Northshore magazine showcases the best that the North Shore of Boston, MA has to offer.
Issue link: http://read.uberflip.com/i/1162395
NORTHSHOREMAG.COM 64 SEPTEMBER 2019 I N - D E P T H PHOTOGRAPHS BY ROBERT G. PUSHKAR I N - D E P T H To Michael Updike, slate shingles are a unique, premade canvas for his art. And if they're marred with paint splotches or leftover tar, he's hit the jackpot because "it makes it more interesting," he says. To this North Shore sculptor and slate carver, the rough-hewn surfaces that have been "marinating" on rooftops in all kinds of weather look like paintings, with textures, degrees of shading, and subtle differences in tonal values, ready for repurposing according to his inventive imaginings. Updike works out of his home at the edge of a salt marsh in Newbury. The garage next to his studio is stuffed with finished artworks as well as untouched slate pieces of all sizes. "I decide what kind of image I want to put on it," he says, "and oftentimes it talks back to the tonal qualities I can see in the slate. I Artist Michael Updike takes to hammer and chisel to create works of art. BY ROBERT G. PUSHK AR CARVED IN STONE Updike skillfully engraves a piece of slate. With a bit of dark humor, the artist has engraved his own tombstone. always think fish, and don't know why. I look at them as a brain with a locomotion system attached to it." But he's drawn to other subjects, too— forgotten, unglamorous animals like pigeons, crows, mice, or dragonflies. To begin, he sketches his concept onto the surface with a white charcoal pencil. Then he puts on headphones, dials up NPR, and, with his slender chisel and mallet, chips purposefully into the brittle gray surface to get the cleanest, sharpest lines. It's definitely not brute force; rather, it's the repeated tap, tap, tapping against the grain that achieves the unmistakable delicacy. "My carving of it is cutting beneath the patina to the fresher stone," he notes. Little by little the subject emerges, with dust filling the grooves. Dust, a plus in his opinion, builds up and lends desirable contrast. "It will stay there