It's the feel of the stone that keeps local artist Mark Barlem in love with his chosen medium – soapstone carving.
“I'm sure if I was blind I could still do it,” Barlem said.
The 51-year-old is a plumber by profession but an artist by night.
“I just do it for the fun of doing it,” he said of his “abstract surreal” creations.
While he describes it as a hobby, each piece represents a huge amount of time and effort.
“The average sculpture will take about 300 to 400 hours,” Barlem said.
No power tools touch the unique carvings. Barlem even hand polishes his art, a process he said takes hours of work.
Barlem was introduced to soapstone carving by an art teacher in Grade 8. Otherwise, he's had no formal training.
Not too many tools are required for his work, which is mostly done with carving knives.
“They're basically wood-carving tools – anything with an edge. And multiple layers of sandpaper,” Barlem said.
He buys about 300 pounds of soapstone a year and then spends his time turning the raw material into sculptures that are often about 20 inches tall.
Barlem said he doesn't have a particular vision when he starts carving and instead lets the stone speak to him.
“Soapstone, there's no limitations. You don't have a grain to go with,” he said of why he's picked the soft stone instead of wood.
Most of his carvings fall into the category of abstract or surreal, and Barlem said he stays away from rendering animals. That's because a few different First Nations groups have a spiritual tradition of carving animals, he said.
Barlem does take commissions. He is willing to sell his sculptures, but noted they can be expensive.
“They all like them but very few have the money to buy them,” he said of people's reactions to his work.
He doesn't attend many art shows in Alberta, though he did have a tent set up at the Red Deer ArtWalk Festival on June 16. Barlem said he did do some during his time in Europe in the 1980s with his carvings and also drawings.
Barlem still draws but said “I don't do anything I would put out for sale.”
However, selling his work isn't the main reason Barlem creates his sculptures.
“It's all for the love of doing it,” he said.
If Barlem ever produced a flawless sculpture, he'd probably stop carving, he said.
“As soon as you're done you can tell you should have done something different,” he said of finishing his sculptures.
There's probably not any danger of him stopping any time soon. Barlem said once he's started working on carving he tends to get completely engrossed.
“Once I get started you have a hard time making me stop,” Barlem said.
