Robert Gove has been living simply as an ascetic, sculpting in Carrara, Italy for over 40 years.
His education – a degree in philosophy from Kenyon College followed by three years of coursework at the San Francisco Art Institute – informs his artwork and fosters his passion for both carving stone and expressing the spiritual tenets by which he lives.
During his time in the Bay Area, he became a student and devoted practitioner of Zen Buddhism. One of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi’s first students, Robert received monastic training in 1967 and 1968 at Carmel Valley’s Tassajara Zen Mountain Center, the first Zen training monastery outside of Japan. While living and studying at the monastery, he built stone walls and created numerous works of art that remain to this day.