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The Springfield Union, Springfield, MASS, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1938

Deacon Chapin's Descendant Demonstrates Direct Carving
George Walter Vincent Smith Gallery Audience Charmed by Presentation of Subject by Sculptor

Deacon Samuel Chapin's great-granddaughter of the seventh generation came back to Springfield last night to give a lecture-demonstration in the George Walter Vincent Smith Art Gallery on direct carving. With a bright personality and such a delightfully intimate manner of presenting her subject, one had the feeling that almost anything Cornelia Van Auken Chapin talked about would be appealing.
Worth-While Event
And so, since the explaining of how stone and wood are cut direct from life without preliminary model or sketches was of itself interesting, the audience was provided with something very worth while by an acqnowledged leader in this field on two continents.
Miss CHapin prefaced her lecture with an amusing story of how she came to Springfield with her mother at the age of 15 years to see St. Gauden's famous statue of her early ancestor. One gathered, although she did not say so, that her immense admiration for the skillfully delineated bronze of The Puritan may well have been the inspiration which sent her on the road of sculpture. But she did make it plain that comparing her nose-whose size had caused some family joshing- with that of the illustrious deacon disclosed that they were identical and she was never therefore perturbed by any comments. Deploring that direct carving which was the method of the greatest carvers in the days of the Egyptians and the earliest Greeks has been in later centuries largely superseded by the methods which require second and third workers to make casts and moulds after the artist has completed the original, Miss Chapin noted incidentally that these succeeding participants often provide a finished product greatly different from its original appearance. Like the great Spanish sculptor Mateo Hernandez, under whom she studied in Paris- she was the only pupil he ever accepted- Miss Chapin translates her conception directly into the volcanic rock, granite, ebony, marble or whatever medium she is using. 
Error is Irremediable
"There are no intermediary steps to dim or distort... no other hands or minds to confuse the issue," said Miss Chapin, "nor can there be any departing from the original idea.... An error of any sort is obviously irremediable." For demonstration purposes she had a finished figure of a guinea pig and a block of lithographer's stone of approximately the size she used for the sculpture, also the various tools which are used in carving stone, and others designed for wood. Besides the lecture there were numerous questions and answers. 

Shows How to Be a Sculptor
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Springfield Union Photo
Miss Cornelia Van Auken Chapin, photographed last night at the George Walter Vincent Smith Art Gallery during her lecture-demonstration on "Technic of direct carving."