NEWS RELEASE

March 7, 2007

Francisco Sotomayor's Marble Sculpture
AMERICAN WOMAN

Visitors to the Santa Clara Valley Gem & Mineral Society's 52nd Annual Show on April 14 and 15 at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds will be treated to a special feature.

A life-size marble sculpture of a woman reclined atop a 10 ft long concert grand piano. She and the piano come from the same 21 ton block of Colorado marble.

This sculpture weighs about 10,000 pounds and it came from the same quarry that the Tomb for the Unknown Soldier and the Lincoln Memorial came from.

The sculpture took over 1,600 hours in the time frame of a little over 2 years. It was completed on May 9, 2003. The American Woman has been on tour of the country and she has been to 27 events and cities, plus she has traveled over 11,000 miles.

Francisco signs and gives away over 1,000 marble chips (about the size of a small potato) and 1,000 photos at each city on tour. So far he has signed over 22,000 marble chips and 20,000 photos. People and the media love the concept of signing the marble chips because... what if Michelangelo would have signed his marble chips... these are the chips that you hand down from generation to generation. All the chips are from the original 21 ton block of marble.

This is the first marble sculpture to have carved eyelashes. It is a composite of 6 models so she is unrecognizable, yet the best of each woman. That is why she is Called the "American Woman".

This sculpture has been on ABC, NBC, and CBS News over 40 times, a dozen radio interviews, over 100 newspaper and magazine articles, and it was filmed for a documentary.

The Santa Clara Valley Gem & Mineral was incorporated as a non-profit organization on June 27, 1954 and currently has 130 members. Its purpose is to inculcate in its members and the community an interest and appreciation for rocks and minerals by furthering their knowledge of the earth sciences. The Society does this by holdong monthly meetings, sponsoring an annual public show at the County Fairgrounds, and conducting classes, workshops and field trips to disseminate knowledge, methods and procedures for the collecting, identifying, cutting, polishing, faceting, setting and mounting of rock and mineral specimens.

Tickets to the Show are $6.00 and can be purchased at the door. Children under 12 free with Adult admission. Sat. & Sun 10-5, Fairgrounds, 344 Tully Road, San Jose