Pat's Marble Sculpturing in Italy

Pat Haskell sculpturing in Pietra Santa, Italy

​Marble Sculpturing In Italy
 
         In the early 1970s, Pat decided she wanted to go back to college and earn her bachelor’s degree in art. She’d earned her RN before we were married and she always wanted to earn her college degree. We were living in Pickens, SC at the time and had four children. Jan, Steve and Margo were in school and we’d lined up a wonderful person named Bernice to take care of Tina during the day. Another reason for Pat’s going back to college was to keep her eyes open for a young bright art student to help her in the design department at Brunswick Yarns.
         Pat applied to Clemson and Furman—as she knew she needed to be close to home so she could commute. Furman was delighted to have her as an art major and she started her college career—communicating 45 minutes each way daily from Pickens to Greenville for three years.
      Furman University is ranked as the “top liberal arts university in South Carolina.” Founded in 1826—six years after Bowdoin College (where I graduated). Furman moved to a brand new campus overlooking the Blue Ridge Mountains, outside Greenville, SC just before we built our new plant in Pickens in 1959.
         Pat excelled at Furman and graduated cum laude in 1975. She shared the Art Award with Jennie Peacock, the bright young woman she hired as a designer at Brunswick Yarns. Jennie became an outstanding designer, whose designs lead the yarn industry.
One night while Pat was studying at home, she was reading the Smithsonian Institute magazine and saw an ad for a group of women going to Pietrasanta, Italy to sculpture marble. In addition to painting, she’d been doing some sculpturing at Furman. The thought of pursuing her interest by actually working in a marble sculpture studio where Michelangelo and Henry Moore worked intrigued her.
         Knowing Pat’s determination, I encouraged her to write for information, which she did, and in 1973 she boarded a flight by herself to Milan, Italy.  She was there for much of the summer and returned the next summer to work by herself at the small marble studio shown in the above photos. These photos also show actual works of art designed and carved by Pat in Pietrasanta, Italy. They are in our library today.
         In looking back more than 40 years after her summers in Italy, Pat is proud of her sculpturing accomplishments.