiant of gems as well as the skills necessary to bring it to life.
Each sculpture is also presented in, or on, it's own unique, made-to fit display stand. Deep red cedar is usually used for these but Mick has also used other wood such as mangrove, gidgee and driftwood. These stands or pedestals are beautifully sculpted pieces in themselves and, like the opals, could only have been carved by someone with an intense and deep affinity for the elements of the forest and the earth, the wood and the stone.
Physically though, Mick can only carve so many pieces per year. This limited yearly output makes each sculpture both a highly prized, one of a kind piece as well as part of a small distinct yearly series. Not to mention increasingly in demand as this combines with more people discovering these unusual and highly original pieces.
Respected South Australian opal carver Richard Moser once astutely observed, "Many gem carvers working in abstract forms, remove the garbage, see what the stone looks like and then work with the shape, but most don't go far enough. (Conversely) A lot of carvers take out the impurities, and go for the colour, but the sculpture is not finished, in the sense that much more material could be removed to create a balanced form."
On both counts, Michael Clark goes above and beyond the ordinary and, as a result, achieves the remarkable.
Even the great Michelangelo himself, who, not so coincidentally, is one of Mick's inspirations and has been watching me the whole time form the front of his T-shirt, never got the chance to work in opal. Perhaps if he ever had, he may well have created works similar to those which his namesake is creating right here, today in Australia.
One thing is certain; the same spirit is there.
Article from "Metal Stone & Glass" magazine Autumn 2011 Volume 54
"Waterfall" - Beginning of a Journey
(A sculpture by Michael Clark)
by: Lorrae E and Glenn Lawrence
Stacked upon a well used table in 2009, a mixture of boulder opal and Koroit matrix lay glittering in the Australian outback morning sun, flashing all the colours of the rainbow from within its dusty, ancient host.
Inside one of these boulders lay a seam that lead to a large, gleaming, undulating face of turquoise, emerald green and blue opal which was soon to become the "Waterfall", a free form sculpture from the Koroit opal fields in Queensland, Australia.
This small treasure of rough desert boulders then travelled from the western opal fields to a tranquil rainforest studio on Queensland's Sunshine Coast where it sat unexposed for 6 months waiting for its transformation.
Initially, Michael followed a thin sparkling seam that was showing at one end of the boulder. Carefully and patiently, the covering stone was removed to reveal the face of shimmering blue rapids. He continued enhancing the remaining three sides by following the natural patterning of the stone, creating unique designs that completed the sculpture. Then, a piece of Australian Red Cedar was selected, carved and polished as its presentation stand resulting in a totally Australian art piece.
Excited with the find, six and a half weeks of carving, sanding and polishing quickly vanished as the sculpture of the "Waterfall" took form and became one of the main features of Michael's hand carved Queensland boulder opal sculptures of 2010, going on to be displayed at many of the Australian Opal Expos during the southern winter.
Carefully wrapped, the "Waterfall" journeyed over 1,000 kilometres to be exhibited firstly at the Winton Opal Expo, where the oohs and ahhs began.
The Yowah Opal Expo was the next showing of the "Waterfall". Once more, people were both taken by this stunning sculpture as well as simply relished the opportunity to view such a large faced opal sculpture accompanied by the beautiful matrix for which the Koroit opal fields are world famous.
On the way to Lightning Ridge for the 2010 festival, Michael and his partner Lorrae dropped into the Koroit opal field once more and found themselves standing only metres away from where this boulder had formed in an ancient inland cretaceous sea and laid undisturbed for over a hundred million years. Its full beauty and creative potential was place back into the hands of the amazed men who had dug it up only 12 months before.
As the sun set over the desert landscape that day, the "Waterfall" sparkled and tumbled away on a opal miner's outdoor table in remembrance of the far lusher environment of it birth place.
Next was the Lightning Ridge Opal Expo, where the "Waterfall" stole the hearts of many, "Including our own", says Lorrae, "as we knew that soon we would almost certainly have to part ways with this very special piece."
People had read about Michael exhibiting his sculptures in an article from the winter edition of Australia's Metal Stone & Glass magazine. The response to this year's series of sculptures accompanying the "Waterfall' was just fantastic.
After travelling all over the Queensland outback, then down into New South Wales, they then headed across to the Gold Coast Trade Expo, where the "Waterfall" would have its next showing.
Again the reception was overwhelming and it was here that Ernst and Helen Schlangenotto from Schlangenotto Opals in Germany fell in love with this magnificent, uniquely Australian sculpture.
The journey of the "Waterfall" has only just begun. Leaving Australia, it will be exhibited by Ernst and Helen at the Mineralientage Gem Expo in Munich this October, 2010.
Article from "Metal Stone &Glass" magazine Autumn issue 2012 volume 59
“In Search of Electric Opal”
by Michael Clark, Lorrae E
(edited by Glenn Lawrence)
“You must become sister to Opal, become her friend. Beware, she is a celestial temptress, a jealous one, her beauty pure beyond words, and she will lure men off into the desert in an often relentless search for her.”
An enlightening conversation evolves as two cultures meet, discussing the dangers that could lie ahead.
“Look at him Lorrae, Opal, she has got him. Become her sister or you could lose him to the mesmerising rainbow serpent stone of the desert.”
Such wise words of observation. I found myself standing there, sculpting these magnificent stones of colour, guilty and exposed of an affair that few men experience and fewer women will tolerate. Respecting these wise words, we answered this enchanting call rising from deep within the Australian Outback, as we are swept away together in search of electric Opal.
Conceptually, the 2012 series of hand carved boulder opal sculptures was motivated by an interest in exploring the history of Australia’s opal fields, wildlife and it’s people. Fascination with the complexities of nature is an understatement in describing our interest in the natural world, which took us on a great adventure into a vast area of south western Queensland. What happens here in these regions by force of nature is incredible, the astounding combination of a variety of natural elements allows for great variations in the types of Opal rocks available. Each type of stone can be unique to a particular area of the Queensland Opal belt.
In the process of looking for sculpture stones, we were very interested in highly patterned material, intricate design within the opal, stability and patterning within the host rock. Stones, that stand out uniquely and which are suitable for creating collectable, one of a kind art pieces.
Yowah and Koroit opal fields produce some of the most beautiful stones that our opal fields have to offer. The swirling dark browns of the ironstone laced through siltstone and sandstone form intricate patterns and designs, highlighted by the iridescent opal. The lines of ironstone are darker and often harder, accompanied with softer sandstone and siltstone which is lighter and variable in colour. When I am sculpting in this medium the combinations of soft and hard stone, combined with the crystalline texture of opal, creates a challenge through each step of the procedure. But once polished or left naturally textured this process can produce an outstanding finish.
Within the formation of these rocks, nature has shown no limitation or repression in her artistic expression, creating surreal, unique natural picture stones, seascapes and landscapes, often representing the desert scenes in which these stones are found, all the different environments that have come and gone to create these fascinating stones.
The opal fields are scattered across an ancient landscape that once was the edge of the inland sea. The erosion of millions of years has left us with naturally sculpted, flat top mesas producing spectacular views over tapering red desert valleys, sparsely dotted with silvery green mulga trees. Hidden beneath the colourful wildflowers and the yellowing desert grasses of this dynamic landscape are mysterious patches of ground concealing stones of electric fire.
Since the discovery of opal in these areas in the late 1800’s people have come here in search of this magnificent stone. Legendary names rose up from the desert floor; Whiskey Flat, The Southern Cross, The Great Old Extended and Brandy Gully mark the spots of earlier diggings. Yowah, Koroit, Blackgate, Duck Creek and Sheep Station Creek are areas renowned for producing these wonderful opal nuts, ironstone matrix, nut conglomerates and boulders, which can contain some of the most vibrant crystal opal.
So there we were, as if caught up in a desert willy-willy, being blown around from opal fields to miners camps, mixing it with the hardy souls of the outback, many of them living gems. Characters full of life with stories of missed fortunes and found treasures, some still lost deep in the search. The awe inspiring ghost gums majestically line the river’s edge and the ancient handmade aboriginal rock water holes are all full now, in country that can be so incredibly dry. A rustic old abandoned miner’s hut now stirs only with a desert zephyr, suspended in time, as if waiting for it’s long lost owner to return. Spectacular colours of blood red and golden orange stream from a Koroit sunset as we watch the sky slowly melt into an endless starry blanket above our camp fire and drift off into the complete silence of the desert night.
As each of the stones was gathered, and with new found inspiration needed for this year’s sculptures, we were released from the magic of Koroit to return to our rainforest home and studio to transform these raw gems into timeless art pieces.
These ancient fascinating stones… What stories do they have, waiting to be revealed as they chatter away in the car over another dusty, corrugated western Queensland road? Listening to their whispering I find myself dreaming, lost in the potential for carving these inspiring stones.
As we head east for the coast our thoughts go out to new friends, left in their search for that “special” stone. Surrounded by their desert sanctuaries, they are still looking for that patch, a fiery pocket of colour, a treasure that takes your breath away… leaving you speechless!
And, what of opal “the celestial temptress”…?
Had she lured me again to seek her out amongst the never ending gibber and gidgee plains, to a little place call Koroit?
Did “the temptress” accept Lorrae as her sister, allowing us to wander freely in her desert paradise?
Did she scatter the trail with stones of fire as gifts to her favoured sculptor?
Or am I simply nothing more than another natural element necessary in the final transformation of these prehistoric wonders?
And, will we once again hear and feel that irresistible urge to return to this ancient place in search of electric opal?
We hope so… ;)
The township of Yowah plays host to its annual Opal Expo every year in July and is a great way to sample the many types of opal from all around the area as the show brings miners and dealers in from far and wide with a huge collection of rough through to finished stones. We, too, will be exhibiting our sculptures at this year’s show, highlighting the latest 2012 series with some of the beautiful examples of the Koroit material that we have gathered and carefully carved into natural freeform sculptures and presented on Australian Red Cedar stands.
If you would like to meet us and view our original and striking opal sculptures, we will be exhibiting this year at:
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