Listening to internationally known artist and carver Connie Eldridge of Milford, one would think that she was talking about hidden treasure. Actually, she is, but the treasure is the hidden image in the material she is carving. For instance, one of her works is a wood carving that has a particularly odd shape to it. “I didn’t know what I was going to do with this piece of wood,” she said. “And it doesn’t bother me when I don’t know. The material reveals what is hidden to me as I work it.
“At first, I looked at it and saw a little boy having fun and hanging upside down from a tree limb. The next time I worked on that piece of wood, I saw another child. The material, especially the odd shapes, speaks to me as I carve,” she said, pointing out that she does not work on one piece at a time. By the time she was finished going back and forth to that odd shaped piece of bass wood, she ended up with “The Cat Rescue.” This intricate wood carving features children around the base of the tree and climbing the tree. As for the young boy going out on a limb, she eventually discovered he was trying to rescue a cat. Mrs. Eldridge had no idea when she first started carving this piece that it would end up this way. It took her about a year or two to complete the work. She quotes Michelangelo, whose two best known works, the “Pietá” and “David” were completed before he reached thirty. “It’s in there; you just have to get to it.”
“I’m a ‘take away artist’,” she explained. “I was in a class in London when another artist described herself as a ‘take away artist’ rather than a ‘put together artist.’ That’s when I realized that was what I was. I cut, chisel, file, and take away to create my art,” she said. While she enjoys working in wood, it is not the only material that Mrs. Eldridge works with. She also enjoys carving with stone, working in clay, and reverse glass painting. She recalled her very first carved piece, when she used one of her husband’s screwdrivers as a tool. When she was finished with the piece, she asked her husband if he wanted the screwdriver back. He took one look at it and said, “Not anymore, I don’t.” She laughs at the memory because she now keeps her specialized wood carving tools away from her stone carving tools.
Though this respected artist has a great sense of humor, she is very serious about her work. She often travels abroad with her husband, who teaches international finance. While he does his work, she adventures to areas where there are prominent carvers, carving exhibitions, and/or classes and apprenticeships. Nothing stops her from journeying to make a new discovery regarding a new carving technique or a perfectly exciting piece of wood or stone. She hopped on a train in Germany and traveled to an artist’s studio to work with the master carver. She drove for hours in the English countryside to observe a special collection. Not surprisingly, her work has been shown in a well-touted exhibition just outside of Nottingham, England. And she tracked down the perfect piece of alabaster in Colorado.
On average, she produces eight to ten pieces a year. While some carvers like to sketch their images first; others like to work it out in clay models. Mrs. Eldridge prefers working a model up in clay. “However,” she adds, “while I was in Germany I didn’t have that option, so I drew something that I had seen. A woman nearby watched me drawing. She came over and looked. She then took out a picture of her daughter and asked me if I would draw it for her. I did. She went over to her friend and showed her the drawing. That woman came over and asked me to draw a picture of her child. That went on and on,” she said with a laugh pointing out how wonderful it is to share art with people like that. It also shows how accessible she is.
An image carved in wood featuring a young boy and girl are actually her children when they were young. “I wouldn’t sell this one,” said the artist who prefers to create at will rather than being commissioned. “Some things I just wouldn’t part with,” she said indicating the work with the two children reading while sharing an afghan and with a dog right by the couch. Considering the tools and materials she works with, she is happy that she has suffered nothing more than minor cuts and scratches.
While she knows that she had an aunt who was an artist, it is her brother Roger Davis who is also fascinated with rock. “I call him the Rock Hound,” she said describing his passion for working from stone at a young age. “There was always a little tumbler working day and night and smoothing the rough edges of the rocks he found. He would turn these into earrings and necklaces,” she said.
Connie Eldridge has just exhibited her work at the SBC in Milford. A dedicated member of the League of American Pen Women, the Fairfield County branch, members of the prestigious organization attended the one-woman show and celebrated the work of a “take away artist.”
