Sugarloaf Ridge’s resident stone carver

Jim Foley spends his spare time with a mountain lion, or at least the roots of one. As Sugarloaf Ridge State Park’s resident artist, he is transforming a block of alabaster into the polished replica of a puma that eventually will be sold to benefit the Kenwood park.

“I love creating a creature from the most primitive form of nature,” said Foley, “and nothing is more primitive than stone.”

Foley, 67, learned sculpture late in life. He raised a family in Portland, Maine, where he worked as a school psychologist and had a family therapy practice. He never thought much about sculpture and didn’t consider himself artistic, but after his father died, Foley was going through his effects and discovered stone-carving tools his grandfather once used.

“My grandfather was a marble mason in Massachusetts,” he said. “What I found were the tools he used to carve many of the ornamental facades of the churches and government buildings in New England.

“I had no idea how the tools were used, but I knew what they were for. That’s what gave me the idea to try my hand at it.”

With his kids grown and off to college, Foley had time to take classes at the Carving Studio and Sculpture Center in Vermont. He learned how to use a chisel and hammer to “rough out” the figure. Then he learned to enhance the shape with files and create details with a tool called a riffler. Then came the sanding and polishing techniques that reveal the stone’s inorganic allure.

“Since I was trying to do something so beyond my realm of experience, my expectations were so low that whatever I created was a huge accomplishment,” Foley said. “Plus, I learned that sculpture is something I really enjoy.”

He got the idea of doing sculptures for Sugarloaf after he started hiking in the park.

“My wife and I moved to Oakmont a few years ago,” he said. “I joined the hiking club, and that’s when I came to Sugarloaf. I was so impressed by the commitment of the volunteers that I wanted to do something, too. I asked if the park would like me to create sculptures that can be used for fundraising.”

Park management thought it a splendid idea and suggested Foley might like to use an empty barn on the back side of the park as his studio. Slightly dilapidated, the dirt-floor structure creaks in the wind and leaks in the rain, making it unsuitable for most artists. But stone sculptors aren’t like most. They don’t put a high value on tidy.

“This barn is perfect,” Foley says with a big grin. “Of course, when I am working I could be anywhere. When I’m carving, working the stone, I lose track of time. I guess you can say I am in the flow. Your ego becomes totally invested in the process. I find it hard to stop, even when I’m tired, but I have to pull away because when you’re tired, that’s when you can make mistakes.”

He points to the back side of the stone, an area that will become the hindquarters of the mountain lion. The faint outline of a cat’s head can be seen.

“See that? That’s a mistake,” Foley said. “I started carving the head back here, but the head is too big. It would be out of proportion to the body, so I’ll just make it part of the tail,” he said with a good natured shrug.

“That’s one thing I learned about stone sculpture. You have to be innovative. You’re not working with clay. What you carve off is gone for good.”

While the mountain lion is far from finished, Foley’s artistry can be appreciated in the fully formed head and paw of the cat that now appears to be lying at the entrance of a stone cave. When completed, the two-foot-long statue will be used to raise money for Sugarloaf.

Foley’s first work, a lizard, was raffled off at the park’s summer Funky Fridays concert series. A similar fate may befall his mountain lion.

“Jim’s lizard brought in about $500,” said Park Manager John Roney. “We haven’t decided what to do with his mountain lion. We may hold a drawing, or we may put the statue up for auction at one of our fundraising venues. We’ll decide when it’s finished and let the public know on our website and newsletter, which should be this summer sometime.”

Foley said, “I hope it will be ready because it is coming along.” Pointing to a faint magenta line in the pale luminescent rock, he said, “Look, that’s a vein that just appeared. That’s what I love about sculpture. The more you work the stone, the more you discover its character.”

Since coming to Sonoma Valley, Foley also has learned that carving out a happy life is much like sculpture. It’s simply a matter of proportion.

“We live in a condo,” he said. “It’s definitely downsized from our house in Maine, but we love it, and we’re close to our son and daughter who are in Berkeley. My wife is doing quilting, which she really enjoys. The two children’s books I wrote will soon be published, and three days a week I’m the school psychologist for the Roseland School District, which is great. The rest of the time I’m doing sculpture for the park.

“All I can say is that, for me, this is heaven.”

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