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Face To Face With Dick Hathaway
Today I began on the portrait bust of Dick. It felt good to sit down and start. Meanwhile, Jennifer was putting clay on the torso of Dick for me and Miguel was working on the wax of Jeanine.
I will look forward to the early evening when everyone is out of the studio and I can spend alone time with the sculpture. I’m using reference printed out from the YouTube video of Richard Hathaway
I have printed from screen shots of Richards YouTube Video.
How On Earth Will This Thing Turn Into A Sculpture?
Looking at the armature and seeing Dick takes some creative visualization. How will this ever turn into a wonderful sculpture of Dick Hathaway? The same way that this armature turned into a wonderful sculpture of Patsy.
It takes perseverance and a lot of work.
Am I Allergic To Dick Hathaway?
I started putting the foam on the torso of Dick Hathaway. I had used this type of foam before, years ago and had forgotten what a mess it could be. Next time I will work on it I will put on long sleeves and pants. My neck seems to have a rash on it this morning. I’m not sure if it is the foam or not. I would assume it is from putting on and taking off my work apron.
I am so anxious to get to the bust of Dick. This is where we commune. This is where his essence first reveals itself. But I am forced to figure the details out on the torso first. Covering it with foam so that when Jennifer comes in on Friday she can coat the foam with wax and then begin to add the clay. It will expedite the sculpting process. But I have schoolwork to do and want to spend time alone with Dick’s portrait, and in doing so, I’ll also be spending time with my beloved Charlotte. Working on the bust will let me do that.
I look at these foam/wire/pipe armatures and wonder, “How can this ever turn into a nice sculpture?” But it does. Looking at the armature of a sculpture and the sculpture are two totally different things. Even as I begin to add the foam I can feel Dick emerging.
Inevitably, in the weeks to come, I will be sculpting on the torso or even the bust and will find I need to change something about the armature or the foam beneath. I’ll dig it out and pull, push or even hammer the entire thing into creative submission. Often I’ll say to the apprentice, See this here, get all of this out of here,” And in the end, before the mold is made we will be digging out blemishes of foam or wire or whatever to make the surface as smooth as possible.
The Bust Is Created Separately From The Torso Of Dick
Here you see the foam, and wire. I created the foam by spraying it into plastic bag that surrounded armature wire. Once the foam has cured I cut away the pieces that I do not need. I then cover it with wax. The wax is so the little gritty things from cutting the foam won’t get caught into my clay. I am amazed at how much the texture of the clay bothers me. I like things smooth.
Once the wax dries the entire head is covered with clay. This clay that I use is wax base clay. It can be used over and over again. Of course my apprentices clean off any additional pieces of foam or things that are caught into the clay. The clay is melted in another crock-pot (I spend a lot of time combing thrift stores for crock pots, heating plates, and old kitchen utensils).
Once heated this clay can really burn your skin, so we all try to be extra careful when using it.My new apprentice, Jennifer, puts clay on Dick’s bust for me.
I am so thankful for the glasses that I have of Dick. Not only will it help me with his face, but also it becomes something that I can compare everything else to. For example measuring the width of the glasses (five and one half inches) I can take a measurement of them in one of the photographs of Dick and decipher where other parts of his clothing and body fall ie. the length of Dick’s face is approximately two times the width of his glasses or approximately 11 inches long. Of course this is his face in the wedding photo. I notice it seems rounder then it was in some of the photographs taken as he is speaking, probably because he was older.
The Armature Of Dick Hathaway Compared To Patsy
My new apprentice, Jennifer, has done some welding in the past. I have asked her to weld together some rebar for the armature of Dick Hathaway. Normally I would make an armature of plumbing pipe, chicken wire and spray foam. In the first picture you will see the armature created of Patsy that is done in this way. Instead I am going to utilize rebar and some cut foam pieces to create a light armature for Dick. The foam will then be covered with clay.
Before We Go On To The Sculpture Of Dick- I Have One More Thing To Share
A couple of weeks ago my husband and I were in Austin, Texas for a wedding. While there I had the opportunity to see my sculpture of the newsboy that was installed at the Texas Press Association. It was created to be placed at the capitol grounds in Austin, however it must go through legislation to do so. Until it is passed it will reside at the Texas Press Association building. You can read about the process of this Newsboy in his blog post category.
What Will Come Next?
The next step in the foundry process is creating a wax. I have the ability to pour small wax pieces at the studio, but most of the time I send the molds to the foundry for them to pour the waxes. Lucas is at the foundry now.
I have decided to pour the wax of Jeanine at my studio. It is small and I really like the green wax that I pour in. After the mold is made and cleaned, as shown in the previous post, then it is sprayed with a mold-releasing agent.
There are two crock-pots with melted wax in them. Each is at a different temperature. I will be pouring three layers with this wax. The first layer is hotter than the other two. It captures the details. The wax is poured in and then I carefully swish the hot wax around the inside of the sculpture. Trying to maneuver this mold is sometimes difficult; because of the weight of the plaster it takes some muscles. The other two layers are poured in the same way. Once the wax cools I can pull the wax from the mold. If I have made the mold correctly there will not be a problem with pulling the wax from the mold.
When complete I have a thin, hollow wax replica of my original piece. My apprentices and I will be doing a little more work on these waxes before giving them to the foundry and I’ll have the opportunity to tweak the pieces a bit more. I will do this with the Dick Hathaway sculpture as well. Working the waxes saves a bit more money on the foundry costs.
What is The Foundry Process For The Dick Hathaway Sculpture?
That is a good question, though we have several months before we will be watching the Dick sculpture go through this process. Especially since the date of going to the foundry depends on our raising the $9,000.00 that is needed to cast and ship him.
Each of the sculptures that are going to become a bronze will have to go through this same process of the lost wax method of bronze casting. I’ll go into much more detail with the Dick mold but let’s take a quick look at Lucas.
The first step is making the rubber mold
This job is not easy and after coming off of 2 weeks of very, very long days the two apprentices and myself have sent the Lucas molds off to the foundry.
Let’s look at the Lucas sculpture and its process so you can see what will happen with Dick.
Once the sculpture is approved I have to cut it apart into smaller pieces. Though the Lucas sculpture is only the size of a 5 year old we have cut him apart into eight pieces. The decision of where to cut the Lucas is based on trying to figure out the easiest way to make a mold of him.
When these pieces are apart I can really see areas that, up until this point, have been difficult for me to work on. Places like under his arms and behind his legs. I love being able to finalize details on these smaller pieces. When the pieces are perfect, or as near perfect as I can get them I need to make a mold of each piece. First I put them on a board and make what will be a seam by separating them with a clay wall. This clay wall becomes a seam after the wax and plaster are applied. The seam gives me two halves so that when we pour a wax in this mold, which is the next step after the mold making process, we will be able to retrieve the wax piece without it breaking. I’ll show some pictures of the Lucas mold making process, but I’ll go into a more detailed description when it comes time to make a mold of Dick.
When the pieces are clayed up with a clay seam I must coat the entire piece very carefully with several coats of rubber that is brushed on.
Once this is cured a thin coat of plaster is put over the rubber. Hemp is mixed in with the plaster to give it strength. This plaster mold is called the mother mold. It holds the rubber in place.
The same process is done with the other side of this piece of sculpture. Of course the clay seam is removed because now I have a rubber seam. If you look carefully at the seam in the first picture I have carved a little gulley in the clay seam. This will make the two pieces match.
Once both sides are done, rubber and then plaster. Flipping the sculpture and then putting rubber and plaster, then the mold can be opened and the original sculpted piece removed. The last photo shows the two halves opened. The gulley created in the seam on the first piece now becomes a key so that the two mold pieces will go together perfectly.
Once the molds are cleaned I send them to the foundry for pouring. I can’t let go of Lucas for too long. I will soon get the wax pieces of Lucas back and be able to finalize some more details.
Making Room For Dick Hathaway-Lucas
With a sculpture of anyone I depend on the photographs that are provided by the clients. When a child is grown and the photographs that are provided are years apart, it makes little difference, but when you have a little boy of 5 and the photographic reference you have is of him at 3, and 4 years of age, it is very difficult. The change in Lucas in each photograph was drastic.
When I was finished with the sculpture of Lucas It was great to have him running around the studio. The one thing that I learned from this sculpture is that the point in the creative process where I feel comfortable that I have captured Lucas it is different from the families. Apparently, this knowing or feeling like I have him and peace with the sculpture is not about me capturing a likeness, because elements of the face changed. But the peace between the Lucas sculpture and myself came before the approval. It makes it feel like that essence is a bit more mystical.
Lucas loved to play with towels and sheets tied around his neck. I believed he liked batman. So I created him in perpetual motion. It reminds me of when we were kids in the 60’s and my brother and I would run around the living room singing that melody in the beginning of the batman series, “na na na na na na na na BATMAN!” Running around pretending to do the BAHM! WAMB! thing to each other. I had forgotten about all of that until just his moment. Thanks Lucas.
Here are some pictures of Lucas
Making Room For Dick Hathaway-Jeanine
Two sculpture commissions have been in the studio for the past 6-8 months. I have been commissioned to create a life-size bust in bronze of Jeanine, a 26 year old who committed suicide, and a life-size bronze of Lucas, a 5 year old who drowned in a swimming accident.
Because of the nature of the deaths, both of these were difficult sculptures for me to work on. As part of my study at Vermont College I have been examining the process of sculpting the deceased. One element that seems to play a very important roll in the process is my sensitivity to the emotions of my subject and my clients. Some people might term this part of the process psychic empathy, I have been examining it from many different angles than just the paranormal angle. I often can sense and feel things about my subject and the clients that under normal conditions I should not know or feel.
Working through the emotions involved with each commission is as much a part of the process as sculpting. With the commission of Jeanine I had severe feelings of depression that took a great deal of my energy to try to overcome. Somehow walking through those feelings gave me a better sense of who Jeanine was. I am still learning to deal with this part of my talent. Often the emotional aspects that I feel through the sculptures do not feel like they belong to someone else, but instead they feeling like my own. I know it sounds really strange, but it is true. I have almost come to terms with the idea that I can pick up peoples emotions and feelings, they do not have to be near me either. I often feel mom who lives 2,000 miles away and I have also had several feelings from Jeanine’s mom who lives in Alaska- I live in Texas. But I’m not sure about feeling emotions that surround someone who is no longer on this earth. How does this work? This semester’s study leads me into non-local phenomena.
Here are some photographs of the finished sculpture of Jeanine.