NATCHEZ &045; Using art to convey a spiritual message has taken Dr. Sam Gore of Clinton throughout the United States.

In a visit to Natchez on Jan. 30, he will present his acclaimed program at First Baptist Church.

Called sculpture worship, the program begins with a brief devotional and introduction, after which Gore, a renowned sculptor and sculpture teacher at Mississippi College, begins to sculpt in clay with background music.

At the Natchez program, he will sculpt the head of Christ, working fast but without speaking until he has completed it.

&uot;I don’t talk while I’m sculpting,&uot; he said. &uot;I’d rather do the talking separate from the sculpting. Verbal and sculpting communications seem to be two different channels.&uot;

Gore uses only Mississippi clay, regardless of where he travels to present a program. In recent years, his clay has presented a problem for airlines, he said. &uot;Now I have to ship it by UPS because the airlines are suspicious of anything that might be plastic explosives.&uot;

A teacher at Mississippi College since 1952, Gore has created sculptures for numerous settings, including the quadrangle area at the college.

The Rev. Bill Hurt, pastor at First Baptist in Natchez, said he has seen several of Gore’s presentations.

&uot;When his hands get going, it’s unbelievable what he does,&uot; Hurt said. &uot;You are in awe that you can worship without a word being spoken.&uot;

Gore will open with an oral devotion and close with a prayer. Otherwise, the working of his hands provide the opportunity for worship.

He grew up thinking his interest was in building airplanes, Gore said. &uot;I was creative and drew all along but without realizing I was heading to art.&uot;

His interest in high school was athletics and airplanes. He became an aircraft mechanic in the Civil Service when he was 16, working part time. Then he took lessons and learned to fly the aircraft he serviced.

At 18, he joined the Naval Air Corps and served in the Atlanta area, near enough to what is now the Atlanta College of Art that he could take courses there.

&uot;After art school, I decided I needed to catch up academically; so I came to Mississippi College.&uot; There his studies centered on English and Bible along with more physics. He began teaching at the college as an undergraduate in 1951.

He signed his own diploma when he completed his studies at Mississippi College and graduated in 1952.

In time, he went on to get master and Ph.D. degrees at the University of Alabama and Illinois State University, respectively.

A highlight of his academic career was a summer spent at Princeton University, where he &uot;became acquainted with a sculpture professor and met a lot of other key people who have been important to me.&uot;

Hurt remembers studying art appreciation under Gore at Mississippi College. But his association with him goes further back than that. &uot;The Hurts and the Gores go way back,&uot; he said.

Gore now focuses on teaching sculpture. &uot;I’m not a briefcase teacher. I practice sculpting. I can do what I teach.&uot;

He employs the &uot;old Renaissance method,&uot; he said. &uot;You sat at the foot of the master and did what he said. I try to teach the students to be persistent in their work. If they stick with me, they will take something with them.&uot;

Gore grew up in a family of eight boys and two girls with a father who was a Baptist minister. One brother is Dr. Bill Gore of Natchez.