{"id":586,"date":"2010-08-27T09:55:36","date_gmt":"2010-08-27T16:55:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scottbecker.ws\/drc\/?p=586"},"modified":"2011-09-03T01:04:00","modified_gmt":"2011-09-03T06:04:00","slug":"daltonghetti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/drcathiedunal.com\/articles\/2010\/daltonghetti\/","title":{"rendered":"Dalton Ghetti\u2019s Pencil Sculpture"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #333333;\"><a title=\"NYTimes\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2007\/02\/11\/nyregion\/nyregionspecial2\/11ctpeople.html?_r=4&amp;adxnnl=1&amp;adxnnlx=1283043609-3R+W2+iele8aqk9gviPWSg\" target=\"_blank\"><em>New York Times<\/em><\/a><em>:<\/em> <\/span>A pencil is just an instrument, an effective tool for scratching measurements onto wood, updating checkbooks and filling in bubbles in tests. Unless it\u2019s in the hands of Dalton Ghetti. The 45-year-old Bridgeport resident has been carving sculptures into pencil lead, without the aid of a magnifying glass, for 25 years.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignleft size-large wp-image-639\" title=\"dalton ghetti\" src=\"http:\/\/drcathiedunal.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/DaltonGhetti-450x255.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"450\" height=\"255\" srcset=\"http:\/\/drcathiedunal.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/DaltonGhetti-450x255.jpg 450w, http:\/\/drcathiedunal.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/DaltonGhetti-285x161.jpg 285w, http:\/\/drcathiedunal.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/DaltonGhetti.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 450px) 100vw, 450px\" \/><br \/>\n<span style=\"color: #808080;\">(After clicking an image below, click right or left side for &#8216;Next&#8217; or &#8216;Previous&#8217;)<\/span><\/p>\n\n\t\t<style type=\"text\/css\">\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 {\n\t\t\t\tmargin: auto;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-item {\n\t\t\t\tfloat: left;\n\t\t\t\tmargin-top: 10px;\n\t\t\t\ttext-align: center;\n\t\t\t\twidth: 33%;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 img {\n\t\t\t\tborder: 2px solid #cfcfcf;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t#gallery-1 .gallery-caption {\n\t\t\t\tmargin-left: 0;\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\/* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes\/media.php *\/\n\t\t<\/style>\n\t\t<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-586 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/drcathiedunal.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/DaltonGhetti.jpg'><img width=\"75\" height=\"75\" src=\"http:\/\/drcathiedunal.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/DaltonGhetti-75x75.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/drcathiedunal.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/DaltonGhetti-2.jpg'><img width=\"75\" height=\"75\" src=\"http:\/\/drcathiedunal.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/DaltonGhetti-2-75x75.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/drcathiedunal.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/pencils-a.jpg'><img width=\"75\" height=\"75\" src=\"http:\/\/drcathiedunal.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/pencils-a-75x75.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><br style=\"clear: both\" \/><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/drcathiedunal.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/pencils-f.jpg'><img width=\"75\" height=\"75\" src=\"http:\/\/drcathiedunal.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/pencils-f-75x75.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/drcathiedunal.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/pencils-r.jpg'><img width=\"75\" height=\"75\" src=\"http:\/\/drcathiedunal.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/pencils-r-75x75.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/drcathiedunal.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/pencils-i2.jpg'><img width=\"75\" height=\"75\" src=\"http:\/\/drcathiedunal.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/pencils-i2-75x75.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><br style=\"clear: both\" \/><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/drcathiedunal.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/pencils-h.jpg'><img width=\"75\" height=\"75\" src=\"http:\/\/drcathiedunal.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/pencils-h-75x75.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/drcathiedunal.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/pencils-b.jpg'><img width=\"75\" height=\"75\" src=\"http:\/\/drcathiedunal.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/pencils-b-75x75.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><dl class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<dt class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='http:\/\/drcathiedunal.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/pencils-k2adjustedbyNYTimes.png'><img width=\"75\" height=\"75\" src=\"http:\/\/drcathiedunal.com\/articles\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/pencils-k2adjustedbyNYTimes-75x75.png\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/dt><\/dl><br style=\"clear: both\" \/>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p><!--more-->There\u2019s a boot. And a church. And a bust of Elvis. And \u201cChain,\u201d in which the middle of a pencil has been transformed into a 23-link chain. He has about a dozen works that have been framed and almost as many waiting to be mounted for display. Last year, after two and half years, he finished a line of 26 pencils, with each letter of the alphabet carved into the tip. His current projects include a handsaw and a single rice-grain-sized teardrop for every victim of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe idea is, as you walk in, you\u2019ll see a huge tear drop far away,\u201d he said. \u201cAs you walk up close to it, you\u2019ll see that it\u2019s made up of tiny little ones. So I make one a day. I was watching the whole thing from Sherwood Island State Park, and I broke down and cried all day. I had a vision about doing something about it, and that\u2019s what I came up with. It\u2019ll probably take about 10 years to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Anyone who has seen a completed work won\u2019t be surprised to hear that a project will take a decade. Mr. Ghetti often takes years to complete pieces, especially since pencil carving is only a hobby, along with camping and coaching volleyball at the Westport\u00a0Y.M.C.A. He sells postcards and posters of his art (pieces are not for sale), but his main income comes from carpentry.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou could see how he could do this \u2014 he\u2019s Zen-like, very patient and quiet,\u201d said Rick Torres, the owner of Harborview Market, in the Black Rock section of Bridgeport. \u201cHe\u2019s a pretty stable person, no waves in his system at all. And I think you would need to be that way to do that kind of work.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Ghetti, who owns about as many possessions as a monk, is aware how unusual his craft is. He started carving tree bark when he was a child and experimented with everything from soap to chalk before settling on graphite. It\u2019s second nature now, and for 90 percent of his work, all he needs is a sewing needle, a razor blade and a carpenter\u2019s or No. 2 pencil.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe pencil tip is great; it\u2019s like a pure, very homogenous material,\u201d he said. \u201cIt cuts in the same direction, not like wood, which has a grain. But when I tell people how long it takes, that\u2019s when they don\u2019t believe it. That\u2019s what amazes people more, the patience. Because everything nowadays has to be fast, fast, fast.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"NYTimes\" href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2007\/02\/11\/nyregion\/nyregionspecial2\/11ctpeople.html?_r=4&amp;adxnnl=1&amp;adxnnlx=1283043609-3R+W2+iele8aqk9gviPWSg\" target=\"_blank\">Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New York Times: A pencil is just an instrument, an effective tool for scratching measurements onto wood, updating checkbooks and filling in bubbles in tests. Unless it\u2019s in the hands of Dalton Ghetti. The 45-year-old Bridgeport resident has been carving sculptures into pencil lead, without the aid of a magnifying glass, for 25 years. (After [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10],"tags":[17,103,166],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/drcathiedunal.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/drcathiedunal.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/drcathiedunal.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/drcathiedunal.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/drcathiedunal.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=586"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/drcathiedunal.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2393,"href":"http:\/\/drcathiedunal.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586\/revisions\/2393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/drcathiedunal.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/drcathiedunal.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/drcathiedunal.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}