Interviewee: Charles Wells
Date of birth/age at interview: December 24, 1935/59
Interviewer: Joan Stack (WBUX radio show host)
Interview date: December 2, 1985
Interview location: Conti’s Cross Key Inn, Doylestown
Interview length: 19 minutes
Time span discussed: 1960s through 1985
Summary: Charles Wells is interviewed by local WBUX radio host Joan Stack on the occasion of the 3-man show for the Bucks County Council for the Arts at the Rodman house in Doylestown. Joan elicits interesting facts and explanations of an artist’s life and work from a relaxed sculptor.
Time markers:
00:30 – studied in Carrara, Italy’s marble center; lived in Italy in the late 1960s with his family
01:34 – could choose marble at the quarries; stories of getting marble and banging on stone
02:49 – Romans know of the marble in the area, quarry in the area owned by the Medicis
04:01 – Carrara a company town, everyone works on stone or at the foundry, many foreign sculptors there
07:30 – Carrara stone carvable but strong, many colors and textures; quarries in the United States but some closed
08:58 – Vermont marble good, “sculpture” is Greek word for “carve” (actually from Latin)
09:27 – show at Bucks County Council for the Arts show at Rodman House, 3 artists, Wells, George Anthonisen, and Paul Matthews
10:10 – likes line drawing and drafting, translated to sculpture
11:05 – illustrated book by Dave Stewart, putting a face on the book characters; drawings of famous people
14:05 – music, rests by guitar playing
16:05 – building henge monuments (based on the sun’s solstice positions)
18:50 – music gig at Peach Valley Nature Center
