The White Falcon - 04.12.1992, Blaðsíða 6

FYIs (For Your Information)
Announcements
A Flea Market will be held tomorrow at the
Community Center from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. A
limited number of tables are available at $10
each. Call ext. 6113 for more information.
The Ice and Fire Theater Group will hold
their monthly meeting tomorrow at 3 p.m. at
the USO. All interested personnel are wel-
come to attend.
Breakfast with Santa at the USO will be held
tomorrow starting at 9 a.m. Santa will be pres-
ent to hand out gifts to all of the children. Santa
photos will also be available. Call ext. 6113 for
more information.
An Elementary School Advisory Commit-
tee Meeting will be held Monday at 4:30 p.m.
at the elementary school.
A holiday concert will be held at the PTSO’s
Spaghetti Supper Thursday at 5 p.m. in the
high school multipurpose room. Hear the
sounds of the season immediately following
the supper by listening to the high school band
and chorus. This event is open to the public and
the cost is by donation.
A School Advisory Committee Meeting will
be held on Dec. 15, at 4 p.m. in the A.T. Mahan
High School library. The meeting is open to all
parents, teachers and students at the middle
and high school levels. For more infomma-
tion, contact LT Conoscenti at ext. 4580 or
Anne Allen at ext. 7400.
The A.T. Mahan Drama Troupe will present
“A Christmas Tale” and “The Best Chrisi
Pageant Ever” Dec. 17 at 7 p.m. in the
school multipurpose room. Cost is by doi
tion.
A Toy Drive is being held by the 4557th
Security Police Squadron to assist needy fami-
lies in providing gifts for their children. Dona-
tions will be accepted at various drop-off points
around the base until 5 p.m. on Dec. 20. For
more information, contact TSgt. Case at ext.
2633 DWH or ext. 2187 AWH.
Base ‘Lost and Found’ is maintained by the
NAS Physical Security Division. If you have
lost anything from bicycles to watches, call
ext. 2642 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Monday
through Friday.
Sculptor continues his interests in Iceland
Story and photos by
J03 (SW) Andreas Walter
Chips of cararra marble fly in all directions
in the dimly-lit room. A carbide-tipped chisel
effortlessly removes pieces of a final project
that has already taken more than 100 hours of
labor-intensive work. The three-pound mallet
repeatedy pounds on the flattened head of the
chisel, grasped in the dust-covered, veined
hand of the sculptor. A furrowed brow defines
his level of concentration.
Mark J. Ebbert, 38, has spent a large portion
of the last twelve years pursuing a passion for
bronze sculpting and marble carving. Bom in
1954 in rural New Hampshire, Ebbert grew up
on a farm in southeastern Pennsylvania where
he developed a fondness and familiarity for the
birds he now sculpts. He concentrates his
efforts on wetlands species and birds of prey.
The many examples of bronze work displayed
in his home show a preference towards owls.
“I have a fetish for owls and have therefore
studied many wildlife books, photos and even
videos. I use these media to capture the illusion
of movement, of natural flight. My work
always shows the subject in its environment,”
Ebbert said.
Ebbert is completely self-taught in all as-
pects of sculpting and has been employed as a
firefighter as well as a computer programmer
before settling on art as a career.
“Many years ago, I suf-
fered a painful injury while
participating in the martial
arts. The incident left me
disheartened and irritable. A
friend came along with a
block of wood, a hammer and
a chisel with which I carved a
very life-like bird. From that
point on, I found that I had a
hidden talent that I consider
God-given," he reflected.
Starting from these obscure
beginnings, he managed to
become a well known sculp-
tor in the Sacramento, Cal.,
area.
“Once your work is appre-
ciated by collectors, galleries
will do all they can to sell your creations,” said
Ebbert.
The eventual business ties helped to estab-
lish him in the West Coast art world. His work
was most recently displayed in the ‘New Mas-
ters Gallery’ in Carmel, Cal.
Ebbert’s work has not always centered
around the animal kingdom though. Since
moving to Iceland in August of this year, to
join his wife, LT Mary Ann Cruz, he has started
developing a series of anatomically correct
hand sculptures with a religious theme high-
lighting each piece. He hopes to sell a number
of the finely-detailed marble works to people
with religious interests.
“Marble is a material that will survive for
centuries, it’s timeless. Hopefully my work
will be around for a long time,” he remarked.
Another example of Ebbert straying from
the wildlife sculptures he is accustomed to, is
his latest creation, a male ballet dancer. He
observed a Russian ballet company in Califor-
nia and developed the inspiration for the
dancer. Ebbert says that most sculptors prefer
the female form and thus tend to repeat each
others methods.
The dust-covered clay figurine, used as a
model, seems fragile next to the three hundred
pound block of white marble. Fragments fl^|^^
the mercy of his tools and the fine dust
onto the sandbags supporting the carving aSj
continues. “Dancers are amazing athletes, i
want to show the power and strength that they
possess, and I do so by carving in the direction
that the muscles are placed in the body.”
Ebbert has offered classes on beginning
sculpting before and will do so again during the
month of December. For more information,
contact the Family Service Cotter at exL 4401.
Ebbert brought examples of Ms most notable
bronze works to Iceland which include this
snowy egret, titled "preening."
Flakes of marble fly as Mark Ebbert uses a chisel to make a
ballet dancer come to life.
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The White Falcon