Christopher Belluschi’s mom always told the young artist he should find a mentor. Belluschi took her advice to heart, reaching out to acclaimed sculptor M.J. Anderson. But Anderson’s advice might not have been what Belluschi’s mother had in mind.
As Chris Belluschi, 28, recalled, Anderson told him: “‘The life of a sculptor is like having a disease,’ and she didn’t recommend it.”
Anderson, 71, a self-described “blunt, cut-to-the-chase person,” said his memory is about right. “I tried to talk him out of it. I said, ‘It’s very difficult, nobody needs a sculpture. It’s a business model that is ridiculous. You have a sofa with a wall behind it, you think I should put something on it. No one thinks, I should put a sculpture on it.’”
Four-ish years later, the two are preparing for their show together Saturday, July 20, in Anderson’s Nehalem studio as part of the Hoffman Center for the Arts Artist Studio Tour. They remain mentor and mentee, teacher and taught, but just who is who is no longer always clear.
Belluschi, who lives in Portland, is a graduate of Whitman College and former student at the Studio Arts College International in Florence, Italy. And yes, he is a member of that Belluschi family, great-grandson of Pietro Belluschi, designer of the Portland Art Museum — though, Belluschi says, he is more likely to be asked if he is related to that other Belushi, the late comedic actor John Belushi. (He’s not.)
Anderson is an acclaimed artist known for her figurative and abstract sculptures. Her work has been shown in major galleries in Portland and is included in collections at the Providence Portland Medical Center, the Museum of Northwest Art, the Hallie Ford Museum of Art, and the Portland Art Museum. She’s also a long-time teacher and mentor at the Northwest Stone Sculptors Association.
Belluschi was in his early 20s when he heard rumor of a sculptor working in marble on the Oregon Coast, “of all places.” That sculptor, of course, was Anderson. It wasn’t that Belluschi didn’t expect to find artists on the Oregon Coast, but that, “You are at the edge of the world staring out at the Pacific; you don’t think about Italian marble.”
But Anderson did. For the past 40 or so years, she’s divided her time between Carrara, Italy, home “to the best marble in the world,” and Nehalem, what she calls the “working town” on the north Oregon Coast. There, on the banks of the Nehalem River, with its “temporal coastal climate,” and wee population of fewer than 300, Anderson found the ideal place to sculpt.
As it turned out, Belluschi’s grandparents knew Anderson, and the young Belluschi — at the time carving wood with a pocketknife and having “no idea what I was doing” — was able to get his hands on Anderson’s email. He wrote Anderson of his desire to sculpt and she invited him to stop by. The visit was a short one, but long enough to make an impression on both. Anderson offered tips on Belluschi’s wood carvings and Belluschi listened.
“He liked working with cedar wood and he showed me a few small forms,” Anderson said. “They were nice, but I told him, ‘Bump it up, do it big. You’re making pebbles out of cedar driftwood.’”
Belluschi recalled, “She called them ‘precious,’ implying they were a good start, but didn’t quite hold the gravity or presence that I should be aspiring to … like ‘OK, this is nice, let’s see what you can really do.’”
Belluschi took it as encouragement to keep going and soon turned to marble, carving with a hammer and chisel – until Anderson schooled him in the beauty of power tools.
“At that point, I was not sure that being a sculptor was even possible, or what it looked like,” Belluschi said. “She taught me how to see with my hands. ‘Close your eyes, your eyes will deceive you. Feel the stone.’ That was the first thing she showed me.”
In Belluschi, Anderson saw a thoughtful person, open to criticism. “He may reject it, but at least he responds,” she said. “Personally, I lost a good 15 years, because when I was in art school no one said anything about your work at all. I think it is important to have at least some input, so you can either accept it or reject. He has been very open to anything I’ve said.”
Earlier this year, Belluschi traveled with Anderson to Carrara, where they spent 6 weeks working in the studio that Anderson describes as “my family,” the other sculptors in town, “my close relatives.”
Belluschi called it a dream come true. “When I first met M.J., I heard she goes to Italy annually, and I thought that was the coolest thing and I thought maybe I could go there someday…”
As it turns out, it was the “coolest thing” and, perhaps, not only for Belluschi.
“He did great work there,” Anderson said. “The studio was quite impressed with him, because he works really fast. They said, ‘You can tell he works with you, because he works fast.’ He gave me a lot of energy. Now, I’m ready for him to give me advice. I think we’re really, truly colleagues instead of mentor/mentee. When you think about legacy, I have a son, but Chris is also my legacy. I feel very fortunate to have him in my life.”
The coming art tour will be the first in which the two show together. Belluschi plans to show new cedar pieces, along with older work in wood and stone. Anderson plans the expected, plus a few surprises.
“What is different is I’ll be showing some small paintings on paper that no one knows I do,” she said. “Why not? That will be kind of shocking.”
The studio tour will give visitors a look at not just the newer work typically seen in a gallery tour, but also a bit of everything, a history, even, of Anderson’s work.
“I can’t hide my art under the bed. It’s all here. People can see a much broader range of what I do than when they just see a show in the gallery,” she said. “That is really good for me, too. It’s a good way for me to revisit my own work. Artists love what they do…. We work in solitary. We work quietly alone. It’s good for our souls to be able to share what our passions are.”
Lori Tobias is a journalist of many years, and was a staff writer for The Oregonian for more than a decade, and a columnist and features writer for the Rocky Mountain News. Her memoir “Storm Beat – A Journalist Reports from the Oregon Coast” was published in 2020 by Oregon State University press. She is also the author of the novel Wander, winner of the 2017 Nancy Pearl Book Award for literary fiction and a finalist for the 2017 International Book Awards for new fiction. She lives on the Oregon Coast with her husband Chan and Rescue pups Gus and Lily.
2 Responses
Beautifully written piece! It perfectly captures the evolution of their relationship and love for the art of sculpting. Thank you, MJ!
Fabulous story! I look forward to meeting Chris and his work, and learning more about this young man who recognizes the brilliance of my long-time, dear friend, MJ! Soon!