For two years, the sight of Márton Váró at work was almost as familiar to residents of Ave Maria as the town’s well-known oratory, on whose façade Mr. Varo’s marble sculpture of The Annunciation now rests.
Now, with the sculpture in place, Mr. Varo is back at his home in Irvine, California, beginning new projects at his studio on the campus of the Irvine branch of the University of California. There will be a period of readjustment, Mr. Váró told The Ave Herald before leaving for the west coast. “I have devoted my whole life for the last three years to the project,” he said, adding, “This project probably has been the happiest time of my career.
He hopes to return to Ave Maria in the future, where he said he made many friends and received “strong spiritual support from the whole community” as well as outstanding technical support from professionals like AMU’s construction director, Skip Doyle, whom Mr. Varo called a “technical magician.” “Skip’s technical resourcefulness came through when some major engineering firms proved not to be up to the task of mounting the sculpture on the oratory,” Mr. Varo said.
At age 68, however, he said, “I have little time left to pull together other projects.” The first of those projects, he said, likely will be a set of marble cubes similar in style to those he carved for the campus of Texas Christian University. (below)
“My whole life philosophy is to be really positive. You have to be positive when you’re facing a big block of stone from which you will pull out something.” |