Autumn Bildson, of Black River, is the Alpena Wildlife Sanctuary’s 2020 Artist in Residence. She will demonstrate her work on July 11, 14, and 16 at Island Park, where the public can watch her sculpt a stone turtle she is donating to the sanctuary. She will sculpt on the island from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on those days.

As an artist, she was looking for her next challenge, and she found it in stone sculpting, also called stone carving. Formerly of Ortonville, she first tried stone carving at Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center.

“I wanted a challenge, and I really, at that point, I had no idea that it would become an actual profession,” Bildson said of her first stone carving class. “But I fell in love with it. Every waking minute, I was carving.”

She said on her website she entered a female figure into an art show at the Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center. Soon after, she got a call asking if she would teach there, which she did for many years, and she continues to teach at art camp.

Courtesy Photo Autumn Bildson’s sculpture, “Root of Our Legacy,” was featured in the 2015 Art Prize in Grand Rapids. The sculpture stands 8 feet tall.

Then she went to work at Renaissance Stoneworks in Detroit for five years, where she “really learned the craft.” She said that kind of work was more architectural, however, and she prefers the creative freedom of decorative stone carving.

Bildson said she works about seven hours per day, and “it’s really tough on my hands.” So she tries to keep it limited to that each day.

“A lot of art … it’s a very long process — many steps are involved to make a piece that’s lasting,” she noted. “With stone, you get your basic shape, and then you carve it, and it’s done.”

She definitely enjoys a challenge.

“It is very challenging, and you have to make a million correct moves,” Bildson said. “That’s one thing I love about it … is to get the challenge and to do something that you’ve never seen before.”

Courtesy Photo Autumn Bildson does relief work on a piece of stone she is carving.

She does two types of carving: She creates forms for clients based on their ideas, or she will do freeform creative, expressionist work. She works with a lot of limestone, a basic greyish beige. Or she will work with alabaster, which is very colorful, yielding a completely different look.

To her, sculpting is therapeutic.

“I’ll go out to the studio, and I could be feeling frustrated, or I could be feeling anxious, and I’ll just go out there and create,” Bildson said. “It’s a way to be creative and not detrimental.”

She loves to inspire others, especially children, to express themselves through art.

“It’s so freeing,” she said, adding that, when her grandkids come visit, she always has art projects for them to do with her. “We have lots of fun.”

Courtesy Photo A photo of the turtle she will be working on and donating to the sanctuary.

She and her husband, Greg, moved to Black River about two years ago. Bildson grew up in Auburn Hills.

“She is a sculptor known for her beautifully finished pieces mainly depicting the natural landscape,” according to a written artist’s statement provided by the Alpena Wildlife Sanctuary. “She uses motifs of animals and natural growth. Her vision is focused to look past the imperfect and strive for beauty. Her dream is for a beautiful world. She creates art inspired from the true beauty in nature.”

Bildson teaches children and other students to see this beauty in their lives, the bio continued. She is a businesswoman helping clients to see their own vision of beauty, capturing it in limestone, bronze, and paint. She has designed hundreds of pieces of art, working in sculpture for 30 years.

Bildson owns StoneArt Studio and works out of her Black River home. She does commissioned work, both decorative for indoor and outdoor spaces, fireplaces, and architectural work.

For a number of years, the Alpena Wildlife Sanctuary has sponsored a working artist to come to the city and create artwork inspired by the Alpena area, said Mark Beins, Alpena Wildlife Sanctuary Artist in Residence coordinator.

Beins met Bildson last year at the Inspiration Alcona artist workshops, and he was highly impressed with both her work and her personality.

“I was so impressed with her work, and the work was so different,” said Beins, who is a professional drawer and painter, himself. “Nobody does sculpture here. And her work was so professional, it’s like it’s right out of Italy.”

He added that she is part of the Northeast Michigan Artists Guild (NEMAG).

“She is an artist who is truly excited about her art,” Beins said of Bildson. “The quality is beyond impressive.”

He is looking forward to watching her work and learning more about sculpting while she is here.

“How she can do it is a mystery,” Beins said. “And what I’m really thrilled about is her desire to be out there with the public. She is excited about the community outreach.”

Once completed, Bildson’s sculpture of the stone turtle will be permanently displayed at the Thunder Bay River Center, to be built at Duck Park. Her artwork will be displayed alongside the other pieces of art that prior artists in residence have donated. Until the Thunder Bay River Center is completed, those works of art are displayed in prominent buildings in Alpena, such as City Hall, according to Alpena Wildlife Sanctuary Board President Terry Gougeon.

See more of Bildson’s work at stoneartstudio.org.

Darby Hinkley is Lifestyles editor. She can be reached at 989-358-5691 or dhinkley@thealpenanews.com.