Stone Sculptor - Heather Cole Gatto

ATT: This article was featured in the Arts Section of The Port Townsend Leader… If you google Sarah Rohr + Port Townsend Leader you will find it on their site.

Charmed by the chisel: Stone carver Heather Cole Gatto reveals internal beauty

By Sarah Rohr, Contributor 

Standing upright against the multihued, wet and freshly carved travertine, Pacific Northwest sculptor Heather Cole Gatto begins carving the sentinel of the cardinal direction of west.

Currently, she is carving the final sculpture in a series of four that are a meant to be a gift from her to her family and her homestead. Gatto began the project last fall and is on track to finish in December.

Seeking inspiration about how she could best connect to and be a steward of the house and property she and her husband recently purchased in Port Townsend, Gatto had a clairvoyant reading performed by Char Sundust, a medicine woman and student of Lakota traditions. Gatto realized that the sculpture series could encircle her home and encourage the flow of positive energy toward her family.

  I procured large marble and limestone slabs for each of the four cardinal directions to create a circle of intention around my family s home, Gatto says.  It became clear that this would be a very intentional process of prayer and connection with the energy of each of the four directions.

Theory becomes practice

First introduced to Native American philosophies regarding the  interconnection of all of life  through trainings with Sundust, Gatto adopted those beliefs into the vernacular of her everyday life and this belief has become an integral part of her reality.

She participated in a  vision quest,  traversing through the wilderness for two days alone and without food or water.

  Throughout my vision quest, I felt intimately and clearly the stages of the day, the hot and cold, the moon and sun,  she says.

In the dark of the night, Gatto says, she felt acutely aware of her environment, ears attuned to the sounds of the surrounding woods and eyes fixed on the moon as it migrated across the sky.  As the sun began to rise in the east, I felt the awakening and the hope of the world around me.

The experience helped Gatto to connect more deeply with her own cycles of growth and maturation, as well as to understand and have compassion for friends, relatives and acquaintances through their cycles of development and decay.

Forms hidden within

Gatto refers to her early 20s and 30s as her  vagabond years,  when she had little in the way of personal belongings and a wanderer s ethos, which enabled her to travel the world.  I began my carving journey 15 years ago, while I was staying with friend in a villa in a medieval town called Pacentro in the province of L Aquila in Abruzzo, Italy.

She asked the local villagers for a mentor in the craft and was introduced to a local stone carver, an elderly man named Ferdinandican, who was willing to teach her the basics of how to hold and use the tools, as well as giving a few helpful hints.

Gatto says she had already begun to explore painting. As mediums go, painting and sculpting clay did not charm her the way a chisel, a hammer and a stone could  and still  do.  It was through the process of experimenting with different mediums I found that carving stones into forms previously hidden within the rocks satisfied me.

After returning to the U.S., Gatto began apprenticing with Northwest sculptor Chuck Iffland.

  The interest grew into a path, which led me to get involved with the Northwest Stone Sculptors Association. I learned a few skills and techniques through their symposiums,  she says.

Next, Gatto spent five days a week for four years sculpting side by side with classically trained stone sculptor Sabah al Dhaher.  We were devoted to our work, and Sabah s skills informed and inspired my rapid growth over those years.

Simultaneously with carving, yoga became a big presence in Gatto s life.

  My two distinct spiritual paths  one with roots in India, the other deeply rooted in the Native American way of life  are the guidance systems and anchors that ground my artistic practice in humility and grace.

Today, the sculptures she creates are based primarily on the human form, drawn from the wealth of Gatto s knowledge of the body in motion.

Individual creativity

Over the past 10 years, Gatto has facilitated art workshops to free the inhibitions of people who label themselves as unartistic or are just  afraid to express in a visual way.

When asked what inspired her to create these workshops, Gatto says,  It s the teacher in me, as I ve walked this journey into the experience of being an artist, discovering its gifts and necessities, and as I ve walked the path of a healer and seen how a regular dose of creativity would be a viable prescription for so many ailments. I want people to know that creativity and making art is not an exclusive club; it is one of the most basic and primal acts.

For more information, visit  (heathercolegatto.com.