Jerry Torre

Bedside with Mrs. Beale and Edie

I’d like to welcome you all to my new site, I hope you enjoy your visits.  I have always toyed with the idea of putting up a site like this with which to present myself and my work.  I’ve decided the timing is right now for this site as there are many new developments in my life that I feel like sharing with others.

Sometimes I look back at my life and can hardly believe some of the experiences I’ve had.  I have seen many countries, met and worked along side some incredibly colorful individuals and I feel blessed to still be in touch with many of them.  The friendship of others was often times the only thing that got me through the toughest trials of my life.  I’ve experienced as many vibrant highs as I have crushing lows, somewhere in the middle I stubbornly cleared myself a path.

I feel as though the time is right to add yet another new chapter to this incredible story of mine.  This time you’re invited to come along and have a look over my shoulder.  I promise I’ll tell you some wild tales and maybe, just maybe, there will be a lesson to be learned from all of it.

I invite you to subscribe to this blog, this way you’ll be notified each time I make a new post.  I plan to enrich this site in many ways and I would love to hear your opinions on it.  Feel free to comment on my posts and be on the lookout for some new material soon!

Regards,,, Jerry Torre, The Marble Faun

The image of this ark has been on my mind.

The majesty of religious articles has always moved my person.
The winged guardians atop this ark have been painted and replicated through the centuries.
Ive begun drawings , of this subject , it is time to carve this in stone.

Limestone (Spanish)the hue of this particular stone is soft , crema mocha,is the actual name of this stone.
The subject of this sculpture is one Ive respected for its simple majesty.
It is a responsibility drawn of respect for the contents of the Ark.
I found a passage in the Bible describing details of this sacred item,

I ask God for his guidance in all I do in my life

Sometime long before Maysles arrived I had thought how to share the unique adventure. It was far too much to try to explain. As time passed it of course was documented by Al & David. Those who were curious after seeing there work arrived often. Diplomacy was Edies cross to bear all her life. Her inability to be cruel or impolite was an impediment. It was her inability to ever disrespect or be impolite
to most everyone. This I know was Edies vulnerability. Such was her upbringing. To the tenth degree was her loyalty and total devotion to Mrs. Beale. When callers would muster up the courage to trespass Edie would always understand there curiosity. These curious were neither offensive nor any help either. to Edie. Knowing someone and being allowed to KNOW someone is the point I wish to stress at this moment. When neither Edie nor Mrs. Beale was unconcerned with the curious they were called reclusive. When the press printed there takes Mrs. Beale and Edie were labeled eccentric. as well as other disrespectful and unfair labels. Thirty some odd years later yet another wave is shore bound!

Nature is the bottom line. I have settled down after accomplishing
all that I set out to do this day. Practically no more space to plant
in my garden. Filling each available space with life. While gardening
only the wisest of thoughts concern me. When a great friend in my life once said to me, (Remember me and how much I loved you, always). It is passion and it is currently running overtime! Other factors contribute to this weight, factors that are associated with being Neapolitan. However my day was complete and satisfying. He has integrity and is sophisticated. Chester is sing up a storm today! He has bath several times, been busy and energetic. Nature is the bottom line.

It is good to be alive to feel the joys of nature on this 5th of July.

I`ve been living here all my life, my entire family has resided here for generations. This night as I walk home from school just at the same subway stations I` ve known for years. I can remember using the very stairs to this subway when my Mother took me to the New York Worlds Fair in the 60s.

 In fact is is still the 7 train so on a summer eve as still and comfortable my thoughts are of the pavilions and crowds of people who walked in harmony around Flushing Meadow Park.

The Vatican Pavilion housed Michelangelo’s `Pieta, it was the very first glance at this masterpiece that changed my life.

It was from that point I knew stone sculpture was my calling. We all have callings some of us never hear them maybe they don`t speak as clearly to them as Stone had to me that summer night .

Yes a summer night so exactly like the one I have just walked home through on the same streets I `ve known all my life.It is good to be alive, my heart soars with good will towards my fellow human beings.

 I believe everyone feels the basic treasure of each of our lives. We people who feel these joys are what makes our world go round. These are the giftes that God has given to his children the gifts of being human. This night I walked with great reverence listening to families on the front stoops, some playing cards others keeping each other company.

 This night in the city of New York once again all is well and I am home.

Those who I did walk past did not know how dear they are to me but the brotherhood of man was everywhere , there is harmony, we are one. God Bless our world, let us all love each other as we would have one love us.
for anyone who reads this feeling I am your humble servant and I do love life, let your life be   love and great joy.

Greetings Grey Gardeners,

It has been just a few days since I last wrote on our group,life here in New York can take one day and turn it into ten with one rush hour.

Ive kept my promise to myself to complete what I had set out to , and this month helped at a fund raiser at Grey Gardens. It was a fund raiser for the Harvey Milk School. 

Life continues to circle ever more positive, you see the choices I ve made include pressing on making the best of things for those who come from the inner city.

Ive had my sculpture seen by curators who had given it a ”best in show” award. That incourged me as the sculpture chosen was a subject I had not planned. It was suggested to me that even if i did not understand why I should stop carving ~~Temple~~and enter it into the annual school show.

It has been some time now since the musical opened on Broadway, and it was on July 29 that it closed . That was another Grey Gardens moment seeing Mrs.Beale had mentioned that very date in the documentary. 

That was simply magic, to experience Grey Gardens on Broadway. The musical was everything in one place and Mrs.Beale & Edie would have been thrilled to know there lives have been so loved in a musical. The very venue sought by Mrs.Beale , Edie in the confines of a delapitated mansion,with only themsleves to share and support there own lives , for the most part alone .

I am certain that they are both at ease now and live in harmony amongst the angels.

Life for me continues to be all I had prayed it might one day become, having friends,sharing ideas,carving stone.

”You and the night and the music dance till the music is through”

There are times in our lives when the most delicate of memories are things of the past. To be reminded of such delicate memories is a certain joy that occurs without planning and is exciting for it reminds me of a light hearted time in life, that at the time i had been living it it was just common practice in the day. 

 Something not taken for granted a style of life that allowed the basic joys of being alive like the serenity of a summer night .
The fireflies hovering in the dark , the stars bright above our earth, the sound of crickets. Through the shadows of the trees hanging plants spot the dark night with ever so subtle color, delicate purple, white & red.
The reach of the ever traveling grape vine with its twists and feelers reaching into the absent space grasping a hold in which to continue to travel and set its vine onto further spaces.
I think to my self the bird-feeders are full and the local bluebirds , Cardinals,Finches are nestled somewhere this first night of summer.

I wait with wonder for the dawn , when these friends of my garden will return to there feeder to find it full of feed and then fill the morning with song of treasure.
It is good to be alive to feel the joys of nature on this summer eve, the dawn will bring light and life back to our earth .
What a precious gift the earth .

Sunday, June 20

Friday, June 18th – Sunday, June 20th This year STAUNCH! loosely draws upon the world of the two Edith Bouvier-Beales – their past, their influences, and the life of one of the people they had a profound effect upon, Jerry “The Marble Faun” Torre. Film screenings, panels, an art exhibit and a special brunch on Sunday round out this weekend celebrating everything Grey Gardens.

Special Brunch Screening with Jerry “The Marble Faun” Torre
@ 12:00 pm
The Beales of Grey Gardens
Dir. Albert Maysles & David Maysles, 2006, 91 min.
@ 1:30 pm
Sneak Preview:
The Marble Faun of Grey Gardens
Dir. Jason Hay & Steve Pelizza, work-in-progress, 13 min.
- Followed by a discussion with sculptor Jerry Torre about his life with the Beales and beyond! Jason Hay and Steve Pelizza will also be on hand to discuss their work-in-progress film, The Marble Faun of Grey Gardens.
- Light brunch fare and mimosas available before, during and after the screenings/discussion.