Posts by GarLaSalle
The Pettibone Venus
A PURPOSEFUL REPURPOSING On August 7th, 2022, my team and I unveiled the Pettibone Venus. I dedicate this monumental sculpture and the landscaping surrounding it to my friend, the late Richard Haag, the internationally renowned landscape architect who, in 1980 with his wife Cheryl Trivison, worked with me to design the Italianate landscape of the…
Read MoreStone Sculpture – The Soft and Hard of It
Working hard stone is much more difficult than sculpting softer material like marble that moves relatively easily with the experienced use of chisels and hammers. Working hard stone punishes one’s bones. Granite and Basalt, high up at 6 on the Mohs material hardness scale, are prone to shearing and splintering and thus, often require sculptors…
Read MoreAphrodite Asparagus (a.k.a. “Our Lady of the Asparagus”)
In 2016, motivated by the desire to find a fitting classical centerpiece to adorn my wife’s new garden, I began researching classical sculpture related to nature’s inherent beauty. Remembering the myths of Aphrodite and her Roman counterpart, Venus, the goddess of fertility, agricultural bounty and springtime, I decided it would be appropriate to honor that…
Read MoreChristmas Crabs, Angel Hair, and the Way the Cookie Crumbles
This restrained 2020 holiday season, I have decided to speak of two traditions from my own family: Pasta with crab and Italian cookies. Although I am confident this pandemic will be over soon, with the passing of several loved ones this past year, I felt it important to memorialize this, in case things fall apart…
Read MoreThe Trellis
This is the first blog describing the sculptures that are installed at LaSalle Reserve. Two years ago I decided to re-design my garden on Maury Island, Washington where my wife, Barbara and I have converted what had previously been a family home into a “venue.” The project is complete now, and is suitable for corporate retreats,…
Read MoreThe Challenge – adapting a screenplay from a successful book
The business of screenwriting is messy. What goes into the final script, who gets credit, and who gets paid almost always become contentious issues – the subject of lore and lawsuits. When I was at CalArts, my mentor Alexander MacKendrick told me the story about how the famed writer, Ben Hecht was led through the…
Read MoreItalian Translations for Widow Walk, Isthmus and The Fairness of Beasts
Solipsis Publishing is pleased to announce that the Italian translations in PAPERBACK and Kindle for Widow Walk, Isthmus, and The Fairness of Beasts – titled: – L’Approdo Isthmus La Clemenza delle Bestie are now available on Amazon.com and Amazon.It. Translated by the talented team of Francesca Cosi and Alessandra Repossi, these editions would be…
Read MoreWatch the First Widow Walk Video Teaser!
Scroll down to see the first of eight “pre-pitch” teasers that we will use to bring Widow Walk to life in a different medium. the plight of one strong woman pioneer and her family and first nation peoples caught in a growing clash of cultures. CLICK HERE: [KGVID]https://www.garlasalle.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/My-Teaser-1.mp4[/KGVID]
Read MoreArtist’s Chat with Shannon Polson: Representing the Wilderness Experience in Literature
In this Artist’s Chat, I am excited to talk with Shannon Polson, someone who is not only a fantastic writer, but an inspiring individual who teaches us all what is possible when we commit ourselves to pushing our own limits and cultivating excellence. Shannon is both a best-selling author and one of the first women…
Read MoreA Hunting Story
On a recent hunting journey, I had the good fortune of being able to take a rifle shot at a magnificent elk from 1,000 yards. It was a moment where everything came together like the gears of an invisible clock — all the planning, the thinking, the training, and the movements. It was indeed an epic hunt —…
Read MoreGrandpa Santa
As Christmas approached after my fourth birthday, my grandpa Alphonso told me with great pride that he and Santa Claus (a.k.a. St. Nicolas) were from the same town – Bari, Italy. Grandpa knew I adored Santa. I guess it was obvious to him and everyone else because, beginning the day after Halloween, my other favorite holiday,…
Read MoreInterview With E. Lily Yu, Winner of the 2017 LaSalle Artist Trust Storyteller Award
I am very pleased to announce that E. Lily Yu is the recipient of the 2017 Gar LaSalle Artist Trust StoryTeller Award. Lily’s lyrical, poetic, delightful prose lilts with fresh metaphors, framed within an atypical context. Her primary submission sample, The View From the Top of the Stair, has been published in Hazlitt. More about…
Read MoreWhy I Created The Storyteller Award
As a small child growing up in Seattle’s Rainier Valley “Garlic Gulch” – so named then because that’s where the Italians lived – I had the great privilege to listen to my father who could keep an encircled crowd captivated with gentle, humorous, animated, sometimes extended tales that invariably entailed something that would resonate with…
Read MoreIn Search of the Good Doctor
A few weeks ago I had the honor of delivering the 7th Annual James McClellan “Humanities in Medicine” lecture at Whitman College to an audience composed of physicians, academicians and students. Research for the topic, “In Search of the ‘Good Doctor’” allowed me to explore and in many cases, re-acquaint myself with a wide array…
Read MoreHow to Write Bad Guys
I once knew an opera singer who built a successful, very specialized career by exclusively playing the witch in Hansel und Gretel. For two months out of each year during the winter holiday season, she flew around the world, shuttling from performance to performance, singing and artistically seducing kids into her gumdrop house. She was so…
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