If I Would Have Had More Time, I Could Have Simplified This Sculpture
I wanted to create the mom and baby sculpture in a more contemporary style. It would force me to “Work outside the box.” Mark Twain once said, “If I would have had more time I would have written you a shorter letter.” Ah, I can identify with that in writing, I also identify with that in sculpting. If I had more time I could have simplified it. Here I am two days before my client is to come to the studio and I have gone from a quick contemporary sketch to a detailed piece. I could do it again and simplify it, make it more contemporary, but the problem is… I love what I am doing. The sculpture is developing into a more art nouveau style, a style that seems to be a part of my deepest soul.
Given the opportunity to play it seems I play art nouveau.
This is the logo that was to inspire me.
All Day Out Of The Studio?
I was not sure how I could spend an entire day out of the studio at an all day seminar on software. How could I justify it with deadlines overhead? Still the software is something I have worked on for about 20 years. Wow it sounds strange to say that. I even saw people that I knew from over 20 years ago when I worked in the advertising business. You could tell us from the rest in the bunch because we were the ones with the grey hair sitting in the front of the room because of our poor eye sight!
Some areas of this software I have never worked in because frankly I don’t know how. My fear of the unknown part of software and the frustration of learning- we all know it. So I opted for this free symposium on Quark Xpress. I picked out the clay from under my fingernails and cleaned up headed off to a day of lectures.
Hey the food was great, and it was free and I did learn. i was especially interested in the web tools and quarks interactive designer. I quickly suppressed the urge to learn more about interactive designer when I found out it cost an additional 199. How I will find the opportunity to do something with the rest of the knowledge that I obtained is yet to be seen. That would mean more time away from clay and writing. It was a long day yesterday but I’m back today and it feels good to be back to the studio.
David- A Possible Pose
I am surprise I took on a commission where it is going to be created in ceramic instead of bronze. There are design limitations with such a project. And I rarely create something in fired clay these days. The chairs were provided and I wound up a wire armature and roughed in David with wax based clay. This is easier for me to manipulate and to pick a pose. I think I like this one. My husband asked, “What is he looking at?” So I plan on sculpting some really tiny cars. I’ll place one on the floor next to the chair. SO MUCH FUN… but can’t get to it now. Must get other things done for the other commissions and oh yes, the web site updated. UGGGGGG, sometimes business stuff is not fun at all. But it is oh so necessary. I am thrilled with the updating of the website. I have not put any new work on there in five Years! I am also excited about the new bells and whistles and the interactivity.
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.