Today we’d like to introduce you to Emma Levitz.
Hi Emma, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I grew up in Southern Vermont and moved to Boston in 2012 to study Sculpture at Massachusetts College of Art and Design. While in school, I worked with a lot of different materials and processes. I gravitated the most toward foundry processes (casting iron, bronze, and aluminum), mold-making, and steel sculpture. The summer before my senior year, I lived and worked at Salem Art Works for two months, an artist residency in upstate New York. During my time there, stone carver and artist Florin Strejac taught me to carve marble for the first time.
After graduating with my BFA, I moved to Crawford, Tennessee, with a group of artists from my college. We were looking to get out of the city in order to find an easier and quieter place to create. Rural places have always felt the most nurturing to my creative process. I found myself drawn back into working with stone, especially after finding that East Tennessee is full of excellent stone for carving.
In 2018, I began Little Mountain Stoneworks, where I create functional and sculptural carved objects from locally sourced marble and limestone. For the last few years, I have been operating my business out of my home studio, but this year I will be moving Little Mountain Stoneworks into its own space in Cookeville, Tennessee.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Going into business for yourself is never easy, and working as a marble sculptor in 2021 can be… well… challenging. That being said, I’m extremely grateful to be able to do what I like to do for a living. It can be hard to keep up with the business end of things when I just want to be working in the studio. This last year was a challenge with art shows being canceled and the future feeling very uncertain, but having a supportive community of friends, family, and other artists has helped a lot.
Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I’m a stone carver and visual artist. I create sculptural and functional objects for the home using locally sourced limestone and marble. I carve mortar and pestles, bowls, platters, and sculptural vessels using electric and pneumatic hand tools as well as a hammer and chisels. The forms I create are meant to be minimal, soothing, and ultimately satisfying to look at or to hold. Each piece is meant to be experienced both through the eyes and the hands, often functional in nature to promote more physical connection with the object.
Let’s talk about our city – what do you love? What do you not love?
While I am based in the Cookeville area, I have been happy to meet a lot of artists from Nashville as well as arts organizations there that have been very helpful to me, such as Tennessee Craft or the Arts and Business Council of Greater Nashville.
I like being a part of the art community in Cookeville. It is smaller than in a major city but bigger than you would think. There are a ton of artists and craftspeople in the area, some self-taught and others who went to school, but the artists here are all extremely supportive of each other. I think it can sometimes be isolating to be in a place that can feel very conservative, but it’s been cool to find my community of fellow weirdos here.
Contact Info:
- Email: emmalevitz@gmail.com
- Website: littlemountainstoneworks.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/littlemountainstoneworks
- Facebook: facebook.com/littlemountainstoneworks
