Northshore magazine showcases the best that the North Shore of Boston, MA has to offer.
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251 His larger pieces include Piscine Curva- ture Study depicting the fluid movement of a fish resting momentarily on a stone base. It is composed of granite with gray and black flecks throughout. Serene and lovely, it has been on display at The Art Nook on Bearskin Neck in Rockport where many of Foley's pieces have been sold. His sculptures are also in other Cape Ann businesses as well as in his home gallery. A favorite of Foley's is his humpback whale composed of black African gran- ite. Its tail is raised with the striated flukes drooping delicately to one side like a curtain. For aficionados of the sculpting pro- cess, Foley's Facebook page details the stages of its creation from initial rough- ing of the granite block to shaping each side to carving in the fin r details. "After polishing, this piece will be jet black with tiny crystal reflections," he explains. "The dream" that Foley is living in retire- ment keeps him busy more hours than he wishes to count. He takes a break though. His "true hobby" now is composing folk tunes, singing, and playing the guitar. msfoleystoneworks.com Mike Foley Mike Foley is one of those exem- plary people who not only lead full, professional lives, but continue after retirement to produce original and wondrous works. For two decades, before retiring last year at age 63, Foley's imagi- nation ran to the artistic, the fanciful, the abstract; and five years before retirement as a mechanical engineer he began acting on those thoughts. He started to sculpt what he saw in his mind's eye. Using locally gathered glacial stones as well as those from neighboring states and beyond, he works in various types of granite, beach stone, fields one, basalt, alabaster, and soapstone, which off r a wide spectrum of hues and grains. Foley's hand-carved sculptures range from those that fit in the hand to large art pieces for the garden or living room. He carves functional mortar and pes- tles, rolling pins, and soap dishes. "They're so difficul it's almost like having a job," says Foley of the dishes. He chisels exotic looking Easter Island figu eheads, marble sailboats, fish, seashells, and abstracts. Foley's gray granite sloops with delicate one-eighth-inch thick sails are awarded to race winners by a local yacht club. "The Easter Island figu eheads cost $15, and I've sold pieces costing over $2,000." Is it a labor of love or a living? "Defini ely both. I'm living the dream," says Foley. "For decades I have been thinking about this and wanting to get into stone carving." Photographs by Sarah Phillips