Open Portfolio: Paul Hawkins and Susan Zalkind

Paul Hawkins and Susan Zalkind have a bond sealed in alabaster. Cruising around the southwest in a two-ton flatbed truck that can carry 10,000 lbs. of stone, neither canyon walls nor legal hurdles can keep the spouses from retrieving the rare rocks that yield orange, gold, purple, tiger-red, striped or translucent treasure. From these raw finds, by "listening to what the rock wants to be," each carves spectacular alabaster containers (while they say they influence each other's work, they don't collaborate on single pieces). Each piece is spontaneous, created by hand, and a one of a kind. They've been told their pieces, often also incorporating woods such as juniper, are used for everything from chili bowls to communications centers, but they leave that up to buyers' imagination. Contact them by phone at 928-567-2281, by e-mail at susan@alabaster.net, or via their Web site at www.alabaster.net.

PAUL: I worked [with alabaster] a little bit in school after I got out of the Army. I liked it, and I knew I could get some for free. Which is important. So I got a load and started making things with it. My father used to turn bowls in New England. So I started making bowls with it. Bowls are the primal form. You can't get any simpler than that. That was the beginning for me. It was self-employment. Self-sufficiency. It was doing my own work instead of somebody else's – very important to a 30-year-old person.

SUSAN: And I was unemployable. I just couldn't...

PAUL: She never understood a job description in her life.

SUSAN: I had jobs, but I never 'got' what they wanted me to do. So it was quite clear I had [to follow] my own visions to make a living. I finally thought, "What is the thing I really love the most?" Food! I had $2,000. I built a beautiful wooden push cart and I sold sandwiches, smoothies and juices in Southern California, 20 minutes north of La Jolla, at a flea market where artists would sell their work.

PAUL: I was living in my truck at that time, selling my bowls. My friend Don came up and said, 'Oh, you ought to see who is down in front.' And I did and I bought a terrific turkey and a smoothie and I went back and said, 'Oh, Don, I'm in love.'

SUSAN: Eventually I learned push carts don't work out west. I went out of business basically. Paul drove up and said, 'Why don't you come try carving stone with me?' I had already been carving wood, so I tried it. And as soon as I did, I got this feeling that I could do anything I wanted here and nobody could tell me it isn't right. I will never forget that moment. There is no 'wrong' here. This is why you don't get any flavor of the work being derivative. It's why our work has a breath of fresh air about it. We're self-taught; the material is our teacher.

PAUL: We prospect for our materials. We rescue them from the earth. We work them ourselves and we sell them ourselves.

SUSAN: We travel all over the southwest gathering these rare alabasters. Each deposit has its own character, its own figure, its own color. The stone speaks to tell us what we can make out of it. Basically it's what shape, what color, what the stone says it wants. We don't really inflict our idea on the stone.

We've just recently gathered some of the rarest material we've ever found. We were given permission – the only people in the country – to go into a closed gypsum mine. It took four months to negotiate with United States Gypsum's lawyer to let us go in. But they know we are the only people in the country who have based our art form on this rare colored alabaster. We just love the stones.

PAUL: One of my favorite questions coming out of the crowd at a show is 'Ah...what beautiful art. How can you bear to part with it?' My first answer is 'Madam, or sir, attachment is an amateur concept.' And if that doesn't work, I say, 'I'm glad you like the product, but what I am really interested in is the process. That's where I get my "juice" from.'

I'll go out in the morning, kick a rock, pick one out and take the bark off the stone. Smoothing out the nooks and crannies so it becomes a blemish-free surface. Making the line pretty. Then I take out the inside to make a container of it. It's a sculpture in that sense, there is a space inside for somebody to do something with. Then it is just a matter of sanding that shape down finer and finer until we move over to the waterproof sandpaper and the water and go another three stages down, to give it that baby's-butt finish. Alabaster has a beautifully smooth surface. It is warm too. It is inviting to the touch. That's what makes alabaster so lovely. Jade is the King of Stones, but alabaster is Queen. •

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