TWO GENERATIONS OF STONE CARVERS AND THE RE-FOUNDING OF A STUDIO

The year I was born, 1982, was also the year my Dad, Tom Bates, started carving stone. I grew up in the midst of the family business my parents were building. My interests ranged widely, focusing in on music during my teens. Mom, Judy Bates, who had always done a lot of behind- the-scenes design work, in addition to making the logistics of the business go, suggested that (in keeping with my strong interest in the music and culture of our Gaelic heritage) I could try my hand at making an authentic yet original Celtic cross design for Dad to carve. I did. Dad and I carved it together, and the rest, as they say, is history. By the time I was 19 I was taking on most of the custom order requests generated by our presence at the Philadelphia Flower Show, the NW Flower and Garden Show, and various art venues. My second major Celtic cross design, almost a year in the making, was a hit, with sales coast-to-coast, placing my carvings in both homes and public spaces. I continued to work full-time as a stone (and glass) carver for the next 15 years, with artworks commissioned for everything from home, hospital, theater, college, church, hotel, retreat center, garden, and restaurant settings building up a wildly diverse portfolio.

As my Dad’s difficult health worsened and as, simultaneously, life became more complicated in other ways, I made the decision to take a break from the rollercoaster/treadmill deadline-driven work schedule of a full-time commissioned artist in order to attend to some of life's more universal priorities. This became a time to envision integrating my art with everything else that really matters in life, a process greatly catalyzed by my Dad’s death early last year. Now more than ever, the legacy of his stone carving and other artworks are inspirations to me as I bring my attention back to my own ongoing work as an artist.

During this time I have also moved my studio operations back to the longstanding location of our family business: a sprawling multi-leveled building, part workshop, part library room, part archives, and ALL studio, with the purpose of making it not only an effective place to produce new work, but also a customer friendly showcase for the creative endeavors of myself and my family, past, present and future.

The website is in the midst of a total rebuild. Feel free to contact me by phone, text, or email for photos and further information.