Contributing Writer for Sculptural Pursuits?
I was thrilled to have found the magazine Sculptural Pursuits. The editor and I have been e-mailing and if all goes as planned I will be a regular contributing writer for Sculptural Pursuits and be contributing to the Artful Business Column. I am thrilled to be able to share. As an artist and in business I have shared a great deal of information on the business of art in a weekend workshop. (I still do present this workshop. If you are interested please contact me through my website.) Now the readers of Sculptural Pursuits will be reading all of my wonderful hints. I plan on creating a portion of my new forum that we are building and dedicate a section to the Sculptural Pursuits articles that I write. Individuals can ask questions, post comments and suggestions for further articles. I also will try to provide further material for the users. That is once I get my site updated, which is as I have said before, a herculean undertaking! Funny thing is the first article Sculptural Pursuits has asked me to write about is creating a web site!
If you would like to subscribe to Sculptural Pursuits you can do so on their website.
Are We Creating From Life, or From a Desire Of Our Clients?
Sometimes working on commissions and talking to clients you have to be very sensitive to what you think they are trying to say. Sometimes the need is deeper than a voice. That was the case with this commission. The son asked for a bronze of his father. I loved the sensitivity the son explored in wanting, almost having to have this done of his father. I think I can identify with the son. He lives in one state and his father in another. That is the case with myself. I live in Texas mom and dad live in NY. I too desire to have something artistic of them. I plan on casting their hands. There is just something about hands. I seem to remember a line in the movie Beaches where the woman forgets what her mothers hands look like and does not want her daughter to forget hers. I guess I’ll have to watch the movie again, it is has been years. I do remember crying during that scene. Being an artist, hands are not the only artistic expression I felt I had to have of a loved one. Many, many years ago I took reference photographs of my grandfather, he is long since been deceased. The pictures are of him reading the paper, legs crossed in front of him and his hand nestled under his chin, fingers outspread, and pinky playfully brushing his lips. It was grandpas thoughtful look and I wanted to have it forever. I still have not created a piece in the likeness of this picture. Their have been many emotional times of feeling the compulsion to have this person, to hold this person in my memory and in art for everyone to see.
The father came for a sitting and I began the sculpture. As I came nearer to completion I posted it on the blog. The son contacted me and said that it was not his father, not the way he remembers him in his mind. AHHHHH that is entirely different than creating from a sitting from life. It also can be difficult to find the hidden need of the client. Now I had something to work with. Probing some more the son sent me pictures that resembled the dad he wanted to capture. Which really turned out to be quite younger. Here is the progress on deaging the dad and working not with realism but with a clients desire and memory, a need to hold something dearer than just an image. First picture is the older sculpture and reference before finishing. the bottom picture is the young sculpture and reference. 
The work in progress
A Wonderful Link and Picture of The Sculpture
I found this link today http://www.twwoodgallery.org/hathaway.html Update 2020 The TW Woods gallery has been absorbed by Vermont College of Fine arts. The article is no longer visible.
A section of the TW Woods gallery website. Thanks ladies, for making such an effort to bring Dick Hathaway back to the woods.
Fundraising For the Dick Hathaway Project Almost Complete
I’ve been busy here in the studio creating other sculpture, both posthumous and living subjects.
I just spoke with the TW Woods Gallery and the fundraising committee about the Dick Hathaway project. It has been on hold for a while. I am hesitant to continue the sculpting process unless there is money to bronze the sculpture. I just cannot handle Professor Hathaway in pieces in the studio. I would much rather have him in the corner on the bench. I am told that this month is the final push to have the funds for the project. It will be wonderful to have him complete. Though I will be sad to have him go. I suppose I should really give a push to find another apprentice. Florencia has taken a job and that leaves me alone to finish Dick Hathaway. More later.
A Commission of a Child in a Chair- Introducing David
Here is David. He is my new commission. His mom would like a sculpture done of him and we have entertained the idea of putting him in a chair. During my photo sitting of David I picked up a selection of chairs to consider that his mom was collecting. The chair that I am leaning towards is a small chair and it is very debatable if I can create the sculpture that size. If this was a bronze there would be no problem and I would tackle it with fervor, however, this is to be a fired sculpture and fired clay is very temperamental and unforgiving. I have covered the small chair in plastic to protect it while I work.
Started the New Commission- Mom and Baby
I have been working on roughing in the mother and baby commission. This is a different style than I have used to creating in. The sculpture will be more contemporary and less detailed.
It is important to try and make the design work from all sides. The client wanted the sculpture to stand approximately 8” This size of the sculpture that you see includes the area of the woman’s lower torso that is not actually in the original logo. I thought about trying to make the woman larger and cutting that area off, but to make it 8” it will make it a very wide piece and I feel that might take away from the delicate and tenderness of the piece. It is always good to go away from a piece for a few days and come back to it later to see things from a new perspective.
Painting Again!
Leave it to me, a perpetual learner, to find a new creative endeavor. It has been a while since I learned a new computer program, and I must admit spending time on the computer in the office is far from having my hands covered in clay. However, My husband purchased this new Cintiq computer table that I have mentioned before. This is a graphics tablet that looks like a computer screen but allows you to draw right on the tablet.
We have had it in the office for a while, and I think we are leaning toward buying an additional tablet. It really is wonderful to work on. Unlike other tablets where you draw on the table on a tablet and then it appears on the screen. Frankly that does something to my brain, it just does not compute. This tablet has helped me in many different ways with my art and I am glad we invested into it. Can’t wait to have one of my own.
A few weeks ago my husband said, “you should see this new program I have, it is like painting.” The program is called Corel Painter
It is amazing what it can do. So when hubby was taking a lunch break and his computer was free I would try it out. I’m sold. Though you can draw, paint in oils, ink and many other mediums using Painter I have chosen my other medium of choice, and one of the most difficult to master- watercolor. I have painted in watercolor for years and even taught it for a time. But this digital watercolor is a bit different. It may take me some time to master. I thought I would post one of my traditional watercolors so that you can see what I am aspiring to do in this new digital medium.
Why not use the traditional, you might ask? Because it does not mix well in the sculpting studio, it is not a forgiving medium and the digital does offer many things that the traditional does not. I am working on a children’s book illustrating it in this digital watercolor and I am having so much fun in my spare time, which I have very little of with sculpting and writing.
A New Commission
A man called and asked if I could reproduce this image of his wife’s logo as a small sculpture for her birthday. I am thrilled about the prospect of working on something that is outside of my traditional style. I’ll keep you posted on the outcome.
An Update on Number Two in The Edition of The Life-Size Newsboy Bronze
The Meyer Gallery in Utah contacted me about the edition of the life-size bronze Newsboy. Their client wanted to buy one in the edition to honor the Tabor City Tribune and the former editor/publisher Walter Horace Carter. They inquired to see if the Newsboy could be recreated with a replica of the Tabor City 1953 newspaper announcing their winning of the Pulitzer. That is where the idea of changing each newspaper for the rest of the newsboy life-size bronze edition came from.
According to the 1953 Tabor City Tribune newspaper that was sent to me, they were the first weekly paper to receive such an honor and shared it with Whiteville News-Reporter. Both papers were chosen for their crusade against the Ku Klux Klan, quite an impressive and courageous accomplishment, in this artist’s opinion. I am thrilled to be a part of this place in history.
The client sent me a copy of the paper. I had to modify the design of the newspaper so that it would translate to bronze, but was able to keep the look, headline and masthead of the paper. To recreate this paper for the bronze a wax is poured for each of the papers that are a part of the sculpture. There are some under his arm, one in his hand and some at his feet. Each must be carved in the wax to represent the new paper and headline. Here you will see the copy of the newspaper, my marker layout, the wax and how all of that transferred into the details of the bronze papers. Of course the back of the paper remains as I created it with the tribute to Skinney and others based on the historical article written by history professor Vincent Digirolamo.
I am still waiting for photographs of the placement of the sculpture and official comments.
Follow the newsboy category to see more photographs and to read more about Horace Carter, Tabor Tribune and Tabor City. I am happy to announce that there are several articles coming out about this piece of artwork and its placement. I will be interviewed by Press Time on Wednesday. This is wonderful because there are 8 more in the life size edition left for purchase, and I would like to sell them.
I’ll post more about the publicity later.
A New and Improved Website?
I’m always amazed at the amount of time that some office and marketing things take. I am in the process of revamping my web page. Who would have thought it was so big with 180 plus pages, some that many people cannot get into unless they happen upon them.
The process is a total restructuring of the design, new content, an update on artwork a forum to help individuals with their creative endeavors and more interactivity. I hope it is done pretty soon as it is taking up entirely too much of my time. It is however something that has been long due as the site has been the same for quite some time. One can tell by the copyright notice on some of the pages, many pages say 2001!