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I miss not having Dick’s clothes. Nancy called and said there are no clothes left, only a pair of pajamas. I could go to the thrift store and buy some old clothes as reference, but I am afraid they will be an emotional hindrance. Let me explain… With each posthumous commission there is a point when the box of personal affects arrives at my door. That is a special time for me. I carve out my space within the day and prepare myself for what emotions will come to me. Sometimes that is not easy, as was the case with Jeanine my first posthumous sculpture that was a death by suicide. That sculpture was filled with emotion, and even after receiving the box of affects I had to travel through some difficult emotions to finally capture Jeanine.

The box of affects and the clothes feeds me somehow. When I have the opportunity of having a box and clothes I also don’t want anyone to touch them or wear them until I have had time alone with them. Then I can turn them over to the model to put on and pose, creating a stand-in for my subject.

I have nothing of Dick Hathaway’s and in many ways I feel empty because of it. The closest I can come to a “personal affects” was the afternoon I spent in Dick’s office. I wish I could have taken some of it home with me. Even when I went through the box of photographs my friend wanted to reach in the box and touch the items. I believe I may have snapped at him.

“Please leave these things to me, let me touch them first.”

I surprised myself at the comment and my forwardness.

Dick’s tie. I was told he kept this in his office just in case he needed it. I could not take it with me so I scanned it. Just something else that was in the memorial box.

I received photographs from Nancy and wanted to describe one of my first steps in this process. One photograph was of her with Dick and the other was a recent one. I had requested that she take a picture of her with a ruler under her chin. Remember all of this part of the creative process is about comparisons. As I precede you will begin to understand my motives with these photographs.

Who would think that a sculptor that works in clay would have to know such things as Photoshop or computer programs? I do use digital images quite often and having the knowledge of different programs can make my job a lot easier.

Nancy said her face has changed some since the wedding photograph was taken. I know that the space between the eyes is going to be the same between the old photograph and the new photograph.

First, I scan both photographs and make them the same size, matching Nancy’s eyes. After doing this I have reduced the photograph of Nancy with the ruler down to match the size of her in the other wedding photograph. Now I have a ruler that can be used to take some measurements of Dick (notice wedding picture has ruler over Nancy’s head).
Of course this only gives me very few measurements on one plane. If I had the real person in front of me I would take several measurements for the sculpture. On the face many measurements begin with the crock of the ear, for example from the crook of the ear to the chin, the crook of the ear to the nose the crook of the ear to the forehead and there are others like the width of the face. (Below is an example of my measurement chart for portrait sculpture.)

On Dick Hathaway’s body I will want several measurements. Ankle to knee, knee to hip, the length of the arms, shoulder to elbow, elbow to wrist. I’ll also need to figure out how tall Dick is when he is sitting. There are many unknowns and many guesses I’ll be making, but the input from photographs like these will help.

Not having the person in front of me makes my job much harder, so I try and find comparisons to other people and objects. When I sculpted Patsy I had a picture of her on the bench with her husband, Howard. I had a picture of myself taken on the bench with Howard and compared the shape of all of our bodies and faces together to come up with Patsy.

I also found and old photograph of Dick standing next to the shelves in the Noble Reading Room, at Vermont College. I called security at the college and asked them if they would check the photograph to be sure that it is from Noble and asked if they would mind measuring the shelves. I can see the knee in this picture and the bend in the arm, something that I could not see in the wedding photograph.

I am certain of the measurement of forty-six-inches to his chest. While at Vermont College I measured the podium. I had a few pictures of Dick standing behind that same podium.

I have included my sketch of proportions and measurements. It is a mess of doodles and thoughts but this is great progress and from here I can actually begin the process of creating an armature for Dick Hathaway.

I am so glad to have the Richard Hathaway Project Blog live.  It is hard work trying to get my commissions that are in house complete and prepare to work on Dick. I hope the money for this project comes in effortlessly, because I don’t know how much time I can put into fundraising right away. I am so glad to have the blog live and indebted to my proofreaders.

I just returned home from a long weekend of helping my daughter come home from college in Tulsa. There is no rest for the weary. As soon as I got home it was right back to it. My first phone call was from Nancy, Dick’s stepdaughter. I was elated. It was so nice to have that greeting awaiting me and encouraging me on the project. It never ceases to amaze me how important having contact with friends and loved ones is to the process of sculpting the deceased. I hope that many people will share their experiences of Dick Hathaway and Charlotte Hastings, that sharing becomes as much a part of the process as the sculpting.

Yes, it is true that Vermont College hopes to sell the campus to the University of Vermont.  Everyone seems to concur that Dick needs to be at the Montpelier campus.  I am working with the T. W. Wood Gallery and their Board of Trustees to be sure they will be the protectors of Dick.  I’ll let you know how that goes.

May 5,
I was absolutely thrilled to go to my P.O. Box and find a photograph of Dick with Nancy at her wedding.  It is a full-body shot of Dick Hathaway with Nancy standing right next to him.  As a resource for a sculptor this photograph is so wonderful! I can estimate Dick’s proportions from Nancy’s proportions.  I wish I had more of these type of photographs but this is great, I am thrilled to have it.  I also have that photograph that I requested of Nancy with the ruler under her chin.  I can’t wait for a moment to do some sketches and figure out Dick’s proportions. 

            Looking at the photograph I can’t help but think, “My, Dick had long legs!”

Please, is there anyone out there that has access to old glasses that can help me find a pair of glasses that look like Dick Hathaway’s? Ideally it would be great to have his glasses, but this will do in a pinch. I would like to make a mold of his glasses and cast them in bronze. I can get them back to you if you need them. Please, please help.

It is actually May 3rd and I have just set up my schedule for the Dick Hathaway project.

Sculpting- May-July
 Foundry mold-August 2, 2006
* $4,000 needed as deposit

Foundry cast- August 30, 2006

Sculpture ships from Houston- October 11, 2006
*Balance of donations needed
Sculpture arrives at Montpelier- October 25, 2006
Unveiling of sculpture- Saturday, October 28, 2006

 “This is insane”, I think.  A real test of my abilities to get this thing sculpted in such a short amount of time.  If only I had all of my reference material in advance.  I hope that won’t keep me from proceeding.  I have all sorts of doubts, “Will the money come through in time?”  Just think about my job now, the next thing I can do, putting one foot in front of the other.  It is something that many of my clients do as they are trying to get through life after the death of a loved one. I proclaim, it’s for Dick, it’s for Charlotte. That gives me the incentive to keep going.

I had my apprentice put together a fake bench. I’ll create the sculpture of Dick on this bench.   While at residency at Vermont College in spring of 2006. I borrowed the measuring tape from the maintenance crew and took measurements of the bench. 
I also had one of my fellow students, James, pose on the bench in a similar pose to what I had hoped the sculpture would be in. Of course James never knew Dick Hathaway, and he could not sense his stature or the way he held his body.  I hope that I can bring the pose of Dick in by using the photographs that are provided and a with a little of the artist’s intuition that I have written so much about 

I’m excited about this make-shift bench, it is the beginning.

The residency after the semester that Dick died I had a dream about Dick.  I was walking around College Hall and there he was-bigger than life. Dick Hathaway was kicked back on the green, on what appeared to be some type of large AC unit.  I looked up at him, because he really was quite huge and said, “What are you doing here Dick?” He said, “Just keeping an eye on things.”

This past semester I had a dream about Charlotte Hastings.  She too was out on the green, dressed in her silly socks, sneakers and a skirt. She was very focused on what she was doing.  There on the green Charlotte was cutting the grass with a push mower.  I asked her why she was doing it and she said something like, “Because it needs to get done.”

I think quite a bit about that lately.  Dick would probably think it is too much, but then Charlotte would be right there, telling him to get with it, and how important it is. Can’t you just see those two in heaven?  Then he might respond as the curator of the T. W.  Wood gallery said, “This is really quite wonderful!”

I know Dick might like the money to go elsewhere, but my point in doing this sculpture is so that others, long after I am not around, will ask, “Who was this man?”  In doing this they will hear about him and the way he helped others, perhaps they will even get the urge to be more like this modest man that everyone thought so much of that  he was honored with a life-size bronze sculpture.