Granite as Art!

A new trend is emerging across Dallas and in other cities: the use of granite and other natural stone as the focal point on the walls of living rooms, master bedrooms, bathrooms and other worthy venues. Such provide the perfect context in which to frame some of the world’s most lavish varieties of stone featuring dramatic hues, contrast, fossilized elements and patterns of veins. At the Jubilee Company we are proud to host one of DFW’s best collections of on-site slabs in a stunning range of colors well-suited for the task, all on display in our 12,000 square foot indoor granite gallery/showroom.

Trends in home decor

Throughout the 1960s, “Formica” was the byword of kitchen countertop design even in homes of the wealthy. What changed that trend was technological advancements in stone mining, fabrication and transportation, as well as the enormous economic buying power of mass production. Industrial progress and infrastructure continues to improve our standard of living, giving our culture the means to affordably reach deep into the earth to extract 1,000-pound slabs of exotic natural stone and ship them around the globe.

Jubilee Company forms the final leg of that miraculous continuum extending the process into your very living room. Our “Fabricator Direct Advantage” brings you the benefits of in-house quality control, service and value because we are the fabricator. We efficiently mill and polish your prized stone with flawless precision using our state-of-the-art equipment and skilled artisans. Today we offer a variety of finishes on your stone that were unknown only a few years ago. Make the easy drive to our showroom and feed your imagination with some 70 varieties of stone under one roof. We are within minutes of virtually any home in the greater Dallas area and we are open on Saturday.

Why didn’t anyone think of this before?

It’s not that past generations didn’t see beauty within the matrix of natural stone and so were blind to their value as art, it was simply that natural stone as it exists in today’s amazing variety was simply not available in times past. Stone could not be brought out of the earth and put into use without mountainous effort and expense. So if people wanted “art” they had to paint it. And if a homeowner wanted a beautiful kitchen countertop, they installed a laminate surface and wiped it down with 409.

In practical terms, Granite as Art also opens unique doors. When used as a countertop, forms of stone that were not impervious to acids, stains, scratches, and strong chemical cleaners were often ruled out as high maintenance. You don’t have such worries when you utilize natural stone as art since gravity precludes the preparation of food on the vertical. That unlocks varieties of stone that can be spell trouble in the kitchen environ but work flawlessly as art on the wall. Limestone with its thousands of tiny fossils, travertine with its labyrinthian layers, or veined marble are just as powerful in terns of art as any form of granite or quartzite.

Art by the slab

There are three primary kinds of stone.

Igneous rock is produced when molten stone cools quickly, as when it is emitted from a fissure in a volcano.  Granite and obsidian are igneous stone.

Sedimentary rock is formed by layers of sediment such as sand dunes or particles at the bottom of the ocean being compressed for millennia. Travertine, sandstone, limestone and shale are notable examples. This also explains why sedimentary rocks are often packed with fossils.

Metamorphic rock is a combination of other types of stone which undergo metamorphosis by high levels of heat and pressure. Quartzite, for example, is produced when tremendous tectonic forces cause sandstone to recrystallize into a new form. Marble is another metamorphic rock produced by this conversion process upon limestone.

Any of the above can be uniquely colored by “impurities” that react chemically with the minerals over time and by the intrusion of other minerals into cracks. And that’s what makes every stone slab so unique.

Sculpting with stone vs. painting with stone

Natural marble has generally been the material of choice for classic works of sculpture. But in such usage, the stone was often selected for its pale uniformity, not for its diversity. In this usage it was generally the artist’s skill that elevated “common stone” to the esoteric ranks of art.

So what is it about Mother Earth’s stone paintings that qualifies their membership into the hallowed halls of art? How does a natural stone slab of amazing contrasts compare to, say, a Degas, a Rembrandt or a Monet?

Art is often characterized by attention to detail. Great masters are great because they mastered so much detail in their works of art.

In the crystalline matrix of stone, the artist is our own Mother Earth herself — a prodigious creator who routinely spent 250 million years or more bringing out the sublime color, three-dimensional texture, and translucence in a slab brought forth from her subterranean vaults.

And as for the media, whose but the geological brush of Mother Earth has the power to paint in stone? What other hand paints equally well with molten lava as with sediments fused by the kind of power that crinkles the continental shelf as if it were aluminum foil?

Timelessness

So much for the role of heat and pressure in the production of natural art. But what also of time? Isn’t it true that great art has the mesmerizing power to transport the viewer in time? Great works of creativity always impart a sense of timelessness — perhaps none more so than the symphonic texture of crystalline mineral showcased in just the right way.

Sit in your living room and gaze into the eddies of granite, quartzite, marble, travertine or limestone and you are looking into a porthole that spans millions of years. Timelessness resonates within the soul. It appeals to anyone who’s mortal heart beats in rhythm with the now, because it enlivens that little spark of insight in the back of our minds that suggests — despite everything — we are yet, each one, the substance of eternity who can’t help but endure in one form or another, forever.

Many people who have died on the operating table only to be brought back to life describe the preeminent sense of unity, serenity and peace that lie outside this earthly realm. And the earth, as it revolves in sheer limitlessness bathed in the glow of stars by the trillions of trillions light years away — is not this a connection to that same sense of tranquility? Yes, there are profoundly creditable reasons for selecting a lovely slab of granite to be the centerpiece on the wall of your living room.

How to create a living room

Possibly it’s only wishful thinking to suppose natural stone as a connection to Mother Earth which in turn is a connection to the eternal tranquility which empowers all life. Then again, isn’t beautiy always within the eye of the beholder? What do we see when we look back in time and what looks back at us? Is it just our own reflection? Or is it the kindred gaze of a Higher Order encouraging us to contemplate the secrets and truths behind the riddles of existence? Such is fodder for your own musing. Our happy job is just to bring the stone.

If you enjoy being reminded that perhaps the knowledge in your mind, the love in your heart, the clever personality that makes you ever unique in the world, are all things of eternity and not just tiny teacups of so many seconds and minutes getting fewer by evaporation and the occasional spill, then please consider Granite as Art by Jubilee. What more can anyone do to ensure a happy and serene environment, than to create in your home a porthole of time reflecting the vastness of eternity?

As we go forward in time, life has all-to-often a tendency to remind us of own shelf life and personal expiration date. But are we really just so much hamburger? Perhaps our lives could benefit from a little balance with the infinite and the intangible. Nothing balances mortality like certainty of timeless endurance.

For all that’s been said of the Renaissance, when compared to any of the Great Masters, Mother Earth is hard to beat.

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