Welcome Interns And Others- Introducing Our Team
For each project, I create I put out a call for interns. Some of the interns that work on my projects have worked with me before. Other interns are usually aspiring art students who want to learn and have new experiences. Here is my list of my helpers for the sculpture for DBU. If you are an art student at DBU and live in the Houston area and are interested in interning during your summer break, please feel free to contact me.
James
James is a student at Houston Community College. An international student from the Philippines, James is a registered nurse who is now following his heart as an artist. James is a wonderful asset to the studio. He is industrious and has a passion for “fixing things.” So far I have 3 torches, a compressor and a couple tools that are in better working order because of James.
Antoinette
Antoinette is in the Industrial Design department at the University of Houston. She is a hard worker and has the key element I look for in interns, passion and commitment. I tell interns,” I can teach them what needs to be done, but passion and commitment are something that you must have. “
Ephraim
Ephraim is the youngest of the interns, but with the holidays he is excited about getting to work with clay. Ephraim is a high school student from Carver Magnet School
Allison
Allison is a regular intern. She has worked with me on the Panther Project for Prairie View.
Shirley
Shirley is an assistant sculptor on the project. She is trained a bit more than the other interns, and I count on her for specific jobs. She too helped with the Panther project.
OTHERS
Bill
Bill is my son-in- law and he can be counted on for helping me put things together. He is going to create my floor.
Christina
Christina is my daughter. She has worked with me her entire life, and though she is very pregnant I can always give her some clay and a sample shoe and say, “rough this in.” Chris’ claim to fame, “my sculpting is in the shoes of a lot of mom’s projects.”
Mike
My husband, Mike does not help in the traditional studio , though I have to say he has rallied to my aid with the problems with the rocking chair. God bless my husband. Mike’s forte is my digital and computer problems. He fabricated the digital chair, and helped with other aspects of the project.
ART STUDENTS
If you are interested in learning more about internship in my studio here are some blog posts about what it entails.
What is an Internship?
Looking for Interns ASAP
Summer Sculpture Internship
The Final Details
I leave Dallas with a pose, an agreement and an extremely tight deadline.
Continuing our work on the Praying Man for Dallas Baptist University. You can find their project blog on Blogspot.
A Chair?
While at Dallas Baptist University, we took a walk and looked at the art, as well as the placement of the proposed sculpture. Then we began to brainstorm about a pose. At first Dr. Blackburn was posing, but it was understood that the sculpture was to be of a younger man, so I encouraged Dr. Blackburn’s assistant, Shannen to step into the creative process.
Finalizing a pose and obtaining photographic reference is a huge part of the process. For those artists reading this blog, the rule of thumb is— you can never have enough photographs as reference. We still had not settled on the chair, and as mentioned in a previous post, to expedite the process and make the deadline, I intended on finding a chair in Houston and taking it apart for mold making.
Then I was introduced to Dr. Cook’s chair.
It is safe to say that I became emotionally involved with this chair. More on that later.
Continuing our work on the Praying Man for Dallas Baptist University. You can find their project blog on Blogspot.
The Meeting
It is a whirlwind of a day. The idea of this entire piece started from a sculpture that was seen elsewhere. Dallas Baptist University wanted to have a man praying to represent Dr. Gary Cook’s investment into praying for the campus and the students. They wanted a sculpture that would demonstrate the passion and importance of interceding and seeking God for direction.
I came with a few ideas. The sculpture could not look like any others. It had to be an original design. I had hoped that my investment into the processes would help us to get our creative juices going and finalize a design quickly while visiting DBU. One thing was for sure, with such a short time to create this piece we had to move fast in every aspect of this job, including the design process.
The proposed sculpture had a traditional chair. Using a chair that I could find at a store and then make a mold of to cast in bronze would help me to make this almost impossible deadline of the first week in April. That entire concept of using a store bought chair would change. As you read on you will see what I mean.
FOR ART STUDENTS
If you are interested in learning how I create my sketches for presentation I have several blog articles about this elsewhere. They are created digitally using several different computer programs. Here are some links
Presentation for a Park
The completion of a project
Continuing our work on the Praying Man for Dallas Baptist University. You can find their project blog on Blogspot.
The Beginning
Things are already moving fast. Within just a couple of weeks of talking to Dallas Baptist University about the possibility of creating a sculpture of a praying man, I’m headed to Dallas to meet Shannen Smith and Dr. Blackburn.
Usually a life size sculpture of this size would take an artist about 3 months to sculpt and an additional 3 months in the foundry- at a minimum. I have one month to sculpt and three months at the foundry.
When Shannen from DBU first called me about sculpting a praying man I was reminded about a desire that I had many, many years ago. When I first began sculpting I had a vision of creating a series of bronze sculptures of praying people and having them set within public places. I envisioned a man in a suit kneeling next to his brief case, a housekeeper kneeling, a student on the way to school and others. Prayer has always been important to me. I felt that the series would remind others to pray. I had that vision nearly 30 years ago. I figured if that sculpture series happened it would have to happen through a client. You see bronzes are so expensive to create. After so many years, I had almost forgotten about that vision, until this phone call. When I received a call from DBU, there was a part of my heart that leapt at the fulfillment of a portion of this old creative vision.
Continuing our work on the Praying Man for Dallas Baptist University. You can find their project blog on Blogspot.
Tomorrow Evelyn Goes Home
It has been a while in between posts, but tomorrow we will be bringing the Evelyn sculpture to the Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Center. She may be home, but she will be standing somewhere out of site until the plaque is ready and plans have been made for installation. It won’t be long now. Pictures to come.
Prayers
I am especially excited about the praying man project for Dallas Baptist University because, through the years my life has been full of prayer, and I have had a burden of intercessory prayer for others. I think it is something I inherited from my mother, if you ascribe to the idea that you can inherit spiritual gifts. I do know there has been generations of faithful Christian women, and I’m immensely pleased to be a part of that inheritance.
- Over the years, many have said that my talent for sculpting is a “God given gift.” That is a huge responsibility. I pray often for that gift and guidance.
- Throughout my career, I have done several sculptures of people praying. Years ago I had a garden sculpture line and created two sculptures of children praying. One was of a little girl, and the other is this one of a little boy praying and peeking up at God
- One of the first pieces in my God’s Word Collectibles line was of two girls praying with the scripture James 5:15 “Pray One For Another.” Each sculpture in the series comes with a letter from me saying why this scripture is important in my life.
Pray one for another…
Confess your faults one to another;
and pray one for another;
that ye may be healed.
The effectual and fervent prayer
of a righteous man availeth much.
James 5:16
garden sculpture series that I created
years ago.
Continuing our work on the Praying Man for Dallas Baptist University. You can find their project blog on Blogspot.
Welcome to The Process Blog of Creating a Praying Man
Welcome to the project blog for the Dallas Baptist University. sculpture of the praying man. As a writer and a perpetual documenter, I love to create these project blogs for clients. I do this for several reasons:
Richard Hathaway
made into bronze and sitting
at the Vermont
College Campus.
- It is a way for my clients and their friends to watch the progress of a sculpture, to see the entire process and marvel. It is as if the client and their friends are in my studio watching over my shoulder.
- Someone recently asked me to describe myself. I said, “I’m passionate, creative and highly motivated. I have a strong spiritual side, and my driving force, which is almost an obsession is not just to get to my goal and destination, but to see how many people I can help along the way.” This means if I learn a life lesson, or I find tools that will help me with my craft I must share them. In light of that, if you are an artist, you will find lots of information here, and even tutorials that will further help your exploration into your own creative processes.
- I am both a writer and a sculptor and the two parts of me fight for my attention. This is a way for me to entertain them both and make them friends.
- I find my memory is not that great, so on a humorous note, I’m often Goggling myself and what I know to remember what it is I shared. This way I can find that special vendor, or step by step process that otherwise would get lost in the recesses of my brain.
I hope you enjoy the project blog. I look forward to your comments.
Continuing our work on the Praying Man for Dallas Baptist University. You can find their project blog on Blogspot.
A Dog Bookmarks Your Life RIP- EMMY
Our animals grow with us, experience joy with us and even mourn with us. Today we celebrate the life of Emmy a mutt that we found at the SPCA back in 1998. She was a gift to our family upon our return from our wedding that year.
My daughter was 13 back then. She cried when she saw her and begged us, “I want this one,” even though Emmy was so nervous and peed on the floor during our visit. My son was a couple of years younger. Emmy would get so excited when I would tell her that her “boy” was coming for a visit. Both of my children are now grown, living in their own homes and having children of their own.
It is interesting to look back on your life and see the bookmark of a family pet in so many important events.
Emmy journeyed with us as we tried to figure out how to raise teenagers. She watched our children leave, and return for visits. She never judged, she just simply loved. It was Emmy who would walk with me and stayed right by my side when I was pregnant 12 years ago. It was also Emmy’s behavior that warned me that something was wrong with the twins in utero. Maybe they are playing with her now in heaven. Her connection to all of us was very deep
Emmy has bonded with human loved ones who have since passed on. Others that watch over her are my mom, my dad, my father-in-law, Chas, our retriever and Kittiana our family cat.
Our lives are still changing. Emmy seemed to embrace and tolerate the hugs of a toddler a new granddaughter, even though Emmy suffered greatly from pain of arthritis and rarely liked to be touched. She seemed to know the importance of this new family member. Emmy understood her role in nurture the pretend babies as the grandchild laid them on Emmy’s bed.
The house feels empty, my journey to and from the studio a little less exciting. But my heart is thankful for the companionship and for the nurturing love of a spirit covered in fur.
Rest in peace, my friend, and thank you. You will be missed.
Back To A Panther Sculpture
I have recently been asked about the possibilities of taking the panther that I created for Prairie View A & M and making it into a smaller version or perhaps even jewelry. Of course the traditional process of sculpting a smaller version of the panther is always possible. But that process means a mold and casting and as a table top version the cost of this process can run a couple thousand dollars. I’m open to exploring other options.
With the melding of digital technology in my traditional sculpture studio optional technology is definitely a possibility that I am curious to explore. If you follow the blog on the Panther Project you know that the original panther design was created in the computer, and enlarged by SNYAPPSYS Digital services in foam. Clay was added to the foam for the final version. It was then put through the traditional mold making process for bronze casting.
This digital process of enlarging expedites my work tremendously. The difficulty is that digital models, as seen in the computer, rarely translate well to real life. There were many modifications that I did on the large panther. As the blog shows, I carved on the foam, accentuated muscles and features so that it would translate well into bronze and in some places even lengthened or added to the figure. I also modified the pose.
So, I’m back to the digital drawing board. I am opening the original file of the panther and comparing it to my traditional bronze piece. My goal will be to do more work on the digital version and experiment with printing it using the 3D printing process.
The program that I am sculpting in is ZBrush. I’m exploring the new features that are available in Zbrush 4R4 that were not available when I created the panther just a year ago. Features like QRemesher that helps me to retopologize the panther, or fix the geometry, so that I can create a better digital sculpture. I’ll report back on how the digital sculpting progresses, as well as how the 3D printing process comes along.
Project blog for the Prairie View Panther can be found at https://prairieviewpanther.blogspot.com/