Stradivarius

Stradivarius
Gib Singleton, Bronze, 22 x 13" x 9", ed. 99
“This piece is a really personal one, and it’s from a
peak moment in my life.
“I was living in Santa Fe, and I’d just had both hips
replaced and I couldn’t walk or even get around
the house much. So one day my buddy Tom
from the Morgan Club calls up and
says, ‘I’m going to send
a present over for
you.’
“Well, the doorbell
rings and I answer
it, and it’s a guy
with long hair, wearing tennis
shoes, and carrying a big case. He
says, ‘I’m your present.’ Turns out
he’s Felix Fan, who is one of the
top cellists in the world!
He gives me a big hug and, man,
we’re bonded. As artists, we
kind of live in our own world,
right? And it doesn’t matter
whether you’re a painter talking to a sculptor or a sculptor
talking to a musician. You share
the experience of that art just
kind of welling up in you.
“So we go in the living room
and he opens the case, and inside is what looks like a regular
cello, only kind of beat up. But
then he shows it to me, and
it’s a Stradivarius! It’s like
a five million dollar instrument. It belongs to a bank in
New York and they let Felix
take it when he’s playing a
major concert.
“The first thing he pulls out of the case is the bow.
The tip and the frog you tune with are gold, and
it’s strung with white horsehair, and it’s like
$400,000 by itself!
“First Felix just played with his fingers – no
bow – and man, it was magical!. That’s the
only word I can use to describe it, because
it was way beyond words. His fingers just
danced across those strings. And he
danced with the music. I mean,
it wasn’t like he was playing it.
It was like he and the Stradivarius and the music were all
one thing. Like they were all
one being. It was amazing!
“Then he picked up the bow and it
was even more incredible. Music at
that level isn’t something you
listen to. It’s something you
feel. It’s like a powerful painting or sculpture. It isn’t just
something you look at. You
feel it in your body. You feel it
in your mind. You feel it in your
soul!
“You know, when people would
ask me about music before I met
Felix, I’d always say my guys are Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings and
Johnny Bush. But I’ll tell you what,
that day I became a Stradivarius fan.
“After Felix played that cello, I realized
that if I had died without experiencing
that, I would have really felt like I’d
missed something.”
Gib Singleton
For more information on Gib Singleton please contact your gallery representative or visit www.gibsingleton.com