Trip to Pietrasanta and Carrara

Today I went on a really amazing trip with the Michelangelo and Sculpture classes (even though I'm not in those classes) to Pietrasanta and Carrara. Pietrasanta is a very artsy, beautiful town right in the mountains, where there are several really well-known marble studios. In these studios, artisans are commissioned by artists to carve sculptures out of marble. Most artists rarely carve their own sculptures because it is a very time-consuming process and it'll prevent them from producing many sculptures in a short amount of time. Michelangelo was an exception...he carved most of his own sculptures out of marble himself; that's why many of them were never finished. It takes many years to master this really difficult trade.

When we got to the town, we met a British artist/sculptor who is seriously a genius. He spoke to us about marble, and it was so intriguing and I learned so much from him. Among many other things, I learned that marble is made up of sea animals' bones and only 4% of the world's marble is used for art; most of it goes to the production of floors, bathtubs, and other luxury things like that. Marble is made up of calcium carbonate...which is also found in our bodies. The man said that marble is proof that the world is living because of the ongoing cycle of organisms dying and their bodies forming into marble over millions of years. After his speech, we went to a real marble studio and it was amazing. There were marble sculptures everywhere and we got to see artisans chipping away the marble from huge blocks. Marble sculptures always intrigued me and I was never able to comprehend how someone takes a block of marble and just chips away pieces to make something so beautiful. A slight push of the tool at the wrong angle can completely destroy a sculpture. The precision of the artisan has to be perfect and it takes years and years of experience. I actually got to see the process for my self and even got to try carving a piece of discarded marble with a drill. I could barely hold that tool in my hand because it was vibrating so much. We also went to a mosaic studio and met an Italian artist who did not speak a word of English. He does commissioned work and on his free time does mosaics for himself. He had beautiful mosaics of "The Kiss" by Klimt and another one by Monet. They were just as beautiful as the paintings except the colors were even more vibrant.

It was incredible to see and meet all these people who had such unique jobs. The artisans were all working since they were in their early teens or younger. They obviously don't get paid much, and many of them are not very well educated because they start learning their trade from such a young age. But they are the best in the world in working with marble.

We then took the bus to the quarries in Carrara. These quarries have one of the best marble in the world. It is also the marble that Michelangelo collected himself for his sculptures. The Romans and Greeks used to build entire buildings completely in marble but in Michelangelo's time they built buildings using bricks and then covered only the outside layer with marble. We drove higher and higher into the mountains on winding, narrow roads. It looked like the mountains were all covered in snow, but it was really the white marble. Once we got to the quarry, an Italian man was telling about the process of collecting marble during the Roman times. The Romans used slaves. It took the slaves days to cut through one piece of marble because of the lack of tools. The view from the quarry was incredible! Unfortunately, the weather was pretty crappy.