Subject: November 2025 eNews: Interview with Liselle Mei, Upcoming Marble Carving Workshops, Exhibition and Student News + more

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Newsletter November 2025

Hi Friend

This month's features are:

Liselle Mei's interview on her exhibition Between Worlds at Clara Street Gallery
Upcoming Marble Workshops and Sculpture in a Day returns to TBSSS
Save the dates for 2026 Term and Special Workshops
Carrara Marble Carving trip ahead of January's Intensive Workshops
Exhibitions and student news

Read on to learn more...

Interview with Liselle Mei on her exhibition Between Worlds at Clara Street Gallery

Clara Street Gallery: Tell us about your exhibition preparation for Between Worlds—how was it bringing together your photographs and sculptures, making connections between each of the works?

Liselle Mei: This first solo exhibition has been a huge learning curve for me, giving me the opportunity to experience my work in one space and open the question of what I want to express as a visual artist. Finding the connection between my photographs and sculptures very much informed the selection process. I wanted them to speak to each other, to be in quiet conversation. I also decided to bring in a video element in my piece, 'Where Ideas Begin', framing a sculpture with moving imagery of trees and nature to tie in my filmmaking background. Working across all these different mediums gave me the idea to call the exhibition Between Worlds.

How was the installation and opening event?

Elena Murgia installed the work and I am so grateful to her. The installation is such an important part of the process and through Elena, I really understood the importance of choosing where to place everything to shape the viewer experience. Elena has a real talent for this. It was a wonderful experience collaborating with her and seeing it all come together. There was a real sense of community at the opening event. I was very touched by everyone who came out to support me. The Grifter Brewing Co and Hopeless Thoughtful, a bespoke natural wine company, were my very generous sponsors. It was also important for me to include a memorial bust of my father, the first sculpture I ever made at the Tom Bass Sculpture Studio School and the reason I started coming. All in all, it was a very meaningful night for me.

Most of your works are lith photographs and stone carvings; how did you become interested in those particular media? What has the process been in developing your works in this exhibition?

I have always loved working with my hands. Both the sculpture and photography allow for this. Lith photography is a very specialized process of hand printing in the darkroom. Due to the volatility of the chemicals, each print is one of a kind and cannot be reproduced. It takes time and a touch of serendipity to create each print. The same applies to stone carving—each piece is unique and unreproducible, takes patience and endurance, making the end piece very precious. In a fast paced world where so much is mass produced, I find value in hand crafted work that takes time.

What are you drawn to work on next?

I am currently making a documentary about the town of Carrara and Usama Alnassar, the marble carving artist and TBSSS guest teacher who lives there. This film will bring together my love of marble and storytelling. In terms of my own visual art practice, I would like to continue working Between Worlds and further explore the intersection of video and sculpture. There is something very captivating about the permanence of stone set against the moving image. I would also like to start carving bigger pieces and work on a larger scale.

Pictured above: 'Her Silence is a Crown', 'A Soft Surrender', Liselle with 'She Carries The Rain', 'Father'

Upcoming Workshops

Intensive Marble Carving Workshops 2026 with Usama Alnassar – 6 & 8 Day Workshops

January 2026 | 6 & 8 Day Intensives| 9:30am - 4:30pm

Italy returns to Erskineville in January 2026! You will learn to use traditional hand-tools and techniques for carving, including methods of transferring ideas onto a piece of marble and finding form within the stone. Participants will work directly on the famous White Statuario Marble from Carrara to acquire basic skills and to understand the nature of the material. Special Guest teacher Alnassar lives and works in Carrara, Italy among the white Michelangelo marble quarries, where he teaches sculpture courses and works on small and monumental sculptures.

ENROL NOW

Sculpture in a Day workshops return to TBSSS

TBA 2026 | One Day Workshops

Sculpture in a Day workshops are a wonderful chance to get creative, slow down, and relax after a busy week, especially for those who can't enrol in a full term. These workshops recently returned to TBSSS, with Carving Soapstone and Modelling the Figure having run over the past month. Anne Wilcox, who took the Carving Soapstone workshop, told us about her "sense of accomplishment, especially being able to bring a finished piece home."

We'll be running more Sculpture in a Day workshops in the new year, so keep an eye on our newsletter and social media!

Save the dates for Special Workshops ahead in 2026

From Wax to Bronze: 2 Day Wax Workshop with Michael Vaynman | 11-12 April 2026 | 10am - 4pm

Explore the variable states of wax as a sculptural medium, construct a wax armature, learn modelling techniques and the use of tools for smoothing and texturing in this 2 Day Wax Workshop with Michael Vaynman.

Alabaster Carving with Carol Crawford | 18-19 July 2026 | 10am - 4pm

A unique opportunity to immerse yourself in the world of alabaster carving and learn from popular guest teacher Carol Crawford.

Bookings for both of these workshops will open in 2026—reply to this email to be notified.

Save the dates for Term Workshops in 2026, bookings to open soon

Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays | AM/PM/EVE | 3 hour workshops

Term 1: Mon 2 February – Thu 2 April*

Term 2: Mon 20 April – Sat 27 July

Term 3: Mon 20 July – Thu 24 September**

Term 4: Mon 12 October – Sat 19 December

These workshops are for all skill levels and aim to develop your knowledge and understanding of all aspects of creating sculpture in a range of media. Everyone is invited to encounter a unique artistic experience in an inspiring studio space!

All classes will run for 10 weeks, except

*In Term 1 classes will be 9 weeks (and Saturday's class will be 8 weeks)

**In Term 3 Saturday's class will be 9 weeks

Early Bird bookings will open to current students on 24 November, and to the general public on 1 December.

TBSSS Students' Marble Carving Trip to Carrara ahead of January's Intensive Workshops

Four students of the Tom Bass Sculpture Studio School recently participated in a 10-11 day workshop in Italy, led by Usama Alnassar, who visits Australia to conduct specialised marble carving workshops at TBSSS every January.

The workshop took place in Usama’s open air atelier, in the scenic foothills of Carrara, Italy, which was just under 10 minutes drive from the town. The TBSSS students who attended—Carol Crawford, Anthony Mitchell, Juliet Cohen, and Bethany Hoyt—worked alongside students of many different nationalities in Alnassar's outdoor studio. The experience was deeply immersive and intense with the sounds of marble being mined and occasionally pushed down the hillside serving as a backdrop while they were carving.

Over the course of 10-11 days, they dedicated themselves to their sculptures under Alnassar’s guidance. The days were long (and sometimes frustrating), but time seemed to fly as each sculpture took shape. The TBSSS participants worked on diverse pieces: Anthony and Bethany created beautiful and sensitive portraits, Juliet focused on ambitious multi-piece assemblages, and Carol created an abstract self portrait 'mother-and-child’ out of a unique piece of blue/purple-veined Carrara marble. Every day was physically demanding but also invigorating, as everyone focused on completing as much of their pieces within the finite time they had.

Pictured above: Carol Crawford, Juliet Cohen and Usama Alnassar, Bethany Hoyt, Anthony Mitchell.

Thank you to Carol Crawford for this article.

Exhibitions and Student News

Jutka Freiman is a finalist at Sculpture in the Valley

15-16 and 22-23 Nov | Kangaroo Valley

Jutka Freiman's sculpture Twisted Sister, which was made at TBSSS, will feature in the Sculpture in the Valley exhibition in the Kangaroo Valley this weekend and next. Congratulations to Jutka!

There are times in our lives when we find ourselves caught between a rock and a hard place. In Twisted Sister, I wanted the figure to reflect the necessity of dynamic movement, flow, and flexibility. The placement of both the figure and the rock has been deliberately left unfixed to the base to embody this sense of openness and adaptability.

Martin Williams is a finalist at Sculpture in the Valley

15-16 and 22-23 Nov | Kangaroo Valley

Martin Williams is also a finalist in Sculpture in the Valley, with his and Fe Heffernan's interactive work Footasaurus. Congratulations to Martin and Fe!

These multiple giant footprints belonged to a fierce Allosaurus, who loved to stomp all over the Kangaroo Valley long ago. Martin Williams and Fe Heffernan have selected casts of the large feet for a fun interactive sculpture, made up of multiple parts for our work Footasaurus that includes audio of the sound and roar of a real Allosaurus.

Visit Defiance Gallery's small works exhibition this month

22 Nov—13 Dec | Opening 22 Nov 3-5pm

TBSSS students, teachers, and alumni are well represented in Size Is Not Important, the upcoming small works exhibition at Defiance Gallery in Paddington. The exhibition opens on Saturday 22 November 3–5pm at 12 Mary Place, Paddington, and is open until 13 December. Artists featured include Christophe Cornard, Carol Crawford, Elena Murgia, Jenny Pollak, Ingrid Morley, Jim Croke, Anita Johnson, Jan King, Deborah Beck, Lea Ferris, Leeroy Chapman, and Chris Atichian.

Pictured above: Your Soul by Elena Murgia

Listen to Aaron Matheson's interview on the Art Wank Podcast

Broadcast 5 November | Listen Online

TBSSS student Aaron Aryadharma Matheson was interviewed on the Art Wank Podcast, discussing "art, Buddhism, living with the chronic illness multiple sclerosis, and how all those things come together in everyday life. Aaron talks about painting as a way of making sense of things, of finding stillness and meaning through colour, mark and form."

Listen to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.