Agelio Batle: graphite sculptures

Sculptor Agelio Batle makes these unusual implements that are equally an object of art and a functional drawing/writing tool. Each one was meticulously hand crafted in his San Francisco studio. First, he carves an original design in clay. With intense pressure, carbonaceous graphite (same material in pencils) and smudge-resistant compounds are fused into a reproducible form using a proprietary technique that Batle invented. Finally using delicate carving and traditional finishing techniques, the piece is completed. All their surfaces can draw and the graphite will resist smudging onto your hand. With daily use they should last 7 to 9 years.

Batle Graphite Hand
$68.00
166616
It's not the pencil that draws, it is your hand. Whether drawing lines or inscribing words, the act of making marks lures ideas into the physical world. Hands perceive and reveal things that our eyes and conscious minds may never know. We discover things about ourselves and our thoughts by engaging the hand in a mark-making process. San Francisco artist Agelio Batle's Drawing Hand is both a poetic metaphor and a functioning drawing tool; all of its surfaces can write. Committed to making art from materials that are part of daily experience, the artist originated this work by casting his own hand (Drawing Hand No.1) in pencil lead, graphite, each day for the calendar year 1999. Wishing to share the insights gleaned from that sculptural process with a wider public, he similarly cast a child's hand (Drawing Hand No.2) to create the object before you.

Batle Graphite Raven
$57.00
162002
With uncanny intelligence and a curious nature, ravens have figured a permanent place in the lore of Northwest Coast native cultures. Cast as both a Trickster and the Creator, ravens are portrayed as selfish, mischievous and ever-hungry, foiling the unsuspecting and the prosaic. Despite its treacherous ways, native cosmology recognizes this Trickster’s chaos as transformational. While he may leave ruin in his wake, he also reveals new possibilities and creative evolution. In its most popular tale, the raven steals the sun from a hoarding old man then clumsily drops and breaks it illuminating the cold, dark world.