User:Tomwsulcer/Sandbox3

This is a sandbox page, with trial versions of articles, and is generally not viewable by the public unless somebody specifically looks for it....

Ra Paulette is an American cave sculptor in New Mexico who digs into hillsides to sculpt elaborate artistic spaces inside mountains. Paulette never studied architecture or sculpting or structural engineering in a formal school but is self-taught. He works with hand tools such as shovels and pick axes and scrapers. He is paid only $12/hour. Reviewer Martha Mendoza in the Los Angeles Times described the caves he created as shrines, as hallowed places, a "sanctuary for prayer and meditation" while others describe the caves as works of art. The caves are finished with "scallops, molded curves, smooth ledges, inlaid stones, narrow pods and crusty ledges." His caves attract visitors worldwide. He grew up in northwest Indiana along the shores of Lake Michigan. Paulette created Windows in the Earth Shrine in northern New Mexico for a resort north of Santa Fe so visitors could climb a third of a mile, enjoy the view, and step inside the sandstone cave space to "meditate, write", enjoy the art, or sometimes have weddings. It took him two and a half years to complete. Paulette's sculpture was the subject of a 2014 documentary entitled Cavedigger. He described his artistic approach:

"It has a lot to do with the juxtaposition of opposites: the sense of being under ground with the light streaming in; the intimacy of being in a cave, yet the columns end up very large, sometimes thirty to forty feet high."

- Paulette in an interview, 2014