Becoming Nina Cantrell
Nina Cantrell carving ‘Nebula’ in New York City, circa 1972
Nina Cantrell - Stone Sculptor
Born Nina, Menina, Patrizia Majorino in Brooklyn NY in 1919, one of her Italian immigrant parents Luigi and Agnes' six children. She showed an early interest in art, it spoke to her in a way that the sciences never could. An enigmatic character all her life, she was at different times a fashion model, dress designer and seamstresss, real estate agent, art teacher, mother to two children, wife (4 times) and thru all of these endeavors always remained a committed and passionate artist. As she matured all of these other roles became secondary to her art which in later years consumed her waking life.
An early adopter of gender equal values, she tired of changing her last name for every new marriage and in 1973, shortly after divorcing her 3rd husband (who had genuinely tired of the marble chips that invariably found their way into the bed) had her full name legally changed to Nina Cantrell.
She believed she had the right to be called a name of her choosing and convinced a Nassau county Judge by way of reducing it to the ridiculous:
'...your honor, tell me, should I use my last husbands name? Or perhaps the 2nd or the 3rd? I could use my maiden name but that got butchered on Ellis Island when my parents arrived from Italy. So I want to be Nina Cantrell, for professional reasons. You see I'm carving this 7 ton piece of marble for the city of New York and do I not have the right to choose?....your honor."
“You say it's 7 tons Madame? How do you carve a rock that big?"
"Well I can't use a hammer and chisel, it would take forever, I use air tools and a compressor, you know"
"Actually Madame, I don't know... But I can plainly see that you do know and as far as I'm concerned any wo— [woman] person that can carve a 7 ton rock, no pray tell I'm certain such a thing is a boulder really.... You should be addressed by any name you see fit".
For the next 31 years until her death in 2004 she would live, love, carve and teach using the name Nina Cantrell.