Carolina Sculpture

“My lifelong work as a sculptor and three-dimensional artist varies greatly across a broad portfolio.I have carved since the day I turned 6 and bought my first real knife with my own money.   Working as a granite sculptor has been my full-time profession for well over 20 years, preserving the methods and craft of my family and the Master Sculptors who apprenticed me. Previously, a full culinary apprenticeship with extensive additional training allowed me significant opportunity to create with more temporal media in ways that are as satiating as they are intangible.  In recent years, work in metalshaping- where the surface plane alone is transformed into a complex shape – has provided the perfect complement to additive and reductive methods.Talking is easy.  Carving life into granite is not. I would rather cut stone and prove what I can do.  My work in stone has provided my family’s livelihood for decades.  The stone speaks the truth of what I can do and what I have done, without bias or excuses.”  AC Button IIAC Button IIFor more information about Sculptor AC Button II and his work, visit the website and YouTube channel linked below:http://carolinasculpturestudio.com/https://www.youtube.com/@carolinasculpturestudio

My studio encompasses any space and opportunity where I can create.

Physical spaces now include a fully equipped stone sculpture studio, purpose-built by me in 2003-04 and patterned upon the studios & workspaces of my Master Sculptors, mentors and family in the granite industry.  It is deliberately designed and equipped to be absolutely accurate and authentic to the craft, not to be a space of comfort and romantically interpreted nostalgia.  My goal is to encapsulate the heritage for the next generation, protecting it from erosion by advancing technology which continues to automate the work. In January 2023, I created the Virtual Stone Carving Apprenticeship video series on YouTube to virtually train new carvers and archive this important way of life.  Adjacent separate wood/modeling studio and metalworking/mechanical shop support the stone sculpture studio while expanding onsite capacity for different works. I make and rebuild many of the tools I use, both as a means of economy and to have a deeper involvement in the creative process from start to finish.

My kitchen is yet another studio, representing the culmination of decades of passionate personal and professional creativity with food.   The experience of creating and sharing foodstuff is as immediate and intangible as sculpting in stone is not.  As an artist, it is difficult to imagine one without the other.