Getting To Know Norma
Today was an exciting day as I met with the family of Norma Zenteno. I’ll soon be starting a sculpture of Norma for the family. The sculpture is of a young Norma playing guitar while a dog looks on. The family will be placing this sculpture at the Brown Foundation Plaza on Harrisburg in Houston’s East End. The sculpture honors Norma and the work of Barrio Dogs.
The family and I sat together and talked about the scheduling details, fundraising and contracts, then parted, but at the last minuteI asked if I could see the place where the family was installing her.
Let me back up a bit, If you don’t know my work, I am known for quite a few things in the fine art field. I often incorporate digital technology in my traditional process as I talk about in my last book, I love sculpting children, For a while there everyone referred to me as “the cat girl” because I created the Prairie View Panther for Prairie View University and the very large Grambling Tiger for Grambling State University. I guess recently people know me for the monumental sculpture of Alice in Wonderland’s Mad Hatter Tea party which will be installed in November and can be seen on both the Facebook page and the website.
I am also known for my sculptures of deceased loved one. For many, this may sound like a very macabre thing to do, but I love it. A few years back Texas Country Reporter created a segment on this portion of my art. I love developing a relationship with the deceased; I love helping families and individuals come together around the likeness of a loved one that I create. I love giving recognition to an individual and honoring their life through my art.I have written much about this process of sculpting deceased loved ones, and one day I hope to publish a book about it.
In walking this one path of my creative journey, I have found that there are some incredible things that happen. It has been a while since I created a life-size sculpture of a deceased loved one. I had almost forgotten about the connections and unusual occurrences that happen when beginning this creative process. It is strange, unusual, wonderful and incredibly inspirational.
That is what happened today. On the way to the destination for the sculpture, I began to get a “feel” for a part of the sculpture. There is a thing that happens during these types of commissions that I can only describe as a “knowing.” Though it has happened over and over again with countless posthumous commissions, it never ceases to excite me. In the case of Norma, it is like she is walking beside me, causing things to happen or showing me how things should go. She solidifies our connection and is in the details, and slowly I get to know her and develop a relationship with her even though we have never met.
I’m delighted with what transpired today. I can’t wait for our next meeting when we prepare some photo reference for the project. The family will be a part of this sitting, a loved one is taking her place wearing clothes similar to Norma’s so that I can get a feel for this. I love this. In creating posthumous sculpture, I have found that those sculptures that have the most life are those that have a strong emotional connection brought on by the interaction and sharing by those who knew and loved the subject. Somehow, their energy and love is fused within the clay. It is very exciting. I can’t wait for the up and coming sitting. I’ll share that soon. In the meantime. I have a new friend. She is not on this earth, but I’m having a great time getting to know her, and watching the light in the eyes of her family as we bond.
Feel free to help to infuse this sculpture. Share your stories to help me bond with Norma. These stories, help me to connect to Norma. Your love and memories are transferred to the clay and bring Norma to life. The Zenteno family has set up a website to begin to receive donations for this sculpture. Thank you for being a part of the creative process.
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/
Local Press About Alice
Much thanks to the Buzz Magazine for the wonderful article. Thank you Jodan Maziner Steinfeld.
The Mold Making Process- John Goes To Pieces
Anyone unfamiliar with the bronze casting process pretty much freaks out when they see this part. We go to great lengths to get the sculpture prefect and then we have to cut it up all over again. How do I do that? With a reciprocating saw, knives and anything I can. The many pieces are seamed up using playing cards. Some things like the dog, I will cut apart later. We did the mold of the top of the dog, flipped him and this allowed me to add detail on his belly without standing on my head to do it. The mold making process is a long one. Usually t he foundry does this process, but here at B. Mongeon Sculpture Designs Studios we do it ourselves.
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/
Approval Of The Sculpture Of John Turner
This is the halfway point of this process. I know it feels like we have done a lot with the sculpture already. The milestone comes with the approval. I love when a client comes to the studio and sees a sculpture for the first time. There was a bit of work that we did on the sculpture of John after this point, and the dog changed considerably, but overall it was a great approval process. The client was pleased and we are on to the next part of the process. The mold making of John and his dog.
John was standing there when she walked back in.
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/
Moving Forward- The Dog
Along with these I had
about 10 movies of walking dogs.
The difficulty about creating a blog that documents the progress of a sculpture is that when you are knee deep in creating the sculpture you have very little time for blogging. So here we go, backdating some of these posts and letting you know the progress.
You can never have enough reference. It is something I say often in my life as a sculptor. I spent hours learning about seeing eye dogs, talking to the Seeing Eye in New Jersey, watching video of how a dog walks. I studied the anatomy of a walking dog and reviewed many movies. There were changes and modifications that we made after approval and I pulled the love of dogs, the love of some specific dogs and the love for seeing eye dogs into one clay sculpture that would be made into a bronze. This was no easy task. This dog probably had a little of my own love and loss. While creating it my family suffered a horrible tragedy. My daughter and son in law’s house burned down and their family dog, Sam was lost. Sam was a rescue dog that I fostered for years before they adopted her. So as I labored over this dog, I thought about Sam. Lots of love went into this dog. Here are some photographs of the progress of creating John’s dog.
sculpting means a little bit of acrobatics.
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/
carve, add clay, step back cut something off, move it, add clay.
This is what I do all day long.
the dog, adding clay, carving foam, moving
limbs. This is my sculptor’s dance.
and John’s hand must line up.
on the floor, it feel good to sit in a chair and work.
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/
Bringing John To Life In Clay
John has gone through a great deal of transformation. If you remember we had just received the foam armature of John in December. Here is some transitional photographs showing the process. This shows just a glimpse into the many, many hours of creating before approval of a sculpture. If you want to see the final results of the John Turner sculpture in clay be sure to check out the approval blog post.
Slowly I move around and down John. The foam
is covered with a foundry wax and a layer of clay.
A base coat is added and then thicker layers.
folds and capturing movement is the goal. Still,
there are other elements that we must add that
play a part in the scene. John’s hands are pivotal.
the right is holding a brief case, and the left
the harness. The position of these additional
elements may change the arms and the folds.
The brief case is much to heavy to put on him.
it would break his hand and arm. Putting these
elements together will take a lot of time and
consideration.
of course the dog. We juggle trying to have the
room to work on John, and needing the
interaction with the dog.
Off with his head! No, this is not just something from my previous Alice project. It is something I do with all of my sculptures. It is easier to flip his head around and see what is needed. I’ll can easily attach his head back to the body. I’ll do this many times. I also like having both printed photos and photos on my computer. I can zoom in on these.
watches tv while gamma works.
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 Energy In This Next Part Is Incredible
Moving on to the next part of this project. The foam does not look like much now. Poor pooch. It will soon be an amalgamation of the look, and energy of 8 seeing eye dogs. The creative energy on this part of the project nearly has me jumping out of my skin. Here is to…
1. Villa November 21,1953
2. Inky February 15, 1964
3. Pepper May 1, 1977
4. Gordy April 7, 1979
5. Steffie January 4,1989
6. Corinne September 20,1993
7. Robyn March 29, 2003
8. Eben May 23, 2014 So excited to get started on this part. I can feel the dogs. They have been having in the studio for months waiting patiently for their turn. I can also feel their love and commitment. What they have done, what they have provided. This is such an honor. Keep watching.
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/
Some relatives posted : “Hope this all goes well. I’m very excited. Each of those special dogs has been important in our lives beyond comprehension. They were unique, brilliant, loyal individuals. You’ve got a lot of greatness to work with!”
Night And Day Tag Team
Many pieces of the sculpture are cut off, added on, taken off and added again. You will see, after our final approval, that John and his dog will be cut apart one more time for mold making.
We have a night and day thing going. It is is also a tag team effort. I work late at nights and early morning and weekends, then my interns come in and clean up after me and smooth the clay. They really rock this part and make my life so much easier. Sometimes they can work on things that are cut off while I work on the torso.
I love listening to books while I work. It is funny. I have been overdosing on a young adult novel series about spirit animals. Just realized how significant that is to this project.
The hand on the left is holding the harness portion. I would have
loved to get a real harness and cast it. I tried, but The Light House
said they destroy them. I was sent one by the Turners, but I can’t
make a mold of it as it is very special. Having a harness to cast
would have saved me so many hours of work. Instead
we are fabricating one.
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/
Working Night and Day
Let me catch everyone up on the progress at the studio. We have been so busy working it is hard to write blog posts. The foam of John Turner came back. As I may have said, this foam is taken is from the small maquette that we scanned. Seems like a lot of work to do to get an enlargement that is really very vague in form. The reason it is like this is that milling can’t capture everything and the more time on the mill the more it costs. Also, what works as something small does not always work as something large. I can hardly wait to get my hands on the foam, it is here that everything comes to life. The foam and the maquette did two things.
- Gave us a pose from which to work.
- Helped us enlarge the sculpture in a more timely matter.
What we do with the foam.
- Secure the foam together using spray foam insulation
- Carve foam to give detail
- Cut foam and change positions of appendages to get a better movement of overall design
- Put a layer of wax on the foam
- Put a fine layer of clay on the foam
- Cut pieces again and arrange.
hurriedly stuck him together so others could see our intent.
This picture was taken around December 10th.
We changed a lot of things since this picture.
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/
Life Is A Magical Adventure…
Life is a magical adventure…
Throughout my life, each morning, I have purposely planted my foot into the intent of an adventure. Grant it, now that I have been doing this for so so long, my feet crack a bit more before the full movement, but my heart steps with the grand conviction that, over the years, has seeped into every one of my pores.
Today is the day, where I will accomplish one of the biggest steps in the treasure hunt that is my life. If there is a certain task set before me, I do it knowing that this one task is going to add to the others. It is like flipping the dial on the secret decoder ring that I coveted as a child. They all go together to become one grand clarification. I’m excited about meeting others as I truly feel that they have been sent, placed in my path to help me to find the rest of the secrets that are my treasure hunt. Or, I may be the secret giver in my rendezvous. I might not know what the secret is that I am supposed to share. It may be a word, an action, or just simply listening at the right time. My path of treasure huntings crosses another person. We are all looking for the magic that is a part of life. I’m honored to be a part of their journey.
If I wake up sick, I try not to be concerned as I might be fooled to think that this day is not a part of the great adventure. But I try to remember that when I am well, I will see the magic all the brighter because of the day that tries to shroud. Words and treasures may be harder to see and find, but they are in this day as well.
If there is an obstacle in my way, I try to examine it. Was this part of the magical journey, am I to go in another direction? Will the tools I use and the people I meet to get through this obstacle be a great part of the adventure and give the entire thing so much more meaning?
If I don’t meet anyone, I listen for the words. These are outward words or ones I hear in my thoughts. Many have forgotten the magic that is in the silence. They have missed the greatest tool to help them find their treasures. They don’t realize that there are magical creatures that wait between asleep and awake to help you with your journey.
I try to play often, as this will release those treasures very quick. It is a very important part of the magic. I am also trying hard to remember to stop the adultness and play with the grandchild. These little messengers, though little, hold great treasures to my journey. If I am busy, I will miss it.
I read, or listen to audio books that may be a part of that treasure hunt. When I hear a phrase, I wright it down in the hopes of remembering it, deciphering it and finding its place into the entire enterprise of magical days.
It is strange to think that others do not live this way. Some might say that I have a Pollyanna attitude or that I am not in touch with reality. Others might say that life is dismal and I am betraying it by my thoughts.
I think…
When you open your inbox expecting some miracle or adventure-every-day, when you search for the fascination and possibilities in each encounter, it makes life so much more fun. If others think I am bewitched, befuddled or betrayed, let them think so. However, you may find me looking on with amusement, as I take your words, turn the decoder ring and mark in my notebook for further clarification on this as part of my grand magical and wondrous adventure.