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About the Sculpture “Lifting the Veil of Ignorance”
FROM THE ARTIST’S STUDIO
The original intent of the sculpture project for Booker T. Washington High School was for the artist to recreate the sculpture “Lifting the Veil of Ignorance.” This sculpture is very large and resides on campus at Tuskegee University in Alabama. There is a smaller version of the sculpture, often referred to as a maquette. An artist creates a maquette to work out the design. The original maquette was damaged and needed repair.
There were several concerns when copying art. The first concern is copyright. We will go into this in another post. The second concern is that it takes a very long time to create a bronze sculpture. An artist wants their work to be original, and spending a year copying someone else’s work is not enticing. However, it can be done digitally, as we will see.
Let’s take a closer look at the art. The sculpture was created by Charles Keck (1875-1951) and dedicated in 1922.
The artist was very prolific, creating pieces of Washington, Lincoln, and many other famous people. This link provides some beautiful photographs of the sculpture from all sides.
Questions for teachers and students
What do you think the sculpture means? What does it represent? Why do you think the artist portrayed the subject this way? What is he holding? What is he sitting on and why? Do you like the work? What feeling do you get from the two subjects? Do you think the size of the sculpture makes a difference?
Why was this sculpture installed here?
What is the relationship between Booker T. Washington to Tuskegee?
Author Sculptor Bridgette Mongeon
https://www.instagram.com/bridgettemongeon/
https://www.facebook.com/BridgetteMongeonSculptor/
https://twitter.com/sculptorwriter
Who Was Booker T. Washington?
FROM THE ARTIST’S STUDIO
I spend a lot of time getting to know my subject. Some say, “You develop a relationship with the deceased.” This statement is true, but most historians probably do the same. Dr. Phillips gave me Booker T. Washington’s book Up From Slavery, and I spent a lot of time on the internet getting to know this man. I soon learned there were two trains of thought in education during this period, one from Booker T, and another from W.E. B Dubois. I was intrigued at how radically different these two men were in their approach to education. I found this great article from a teacher today and how he has been influenced in his present-day teaching by these men.
TEACHERS AND STUDENTS
- What are the differences between the philosophy of these men?
- What is the difference between their upbringings?
- What do you like about each?
- What do you dislike?
Author Sculptor Bridgette Mongeon
https://www.instagram.com/bridgettemongeon/
https://www.facebook.com/BridgetteMongeonSculptor/
Tweets by sculptorwriter
About the Artist
Bridgette Mongeon is a sculptor/author and public speaker. She has worked on various monumental sculptures over her 30+ years of creating. You may see her work in the Grambling Tiger in Grambling State University or the Prairie View Panther for Prairie View A & M. She has also been commissioned by Kindness Without Limits to create a sculpture of Neil Armstrong for Space Center Houston and Russia. She is most known for her monumental sculpture of Alice in Wonderland’s Mad Hatter Tea Party in Houston, Texas.
Added to her credits are the author of 3D Technology in Fine Art and Craft: Exploring 3D Printing, Scanning, Sculpting, and Milling and co-author of Digital Sculpting with Mudbox: Essential Tools and Techniques for Artists.
She was nominated as 30 most influential women in 3D Printing and enjoys lecturing to students and adults on the subject of STEAM- the interdisciplinary educational initiative encouraging Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Math. If you are an art teacher in Texas, you may recognize her as the keynote speaker at the Texas Art Educators Conference 2017.
As part of her sculpting the Booker T. Washington sculpture for Booker T. Washington High School, she has offered to create blog posts documenting her work with educational materials for teachers and students. Please follow along and share your thoughts.
Below Expanding Your Horizons in Math and Science Key note Speaker Bridgette Mongeon.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7qhaP_GUmHM]
Author Sculptor Bridgette Mongeon
https://www.instagram.com/bridgettemongeon/
https://www.facebook.com/BridgetteMongeonSculptor/
https://twitter.com/sculptorwriter
Dallas Lighthouse For The Blind Honors John Turner
Delighted to see this wonderful tribute to John Turner from the Dallas Light House For The Blind.
Of course the unveiling of the sculpture can be seen at the end of the video at about the 3:30 mark.
It was so much fun creating this piece for the city of Frisco, Texas.
This is a sculpture created of John Turner for the city of Frisco. The entire project is documented on a project blog at https://johnturnersculpture.blogspot.com/
The Unveiling Of a Sculpture, Accolades Of a Great Man And The Appreciate Of A President
Here is the entire dedication and unveiling of the sculpture that I created of John Turner and his dog. Watching this you will learn much about the man and all he has done. I was delighted that presenters read a a letter from George Bush. The letter talks about all that John has done in his life . Laura and George W. Bush thanked many for honoring this man including… “Bridgette Mongeon” (5:29) Thanks President Bush.
It is Saturday night, I have sat with Norma’s head in my lap, flipping through images and trying to pull her into the clay. 4 hours later I mushed the clay around and finally said, “Oh, there you are Norma.” Now, I step away until tomorrow, to see how she will talk with me again. Finding the essence of Norma is a lot different than finishing the sculpture. There is SO much to do. We have actually just begun. But tonight I can sleep a little more at peace knowing that Norma is taking the stage in my studio.
This is the documentation of Sculptor Bridgette Mongeon who created the Norma Zenteno Sculpture and Kippy for Zenteno Spirit and Barrio Dogs. You can find the process blog for this project at http://normasculpture.blogspot.com/