Eternity

Discovering Carved Stone
Doug Lapp, Ten Thousand Villages Buyer

The blue-green waters of the Port-au-Prince Bay peek above craggy island bushes and palms edging the narrow highway. As we drive west out of Haiti’s capital, we travel through the epicenter of the 2010 earthquake, where buildings remained piles of rubble for months after the disaster.

Approaching Léogâne, we turn onto a dirt road that runs next to a dry stream bed. We park under a tree and walk a few hundred yards to the village. Of the dozen homes and workshops here, few if any have electricity. Artwork here is done by daylight and by hand with hammer and chisel.

The sculptures carved here are hewn from local stone; figures range from lush to sinewy. They depict female form almost exclusively, and are marked by exquisitely graceful and flowing lines.

The carved stone of Léogâne is a sort of statuesque poetry. Utterly still, yet its lines and curves flow with such grace they make stone hopeful and optimistic, and life’s most ordinary moments become most beautiful.