For two years I have been writing this book “Bringing to Life the Spirit of the Deceased- A Sculptor’s Journey” I have taken a close look a the four commissions documented within the book. Now I have this posthumous commission of Mr. Hockett. It feels funny not to be documenting it. After two years of paying such close attention I feel like somehow Mr. Hocket is being excluded, not a part of the process. I am back to doing what I do in the process without much consciousness of it.

IT does not help that the commission is on a tight deadline. I have no time to ponder. I think Patsy, Lucas, Dick, and Jeanine came to me in those times between. The time spent doing something else, the place that thoughts linger. With such a quick deadline I lose the ability to linger. Does that affect the process?

Few photographs. I cringe at this process without numerous photographs. At one point I even said to myself, “perhaps I will not take any more commissions without many photographs.” My supply in this commission is limited. It not only ties my hands as a sculptor but also leaves me craving more emotionally from the subject. The photographs are what lead me to the personality and the emotion of the individual, with a limited supply the emotion is limited, which may in turn affect the sculpture.

Now that the deadline is looming, and no more photographs are available I pray. Mr Hockett, God, show me his peace. Ii think about the sculpture of Jeanine and remember that some of the photographs of Jeanine actually made me sick. When copying the eyes of one photograph I copied the pain, when another photograph was available I transferred that peace in the photograph to the sculpture. I wonder what has happened in the day the time of the photographs of Hockett? My client’s friend did not see the peace.

This is not a mystical process. My feeling of the emotions in the photograph even those emotions that may leak through is scientific and documented. I have an entire chapter on it in my book. Picking up these emotions is apparently one of my abilities. Sculpting and trying to make something beyond what is in the photograph is mystical.

There are many ways to approve a sculpture. Some people come to the studio and others work with me through the internet and the phone. The process does include the clients suggestions. After viewing the previous photographs I have some thoughts from the client and I go back and work some more on the sculpture. The one difficulty about creating a sculpture with a quick deadline is that I have no time to be away from the sculpture. Sometimes distance is good. A few days away from a sculpture and many things can be noticed. Here is the most recent version and once again a tracing of the original photograph imposed over the sculpture.

Click on the photograph to enlarge.

I often say that all I do is copy photographs. Of course when your resources are limited there may be a bit more intuition involved. I have hovered over the sculpture for days. My husband cracks the center of my back regularly and in off hours I try to stand up right avoiding the affects of poor posture caused by hours of sculpting. This is approval time. The photographs are sent to the client in hopes of approval or direction. This is how it looks at 10:44 pm on Sunday evening.