David Mitchell
David Mitchell
David Mitchell BA, MBA, JD
Although now retired, David spent his working life as a financial analyst, lawyer and investment manager. He was fortunate to grow up in an enviornment where appreciation of art was emphasized. His mother was a collector. He sculpted on an occasional basis for over four decades, starting in wood, then moved onto the softer stones such as soapstone and alabaster and eventually progressed to the hardest stone to carve, jade. Before he stopped sculpting some years ago…
David Mitchell
David Mitchell BA, MBA, JD
Although now retired, David spent his working life as a financial analyst, lawyer and investment manager. He was fortunate to grow up in an envirornment where appreciation of art was emphasized. His mother was a collector. He sculpted on an occasional basis for over four decades, starting in wood, then moved onto the softer stones such as soapstone and alabaster and eventually progressed to the hardest stone to carve, jade. Before he stopped sculpting some years ago the primary medium he worked in was jade although he sometimes also worked in marble and rhodonite. He has cast several of his pieces into bronze editions. While he has attended several workshops, he was essentially self taught. He found principal inspiration in the works of Henry Moore, Barbara Hepworth and Brancusi.
“For me, sculpture is all about form in the three dimensions. My work is abstract or semi-abstract, often quite organic. Very rarely did I know what the piece would turn out to be before I started. I just worked with the stone, determining what the next step will be. This involved a lot of studying because stone carving is a tear down, as opposed to a build up, process. If something is removed it can’t be put back. The piece evolved as I worked and I stopped when I was satisfied with the form. Then the polishing started and with extraordinarily hard stone such as jade, it is very labor intensive. Most of my pieces I took up to 8,000 grit. Jade, with a mirror finish is so often exquisite in the finished product. It was very satisfying to create a form that can be attractive to others.”