About
At the core of the MeowTown vision is that stone can be accessible, personal, surprising, and delighting.
There is a sort of magick to be felt in stone.
You are at the beach, a river side, a trail on a wooded hill, and looking up at you is a pretty rock. You pick it up, hold it in your hand, run your fingers over it, examine its luster or depths, and stash it in your pocket for later. The stone comes with you; you uncertain as to why, but it rides along. The longer your stone lives with you the more purpose you fill it with, the more stories it carries, with a seemingly limitless ability to always take on more. This solid rock, a perfect place to hold your memories, hopes, desires, and secrets.
Nick Leavens
In the summer of 2021, I started working with marble. I was solo traveling in Italy, visiting museums, sampling food, breathing in the art and architecture, while taking the occasional class. While staying in a renovated tower overlooking a quaint medieval mountain village in Emilia-Romagna, I drove two hours through the mountains to Carrara, Tuscany and the Cave Lazzareschi to take a sculpting class I booked on a whim a few days prior.
There I met Fabiola Lazzareschi, the heiress-apparent of a marble quarry which has been in her family for five-hundred years. The quarry, tucked in the mountains about a twenty-minute drive from the Mediterranean coast, has been active for over two thousand years since ancient Roman times. Later I would be shown blocks quarried by Romans, but never used, and told that some of Michelangelo’s marble came from this specific quarry.
“You’re going to have a special day,” Fabiola said to me. No one else was there for the class. “We’ll take you on a tour of the quarry, you’ll get to see parts of it most people don’t go to, and then you can work with Marco.
I was to spend the day learning the surface level basics of sculpting with Marco Bonvini, a master stone sculptor. He moved to the quarry to be closer to the stone. With the quarry set back into the mountains, overlooking the valley and, from the right vantage point, all the way to the sea, it felt like a shamanistic existence.
Marco worked with me for an afternoon. He, with some English, and me, without any Italian, communicated through gestures and Fabiola. Through the time spent working with Marco and the walk about the ancient site, my mind was cracked open. Stone and the sculptures revealed from them suddenly had new meaning to me. Every rock, every mountain was a possibility. The ancient origins, the durational nature of the medium, the tactile experience of working a new creation, strung together a long history that now I, amazingly, was a small part of. It was all catnip for my mind and there, marble would begin to live in my brain, rent free.
I would return home and begin to experiment with stone on my own and start an annual pilgrimage to Italy to work with Marco and continue my learning, in time forming my own practice, building my own studio, along with a greater vision and purpose.
Nick Leavens
In the summer of 2021, I started working with marble. I was solo traveling in Italy, visiting museums, sampling food, breathing in the art and architecture, while taking the occasional class. While staying in a renovated tower overlooking a quaint medieval mountain village in Emilia-Romagna, I drove two hours through the mountains to Carrara, Tuscany and the Cave Lazzareschi to take a sculpting class I booked on a whim a few days prior.
There I met Fabiola Lazzareschi, the heiress-apparent of a marble quarry which has been in her family for five-hundred years. The quarry, tucked in the mountains about a twenty-minute drive from the Mediterranean coast, has been active for over two thousand years since ancient Roman times. Later I would be shown blocks quarried by Romans, but never used, and told that some of Michelangelo’s marble came from this specific quarry.
“You’re going to have a special day,” Fabiola said to me. No one else was there for the class. “We’ll take you on a tour of the quarry, you’ll get to see parts of it most people don’t go to, and then you can work with Marco.
I was to spend the day learning the surface level basics of sculpting with Marco Bonvini, a master stone sculptor. He moved to the quarry to be closer to the stone. With the quarry set back into the mountains, overlooking the valley and, from the right vantage point, all the way to the sea, it felt like a shamanistic existence.
Marco worked with me for an afternoon. He, with some English, and me, without any Italian, communicated through gestures and Fabiola. Through the time spent working with Marco and the walk about the ancient site, my mind was cracked open. Stone and the sculptures revealed from them suddenly had new meaning to me. Every rock, every mountain was a possibility. The ancient origins, the durational nature of the medium, the tactile experience of working a new creation, strung together a long history that now I, amazingly, was a small part of. It was all catnip for my mind and there, marble would begin to live in my brain, rent free.
I would return home and begin to experiment with stone on my own and start an annual pilgrimage to Italy to work with Marco and continue my learning, in time forming my own practice, building my own studio, along with a greater vision and purpose.
General
MeowTown, what's that?
MeowTown is the home and brand of stone artist Nick Leavens.
Where’d the name come from?
I’ll tell you over coffee someday. With two other careers, I wanted a brand for my stone sculpture and carving that was distinct and different. Hence MeowTown. I'm happy for the name to be a somewhat silly sounding name to lighten my sometimes over thinking nature.
Where are your pieces produced?
Everything is made by me, by hand, in my studio in Brooklyn, NY. Occasionally I go to Italy and make things there too.
Where do you get your stone?
I work primarily with found, reclaimed, and salvaged stone. For the sake of definitions, found stone is from in the wild or of unknown origins, reclaimed stone has been discarded and in quarry heaps or heading to landfills (ie unused pieces from quarrying or cuts from stone counters or tiles), and salvaged stone was used for some other purpose and are no longer used (i.e. buildings that get destroyed, kitchens that get torn out). Stone quarrying/mining can be very destructive and by using waste products, I want my work to make something beautiful out of something that will be trash, waste, or otherwise unused. There is certainly enough beautiful stone out there and I’m excited about making it into something surprising and new.
Do you ship internationally?
Yes, you can read our international shipping FAQ here.
Are you represented by a gallery?
No, my sculpting work is not represented by a gallery and I would be open to regional or national representation.
Do you have an instagram and social media I can follow/share?
MeowTown's handle across platforms is @meowtown.art, links are below as well.
Besides rings, what other things are you working on?
I'll continue to add lines of object art, wearables, furniture, and sculpture to the website as I make them. In general, I’m normally working on at least a dozen pieces at the same time in a variety of styles and categories. It keeps me on my toes.
Are your rings carried in any stores?
No, at the moment my pieces are only sold directly to collectors.
Can I buy your rings wholesale for my store?
Everything I make is hand made and not mass produced. I am open to having items in stores, but only under specific terms. Reach out, let’s talk about it.
