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March 8,1979
Inez Marshall, Portis, has been sculpting from inspiration for about 40 years. She is working on a life size model of a Harlev Davidson motorcycle. After approximately three years of work on the cycle, only the battery and one wheel have been commu
The Divine Miss M Everything is done under inspiration I couldn't look at something
Portis
"I was sitting there in the front room and I said, 'Dad, I want to go to the front door.'"
After being bedridden for more than a year because of a broken back, Inez Marshall, Ports, was out of her bed for the rest of her life when she curved her first piece of rock.
"So, he picked me up and carried me to the door. When I looked out, instead of looking up and down the street —I hadn't seen anything that day, I looked down at the front step. There, I saw a piece of soft-rock. I'll never know where that rock came from. There wasn't any rock around we lived, but there was one. That's a piece of rock before in my life," she said.
"I asked my dad to pick it up for me, and he did. Then, I said, "Dad, give me your pocket knife," and I said to cut that rock.
"I worked for hours. I don't remember how long, until I became deathly sick. I told my mother I had to go back to bed.
Today, nearly 40 years later, Marshall still sculpts from soft-rock, mostly white limestone. She works only from inspiration.
"Everything is done under inspiration," she said. "I couldn't look at something and draw it, not for a million dollars. It's all inspiration."
"The things I've seen must have left a strong imprint. I saw them once and the good Lord showed them to me again."
"BUT WHEN I looked at that rock, he had turned in a squirrel with his tail sticking up and his little head. I'd carved all of his hair and everything."
Marshall and Bediah Smith, her partner, have "traveled a lot of miles together."
"Benah took care of my mother for years, then we started working together," she said.
In 1983, Marshall opened her first museum, the Continental Sculpture Hall.
for her work, in Portis. Smith started working with her then as a receptionist.
Then, in 1969, Smith and Marshall moved her sculpture hall to Abliene. After three years in Abliene, they moved to New York where he opened the museum in the same building.
ALTHOUGH MARSHALL said she would like a bigger building for her museum, she said she doubled that she would ever move again.
She said, "People don't know how hard it is to move my work. We worked day and night for two and a half months movi- ting the building, but I'd like to stay right here."
Before she opened her first museum in Portis. Marshall worked out of her house.
"My studio was under a big tree. I had my whole house full of my work, I never thought anybody would see it, but it kept me. I had to do something," she said.
Now, Marshall's studio is in a former gas station. Inside, she stores her tools and her rock, which she is given from many sources.
Marshall's museum, which is next door to her shop, contains examples of her work, sculpted from limestone and can be cut out by hand. Everything is carved on hand.
In one piece, a replica of a church, the interior is filled with detail-floor boards, church pews, the congregation and the preacher, all made of rock.
However, Marshall said she would wait for warmer weather to begin work on any new projects.
"Now," she said, "if you get up there close, and look in that window, you'll see a little girl sticking her tongue out. Do you see her?"
Besides churches, Marshall sculpts birds, animals and people, both small and life-size.
AS SHE LEADS groups around the museum, she points out details in her work that easily could go unnoticed.
The church, which is almost three feet tall, took more than 3,000 hours of work to complete.
"In the summer, I work in here until 10 or 11 at night," she said. "Sometimes, I had as many as three projects going out each week, and I worked while, but about 2 of the morning. I'll see
a piece and I'll have to go to work on it. I can't rest with an idea in my head."
THE ONLY BIG project she started recently is a life-size, stone sink. She has finished the front wheel, with spokes, hub, tire tread and air valve. Also, she has finished the 12-volt battery. She is working on carving 6 individually carved electric cells.
When the project is finished, although she can't predict when that will be the cycle will have fires that spill, saddle and carved links, which will make up the chain.
When she works, flecks of limestone fall from the rock with measured, methodical blows from her hammer and chisel.
Within minutes, the rock she was chiseling took on the shape of a bird's head.
Although she said she loved to sculpt, Marshall "doesn't work like she should," Smith said.
"She drives us into town to go to the store or to do our laundry and she's got to be the mechanic, too," Smith said.
As with her sculpting, Marshall has been working on cars for many years
"My brother was a mechanic. I used to help him overhaul Model T Fords," she said.
The 1914 car has a motor and transmission, U-joints, a complete rear-end assembly with differential, water in the radiator and even a starter crank. She also carved individual bolt heads on the parts, just like the real thing.
One is a 1914 model and the other is a
1917 model. Both are loaded with detail.
Her experience in mechanics shows up in her work, too. In her museum, there are two Model T Fords she has sculpted.
"It's tedious, it really is. People don't know how much goes into one of my works," she said.
But in New York, Marshall's work sells at prices that are hundreds of dollars more than what she charges.
"They tell me that 'I'm the only one in the world doing this anymore.' she said. "But, I get my prices from the Lord. I've saved! I’ve saved, I’ve saved the good Lord." How much shall I charge for this? Nobody has ever kicked about a price."
Marshall has sculpted several images, honoring past presidents. F. John K. Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln and Dwight D. Eisenhower are represented in the museum.
Marshall has her sculpting in an old gas station next to the museum. Inside she stores all her rock for future projects and her sculpting tools; hammers, pocket knives and meat cleavers. In his room is healed with a ood burning stone.
Photos by Trish Lewis
Story by Doug Hitchcock
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