Asheboro Artist Finds Niche Carving Slate
andrew montgomery, arts, asheboro, carving slate, cathy cranford lane, culture, uwharrie river,
Andrew Montgomery’s decision to embrace his artistic talent rather than ignore it was prompted by the wag of a finger.
That finger was on the hand of Cathy Cranford Lane‚ Montgomery’s high school art teacher who’s now with a Florida university. Lane returns to Asheboro annually for the October Fall Festival.
“Don’t you get rusty. Don’t you dare get rusty. You get out and do some kind of art‚” Lane admonished him one autumn‚ wagging her finger up at the face of 6-foot-5-inch Montgomery.
“Two to three weeks later‚ I carved my first piece of slate‚” Montgomery recalls. “We already had some river slate around for stepping stones‚ and just for an experiment‚ I tested it with a Dremel tool. Well‚ it carved.”
His first bas-relief sculpture was a fifth-anniversary gift to his wife Linda in 1996. The 12-inch-by-7-inch tablet featured a representation of North Carolina’s oldest lighthouse‚ which the couple had photographed on their honeymoon.
Linda “carried it around a lot‚” Montgomery says shyly‚ adding that her reaction to the delicately etched image “just overwhelmed me. It snowballed from there. Before I knew it‚ it was an order here and an order there. Now it’s a second job – but I really can’t call it a job‚ because I love it too much.” Montgomery works full time at a local plastics manufacturer‚ but says his dream is to someday spend full time on his art. “I’m setting my sights on that‚” he says.
Meanwhile‚ orders stack up for his carvings‚ most of which feature historic landmarks or old homesteads. Some of his pieces are small enough for a pendant‚ and his largest carving so far weighs 17 pounds.
Montgomery doesn’t use “all the fancy water-cooling‚ rock-cutting equipment‚” he says. Rather‚ he cuts by hand‚ using a jeweler’s loop when etching the finest details. Black indelible ink adds shadows and shading‚ and different colors appear naturally as he bores deeper into the stone. A clear polyurethane coating enhances the image and even turns some blue hues to green‚ thus allowing for a blue sky and green trees.
To gather his material‚ Montgomery and his wife paddle the Uwharrie River in their 17-foot canoe‚ equipped with a Polynesian-style outrigger he designed to hold the slate.
“The place we go is totally remote‚” he says. “You can’t park a car there and just get out‚ so we usually make a day of it. After she’s through out-fishing me‚ we pick up some slate before we leave.”
Slate that will be transformed into works of art.
Story by Sharon H. Fitzgerald
Photo by Martin Bennett
