Posts by Bridgette
Studio Is a Buzz!
The contract came in for the new newsboy. I’m not sure I can divulge where it is going. Something for which to look forward.
Meanwhile I’m reviewing and learning to use the Next Engine Scanner. Be prepared to see some video coming up on this process in the near future. Yes, the price tag looks hefty, however you must remember that sending one sculpture out for scanning can cost about $1,000.
This tool has so many applications for the studio. I just can’t wait to share it with everyone. I’m working on an article for my column at Best of Artists and Artisans website. I’ll let you know when it is up.
Abstinence is a Good Thing
Christina Sizemore is a real life example of how abstinence can work and how it is a good thing. At the age of 14 through the prompting of her church, her youth group, her family, and a commitment through Teen Mania, Christina made a commitment to herself and to God to abstain from sex until marriage. She was able to keep this commitment through junior high, high school, college, and even through a marriage engagement that was called off.
Christina is now married to a wonderful man, who honored that commitment with her. She shares her testimony, “There are guys that have that same commitment, but just because you have that same commitment doesn’t mean it is easy.” She admits that being in a relationship with someone that has that same commitment helps, because it makes it easier in times when you are weak.
“There are times when it is not easy,” and just saying, “I won’t put myself in that position,” doesn’t always work. Christina suggests that having this commitment in your heart, prayer, and other things besides just ‘not putting yourself into the place’ is what she has used to help her through the abstinence years. She assures all, “Waiting is worth it.”
Abstinence can become a commitment even if you have had sex. One of Chris’ friend’s husbands told his wife, “Had I known you were going to be my wife, I would have waited for you.” The gift of sex is a wonderful gift to give your husband or wife. The idea that your future husband or wife is very special, sharing this specialness by waiting can help you when you are trying to abstain.
It is easy to say, “But we are getting married,” and try to justify premarital sex, but Christina explains her situation. “I was engaged to another man, I had a dress, I had a venue, we were going through marriage counseling when I called off the wedding. That happens to real people. I didn’t sleep with him and I am glad I didn’t because he was not my husband. It doesn’t matter if you are engaged or planning on getting married,” Chris states, “You are not married until you are married. My virginity is something that I am giving up to someone who does not deserve it, if they are not my husband.”
Christina’s mom, Bridgette Mongeon encouraged and expected the commitment from Christina. When she would tell others what her daughter was trying to do many, many people thought the idea was ludicrous. One person said that they believed they their son you should “try on the shoe.” “I was livid,” states Bridgette. “My daughter is not a shoe. She is an incredible, precious woman. It bothered me even more that this was a woman who was the mother of a boy my daughter was dating. What values had she instilled in her son?”
Boundaries can’t be pushed. Each time you let down one boundary you get closer to what you don’t want to do. And Chris says there were people she was accountable to, and people who were praying for them as a couple. “I’m not sure they were praying ‘don’t let them have sex,’ but I know people were praying for us.” Bridgette assures her daughter, “Yes, we were praying don’t let them have sex, sometimes when I knew you were alone, I would pray that you would feel uncomfortable, or I would pray one would be strong when the other was weak.” She also let her daughter’s betrothed know what her expectations were of him. “There was no mincing words, they knew what I expected of her, they were sure to know that I understood her commitment and that if the betrothed respected their relationship, and a future relationship, he would respect that commitment as well.”
As a couple there were times when one person would have to be strong when the other was tempted or weak. “That is why it is important to have someone who has made that same commitment,” states Christina. When you have someone who is just waiting because you are waiting, they figure maybe you have changed your mind, and then they don’t help you through your weakness.” Helping with your partners abstinence is a loving and honoring thing to do for one another, it demonstrates character. She does state, “There is an end to the wait. If you wait until after you are married, you can have all of the sex you want. It is worth the wait.”
But people don’t believe that she had not had sex. It is not a common thing and she had to try to convince some people who have asked.
Bridgette states, “We are numb to it, premarital sex is expected and it is accepted.” But she suggests that parents change their minds, gain some courage, and tell their children, “I expect you not to have sex.” Give them something to live up to. Be open about the topic of sex, let them talk about it and encourage open communication, but let them know what you expect of them.
Christina agrees that having parents that are open to talk about sex is imperative. “Don’t let it be an uncomfortable experience. Talk about the biology, your own experiences, and it is important for kids to know it is important to talk about it.” She also assures us that 14 was not too young to discuss such things. Some kids are having sex as young as in the 6th grade.
It is our biological nature to want to reproduce. It is almost unnatural for us to not have sex, and kids need to know that. But Bridgette suggests that dating couples should also discuss their feelings that go with abstinence. A man may feel like he is less of a man, if he does not pursue sex, a women may wake up one morning and feel like she is less desirable. There is a psychological assurance that must go along with abstinence. Communication will help to make it easier.
What if you are having sex in a relationship and decide that is not how you want the relationship to continue? Christina suggests accountability and if your partner is not willing to hear what your heart’s desire is for abstinence, perhaps you should think twice about staying with that person. They might just not be the one for you. The commitment has to be between the two of you with God. An individual commitment as well as one made together. Abstinence is not easy, but it is also not impossible, and it can make a relationship stronger. In Chris’ opinion, “It is so worth it.”
This is an excerpt of the Inspirations/Generations Podcast
“Abstinence A real Life Story A Good Thing” found at http://www.godsword.net/podcastbios.aspx More resources and information can be found on the podcast. Those wishing to insert the podcast link on their website for others to listen to can use this link- http://media.libsyn.com/media/creativeendeavors/INSPIRATIONS_0032_Generations-_Abstinence-_A_Real_Life_Story-_A_Good_Thing.mp3
Copyright 2009
Mongeon is a writer, sculptor, and speaker https://creativesculpture.com
Fooling Around- in Mudbox
A very good exercise in traditional sculpture is to set a timer and sculpt something as quickly as possible. It keeps you form getting bogged down in the details. As I begin to work in mudbox I gave myself that same exercise. Of course I always like working from funny photographs and I love people, so here is one I found to work from. It felt good to put “gram” aside and work on something fast. I may do a couple more of this one and then it is on to a little child or baby funny face. the first one was done in 28 minutes( I had to go to church) the others 30 minutes.
A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words
I thought I would share this with you. As usual maybe you can follow along. This is Mudbox. I am working on my first portrait. Here is mom. Yes, the wonderful woman that is found on our podcast, and is known as “gram”. Anyway, it is a long drawn out process of sculpting in Mudbox but she is coming along.
This is what all my fuss has been about in the last few weeks, needing more RAM, new graphics card. And now to find the one thing that was bugging me may actually be a bug in OS 10.5.7. But, today I can use Mudbox again, and I am thrilled to be able to do so.
Writing A Book Is More Than Just Writing….
I”m so glad that things are being solved. My graphics card should come fed ex today. I waited most of the day and missed it at 9:05 p.m. yesterday. How that happen when we work and live in the same place? What up with that fed ex? For those who don’t know. I’m trying to write a book about Mudbox. However my graphics card does not work with the new version of Mudbox for the mac. Making it extremely difficult to make my deadlines with the publisher.
I think I am resolving my retopologizing problems. For those of you who don’t know what that means it simply is this. When working in mudbox there is a mesh, that is under the clay that you see when you are sculpting. The mesh has to have an appropriate form. If you think of a window screen the mesh that underlies your piece should have quads and not triangles and be all of similar size. So in other words. If I want to scan a mock up lose clay piece. I will Use the Next Engine Scanner, which I am also reviewing and hope to show how to use in a variety of ways. This is a 3d scanner that can scan my artwork and make it into a digital image that I can then either send for output as shown in the latter part of this you tube video that I created or bring into mudbox. However. The mesh that will come out of this is too tight and may have triangles. I will need to change that mesh so that it can be sculpted upon. This is called retopologizing. My problem is that I have not been able to find a retopologizing tool that is a stand alone tool. I hate for artists to have to go and buy and learn an entire 3d program just to be able to retopologize. So I think I have this finally figured out. I’ll let you know. So I have graphics card, and retopologizing tool, more RAM and I’ll soon be ready to go. It is a good thing because many chapters are due to the publisher at the end of June, and until this point I have not been able to work on the program. Oh sure, I can open it and play around, but then it might flip upside down or backwards, when I am turning the sculpture and studying it, or worse yet. It disappears. All results of a graphics card problem. Never have I sculpted in the traditional studio when a sculpture has disappeared. It feels good to get things together to proceed.
Body Parts About The Studio
Yes, it is once again time to have body parts about the studio. What you are looking at are the newsboy waxes. It is hard to believe that in just a few weeks these will be put together to look like the bronze below. The next newsboy sculpture in the edition number 3 is being purchased. More details on that later. meanwhile- pass the word more are available and we can personalize the newspaper to represent a newspaper in history. Maybe your newspaper? We did this for the Tabor City Tribune adding the interesting story behind the Ku Klux Klan.
It is Getting Moldy Around Here -LOL!
Molds, molds everywhere. Every time I create a sculpture, a mold is made for it to go to bronze. Usually I have the rights to pour more than one mold and so, I end up with many heavy cumbersome molds around the studio. Since we had the accident in the roof in the shed, these will sit right here. And we also need to build a loft to store these on. Oh my, not something else on my list of things to do.
Mudbox For The Mac!
I now have Mudbox for the Mac. I’m thrilled and can’t wait to see how it works. It will be great to run this in my native operating system instead of on bootcamp. Yes, bootcamp is nice, but when you have to log off and on to do other things that is a pain. Now, lets get busy on writing this Mudbox book “Digital Sculpting with Mudbox: Essential Tools and Techniques For Artists.”
I am excited about working in mudbox, but the sculptor in me has a few concerns.
I want to be able to have a blob of clay- push and pull it until I “feel” what I want.
Doing this in mudbox can change the topography to something that is unworkable. So. I either need to learn another program and bring in what I want, or… perhaps retopologize what I create. But where does one find the retopologizing tools? That is the part of the learning curve as traditional sculptor goes digital.
Sculpting Tools Are Put Away — Hole In My Roof
We had a somewhat small limb fall from great heights and make a huge hole in our roof. This was a massive bummer. Especially since it was in the back of the building and I don’t get into the shed of the studio to see this sort of thing very often, and so it rained in the shed of the studio.
We did a marvelous job repairing it. Thanks to my dad who used to do roofing and explained in detail the different “tricks.”
Saying Goodbye To The PR Intern – Hannah
Hannah has been interning as public relations intern in the office. We will miss her. She is changing directions in her career and we wish her luck. Her position is open, and I’d appreciate you passing the word. However please also let others who are interested know “must love dogs” for every day at our facility is take your dog to work day!
Hannah wanted to have the dogs in the picture and I thought on the deck would be great, however trying to get two dogs to pose, when one of them is Sam – black lab, is not easy. So we said, how about at the pond? Yes, it is true when you work here you have a beautiful pond to visit and a meditative place to gain your center. That is my sanctuary. You can even say hi to the turtles and fish. Anyway. Sitting on the bridge of the pond Sam went for a drink and then we were slobbered by a combination of dog spit and pond scum. IKKKKK. And that is the way Hannah was sent off.
Thanks again Hannah for your wonderful work. I hope I can soon find someone to fill your shoes.
