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MICRO ART GALLERY
DALTON GHETTI
Creativity within the tip of a pencil
http://www.daltonghetti.com/
Dalton Ghetti is a self taught sculptor born in Sao Paulo, Brazil. From the young age of 6, he began learning how to use razor blades to shape pencils. Initially, he used them to sharpen pencils for himself and his friends to draw with. At the age of 8, his mother, a seamstress, taught him how to use a needle. Soon after, he was given a set of metal tools, and since then he spends much of his time building.
Ghetti started out as a carpenter, carving large sculptures in his spare time. However, he soon decided to start carving pencils in order to challenge himself. He draws for the sake of art, not selling his sculptures or taking commissions. For him, carving pencils is a meditative experience. Each piece takes anywhere from several months to, in the case of this work, several years.
Ghettis works are all created with three simple tools: a razor blade, a sewing needle, and a sculpting knife. Each sculpture is as beautifully simple as they are small. A careful deliberate hand makes each indentation over the course of several months. The scale of the art requires one to get very close in order to fully appreciate it, with more details revealing themselves as one zooms further in.
Dalton Ghetti: News & Updates
His art brings attention the the small. The very tip holds as much beauty as anything else. While the pencil is most often a tool to create, here it is the canvas upon which something is created. His art also draws is also a form of rebirth. He uses discarded pencils in order to grant them new life in his gallery. The sheer scale, dedication, and care illicit a sense of awe.
Each of Ghetti's works exemplify what this gallery is about. His art is about finding beauty in tiny. It's delicate, deliberate, and very carefully crafted. The sculpture of Elvis Presley captures the idea of grandiosity within the small. The chains demonstrate the care needed to create such artworks. That sculpture took Ghetti over two years to finish, and is one of his most famous works. The way each chain link can move freely leaves one in amazement. The sense of "Wow! How is this even possible? There has to be some kind of trick!" is the kind of feeling each we wish to capture
The split pencil with the grave serves as a reminder of the scale of each work. Since it's a larger piece, it's easier to understand just how small the others are in comparison. The heart, like the chain, gives a sense of awe and beauty. The more one examines the sculpture, the more one realizes the amazing amount of work that must have went in. Each chain link punched out, the wood being carved without damaging the graphite within. The button and the shoe both act as examples of the level of detail on each work. You can see the stitching on the shoe, and a legible date written on the edge of the button.
Dalton Ghetti: News & Updates
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