Sculpture- Move One Place On – Alice in Wonderland
Speaking At The 150th Anniversary Of Lewis Carroll
many artistic interpretations of this story was very inspiring.
I am very honored to be speaking at the 150th Anniversary meeting of the Lewis Carroll Society of North America on April 18th in Austin, Texas. I’ll be sharing information about the monumental sculpture that I am creating of Alice In Wonderland’s Mad Hatter Tea Party. I’ll also be sharing some hints on how to find some of the 150 elements that will be hidden in the sculpture. Of course, I’ll be entertaining suggestions for hidden items as well.
If you have not visited the Harry Ransom Center at The University of Texas At Austin and seen the wonderful exhibit of Lewis Carroll this is a great opportunity to do so. There are original manuscripts, artwork and much more. The lecture is free and open to the public. However, if you are staying for lunch or dinner you will need to preorder that. The entire agenda for the meeting can be found on the Lewis Carroll website. There is an online pdf of the full agenda including the speaker biographies.
Bridgette Mongeon is a sculptor, writer, illustrator and educator as well as a public speaker.
Her blog can be found at https://creativesculpture.com.
Follow the artists on twitter twitter.com/Sculptorwriter
How the Alice Sculpture Began
In 2011, Amy Freeman of Freeman Design Associates was working with Jerry Rubenstein on signage for the newly named Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Center. She contacted sculptor Bridgette Mongeon about a possible sculpture of Evelyn for the Evelyn Rubenstein Jewish Community Center. The Rubensteins were looking for an artist to create a bronze sculpture of their mother for the Jewish Community Center. Bridgette documented the creation of Evelyn on a website blog. The Rubensteins and Amy came to her studio, and they all hit it off. At this time, the Rubensteins were also talking about a possible second sculpture of Evelyn for a park. The artist’s focus was on the sculpture for the Jewish Community Center, but she was curious about this mention of a sculpture for a park.
Over the many visits to her studio, Jerry and Linda would share artwork and artists that they discovered. Bridgette assumed these were ideas for the park. One such piece was the Alice In Wonderland sculpture in central park. Over the years, she has received numerous photographs from the Rubensteins of this sculpture, but she has yet to see it for herself. Her wheels began to turn about Alice. She was delighted to find that the story and illustrations were in the public domain. She was even more delighted to find that the story would be celebrating 150 years in 2015. She immediately purchased an The Annotated Alice,which features both stories of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass. Later she purchased another copy of the annotated Alice. She created a book mark, with the most recent image suggested for the park, strung charms of a tea party to it and presented it to Jerry. Her daughter who is the owner of Diliberto Photo and Design helped. She had so much fun searching for all of these elements and putting them together in this very classy package.
She has sculpted quite a few deceased loved ones. It is her specialty, and she develops a certain connection to the loved ones. In 2014 the Texas Country Reporter came out and created a wonderful segment on this part of her artwork. You can see it on this YouTube video. You could say when doing this type of artwork… she develops a relationship with the deceased, and though she had never known Evelyn, she became friends with her as she created the sculpture for the Jewish Community Center.
Not long after beginning the sculpture of Evelyn in 2012 she began to create digital designs to present to the Rubensteins. She had several designs that she spent hours on and never presented. The one design that had her was Alice. She just kept coming back to Alice.
The interesting thing is that, originally the Rubensteins did not want just a random sculpture, they wanted another portrait of Evelyn. Over time, Bridgette’s thoughts about Alice and her friends won the heart of the Rubensteins. The sculpture has morphed between she and her client, will be a destination spot when people come to Houston. Visitors will enjoy the interaction and the most coveted dining experience in Texas. Evelyn would be proud for all that it represents, family, imagination, literature, creativity, and fun.
Over the next three years, Bridgette modified the designs, and Alice grew from a life-size sculpture to a monumental sculpture with the mad hatter being 8-9 feet tall. At one point she and the Rubensteins talked about making the table much, much larger to accomodate more guests, but instead they brought the size down to this intimate size. Originally she had designed the sculpture to be a mix of materials-bronze and faux bois. Faux bois is concrete that is made to look like wood. The table and benches would be this faux bois. The first designs of the project were going to be a collaboration between Bridgette and two master faux bois artists Donald Tucker and Cindee Klement. The work of these masters is nothing less than yummy, but the client changed the material, desiring all bronze.
In the last of the project designs, Bridgette had created and suggested an additional sculpture of Evelyn on a faux bois bench petting a large grey poodle. The Rubensteins had just lost their long time furry companion and because she loves dogs and also specialize in pet memorials. She thought this might be a good addition to the park. She still hope that one day this additional piece will be added to the park. She loves the idea of Evelyn sitting back and watching everything that was taking place in her special wonderland, and she thought kids would love to interact with the dog as much as the other art. But budget and time were an issue, and they narrowed it down to the characters, table, benches, and podium with the book. To sculpt all of this in such a short amount of time is still a massive undertaking. You can watch the creation of this through this blog and the Finding Alice Facebook Page
The idea of hiding things in the wood was an early decision of the artist. At first she was not going to tell anyone. When she found out it was the 150th anniversary of the story, the “150” becomes a personal challenge for her. Plus, after reading the annotated Alice she realized there were so many hidden things in Lewis Carroll’s original story that she would have much from which to choose. She is delighted to be writing two books on this project one about he process from start to finish and documenting all of the technology used in the creation. The Alice Process book will be very similar to her new book coming called 3D Technology in Fine Art and Craft: Exploring 3D Printing, Scanning, Sculpting and Milling. Unlike the 3D Tech in Fine art book, which features artists and work from all over the world, this new book will feature just the art and technology used in Alice, She can’t wait to show you, as it is pretty incredible.
The other book she will create, after the sculpture is done being sculpted and off to the foundry, is a field guide written in Rhyme and riddle. It is about the 150 hidden elements. Note: this does not mean just 150 hidden things. There are meanings behind the pieces that are a part of the hidden elements. So, take out your Annotated Alice,and watch the process of creating this sculpture. You will have to brush up on these things to be able to completely fill in all of the spaces in the field guide. She will talk about that more on that in a later blog post.
A design is only a design. An artist must sell the idea to their client, and help their client to become so much a part of the creative process that they are invested. In the a case like “Move One Place On” for Evelyn’s Park, which is the title of this sculpture, there are many other things that play a part in when a job can begin. There were committee meetings, city council, permits, budgets, revising designs, modifying estimates, finding vendors, etc, etc. Many of these things were totally out of the artist’s hands. All these needed to be taken care of before things could be finalized with the sculpture. These final details took place on July 3rd,
That means that Bridgette worked for three years on designs, proposals, presentations, budgets, estimates, and revised estimates, enlargements, and changes. She had thought and proclaimed that the project would start “next month” for these three years. There were so many hold ups that she was sure all of her friends and family thought she had made the entire commission up. Believe me, she like Alice, began to wonder if it were all just a part of a dream. She is elated to pronounce that the project officially began on July 3, 2015 the day before the actual 150th anniversary of Alice in Wonderland. What a fitting tribute.
So now you know the morphing and history of this project. Stay tuned to the blog and to the Finding Alice Page to see how we progress from here. If you have not seen the YouTube video on the project, it describes some of the ins and outs of the project and technology better than can be explained right here. Get ready… this should be a curious adventure. Thanks for coming down the rabbit hole with me.
Expanding Your Horizons In Math And Science – Lewis Carroll And Art
This past weekend I had the opportunity, once again, to present with my wonderful friend and studio helper Allison Gonzalez at the Houston Expanding Your Horizon’s Conference for teenage girls.
“Expanding Your Horizons Network is known as the preeminent source for resources and experiences that provide focused engagement of middle school girls from all backgrounds in STEM (science, technology, engineering and math).” Of course–I am an artist and understand the importance of having an A (art) in the STEM curriculum. I am a proponent of STEAM.
I titled my topic- “Art, Technology, Medicine, Math, and Literature”
There is geometry behind my digital sculptures. A great resource for learning about this is through Guerrilla CG videos such as this one on Subdivision Surface Overview.
It was a lot to cover but with my newest art project I could cover it all. I am creating a monumnetal sculpture of the Mad Hatter’s Tea party. I talked about how I created this presentation in the computer using digital programs and also how I work in the studio using traditional and digital processes just as I featured in my new book 3D Technology in Fine Art and Craft: Exploring 3D Printing, Scanning, Sculpting and Milling Focal Press 2015.
We talked a bit about Lewis Carroll and that this is the 150th anniversary of Alice in Wonderland and about how Charles Dodgson ,the real man behind the pen name of Lewis Carroll, was a mathematician. I shared some of the secret math and other things that are in his cool stories. I then shared the math/geometry and code behind my digital artwork.
with code and created in layers.
They played with a layer puzzle.
The girls learned about 3D printing and how it works in layers and the many different applications of 3D printing.
We looked at how 3D scanning works with both laser and light and used pin art to see how the pins made a replica of our hand.I posed the question, if I had smaller and more pins would the detail of the hand be better or worse?
Some of the girls that also attended my presentation last year remember using photogrammetry and a cell phone to scan their feet
We looked at how geometry works in the computer, about the underlying mesh of a 3d piece of art and how if we add more squares to a mesh we are able to sculpt more detail, but we must use more computer memory.
The girls got to see lots of 3D printed pieces and even took one home thanks to the generosity of Lulzbot.
Finally the girls made a Dodecahedron [doh-dek-uh-hee-druh n,]. We Provided a free printable on the Alice In Wonderland Website.
The girls were provided with a list of links that they could use to help them learn about math, 3D and explore on the computer. Below are the links I shared.
I met the people at Lulzbot. They are all
about education and generously donated
some 3D prints that I could give the girls.
The girls came in and out of the room to a series of videos. My choice videos for this presentation were
The Making of the movie Paranorman using 3D Printing
Derby the Dog how a dog got legs using a 3D printer
And another on how they are using 3D printers for body parts
3D Printer Replaces body parts
LINKS GIVEN TO GIRLS – These are from my book 3D Technology in Fine Art and Craft…
Art, Technology, Medicine, Math, and Literature –by Bridgette Mongeon
Be curious- Think Impossible things.
Alice laughed. “There’s no use trying,” she said: “one can’t believe impossible things.”
“I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half-an-hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”
If you want to investigate 3D Technology further, below you will find information and websites.
www.digitalsculpting.net My website on my book and digital technology
www.creativesculpture.com My fine art website.
Free or Inexpensive Gems that Encourage Individuals to Play with Math.
Knot Plot Helps to visualize knots http://www.knotplot.com/download
Surface Evolver Visualizes minimal surfaces http://www.susqu.edu/brakke/evolver/evolver.html
TopMod A topological mesh modeler http://www.viz.tamu.edu/faculty/ergun/research/topology
SeifertView Visualization of Seifert Surfaces http://www.win.tue.nl/~vanwijk/seifertview/
Excellent tutorials on geometry and computation http://www.christopherwhitelaw.us/?p=567
Software
Blender Free- open source 3D Modeling, animating and much more http://www.blender.org *Sculptris Free http://pixologic.com/sculptris Hard surface and organic.
*Daz Studio 3D Free http://www.daz3d.com
Other Free Fun Stuff
JWEEL Free browser based jewelry design program https://www.jweel.com/en/
Autodesk 123 Series Free http://www.123dapp.com/
123D Catch- Scan from your cell phone
123D CNC-Create files for CNC milling
123D Creature- Create creatures using this app
123D Design – Create 3D models using this free app
123D Make – Helps you to make physical models out of designs. 123D Sculpt – Sculpt using your iPad
123D Meshmixer – helps to prepare your files for 3D printing
123D Tinkercad- helps you to design 3D object for printing
Learn Code for Art Processing 2 http://processing.org/
The Annotated Alice Lewis Carroll, John Tenniel, Martin Gardner editor
Bridgette Mongeon is a sculptor, writer, illustrator and educator as well as a public speaker.
Her blog can be found at https://creativesculpture.com.
Follow the artists on Twitter twitter.com/Sculptorwriter
A Sitting For Mad Hatter’s Tea Party
As stated in a previous post, I have been working on a sculpture of Alice and the Mad Hatter. The sculpture called Move One Place On is a monumental bronze sculpture of the tea party featuring several figures from Lewis Carroll’s story. Families can come to the park, sit at the bronze table and have tea with the characters.
Whenever an artist creates a sculpture they need reference. This past weekend we had two photo sittings to obtain reference for the sculpture.
SITTING FOR MAD HATTER CONTINUED
Bridgette Mongeon is a sculptor, writer, illustrator and educator as well as a public speaker.
Her blog can be found at https://creativesculpture.com.
Follow the artists on twitter twitter.com/Sculptorwriter
A Magnum Opus and Celebrating 150 years of Curiosity
I have been sculpting for thirty years, and am now embarking on what I refer to as my magnum opus.
Some readers may have heard me mention this sculpture over the last two years. The project is a larger than life size Mad Hatter Tea Party in bronze. Families can come to visit the sculpture and bring their lunch and join in the tea party. I’ll post more on the location of the park in another post.
I work both digitally, sculpting in the computer and traditionally sculpting in clay. Many times I use both. I just completed a book on these techniques titled 3D Technology in Fine Art and Craft: Exploring 3D Printing, Scanning, Sculpting and Milling. Focal Press 2015. This project uses all of these techniques and more.
I started with a quick digital design. Over the last two years, the digital design has morphed into several different sizes and versions. The design will morph quite a bit more from the digital design, as I take each character and make them my own and sculpt them in clay.
The Scope of the Project
The characters are larger than life measuring approximately 8 feet tall. I revert to the original John Tenniel illustrations for my inspiration. However, the Hatter scene I am creating is really contrary to the original illustration of the Tea Party. In Tenniel’s illustrations, all of the characters are at one end. In my sculpture, Alice, the Hatter, March Hare and Dormouse are spaced out. In fact, each character interacts with a guest that is not yet present at the tea party. The scene needs interaction from visitors to be complete. The sculpture lures individuals to bring a meal and share at the table. The table seats between 6-8 guests. The sculpture titled “Move One Place On” entices visitors to change places in the middle of their visit, just as the characters did in the story.
A Treasure Hunt
There is much more to this scene than meets the eye. Along with the tea party, there is a dedication plaque in the shape of an oversized storybook set upon an old tree trunk. There are small tree stump steps for children to climb to see the words. Sitting on a leaf of this storybook is a mouse that reads the dedication. Moving to the top of the storybook, you will see the feet of a small rabbit jumping into a hole. Move around the tree trunk, and you will not only see a rabbit in the cutaway section of the tree, but you will see a tiny Alice falling down the hole. And so… the treasure hunt begins. Found within all of the bronze pieces in Alice’s Wonderland are many different hidden objects and even more meanings behind each of those objects. How many of these can one find on this curious journey? Well, 150, of course. I have dedicated 150 in honor of the 150th anniversary. On July 4th of this year, the world celebrates the 150th anniversary of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland.
The Schedule
By the official anniversary date of July 4, 2015 I hope to have enough of the scene sculpted so that camera crews can come in and film. My team and I will continue the sculpting. I have awarded the bronze casting to Shidoni Foundry in New Mexico where more documentation of the process will take place. I am working diligently to hit the target date of installation scheduled for summer of 2016. It would be wonderful if that date were close to the 151st anniversary of the story.
New Book Projects
As you may know, I recently completed a book titled 3D Technology In Fine Art and Craft: Exploring 3D Printing, Scanning, Sculpting, and Milling- Publisher Focal Press. I expect this book to come out Summer 2015. It is my goal to use this sculpture, Move One Place On and create two books- for which I am presently seeking a publisher. The first book, is tentatively titled Finding Alice: An Artist’s Curious Journey of Combining Traditional and Digital Art to Create a Monumental Bronze Sculpture. In my previous book, I focused on the many different types of digital technology that I and other artists around the world use to create art. This new book focuses on one job from conception to installation and all of the steps in between. I will be sculpting using the traditional sculpting processes and using some of the digital processes I cover in my previous book. I include even more technology in this project. For example, I created Humpty Dumpty digitally and will have him 3D printed. I will then embed the 3D printed piece in the clay before it goes to the foundry and is cast in bronze. There will be many treasures created this way. The second book in this project is Finding Alice- A Field Guide This book gives clues to the 150 different elements found in the scene. It is written in Carrollian style using such things as rhyme and riddle. In the light of that, let me give your first clues in the Finding Alice Field Guide.
Searching for Lily before the game
A mother to two- they are the same.
Here she reclines-facing east
Believing this many ‘fore morning feast.
This riddle holds four of the 150 elements in the field guide. The book contains a place for an individual to fill in the blanks. I’ll give you these answers. You will have to find the other 146 answers on your own.
1. Who is this character?
The White Queen
2. What is pertinent to the creation of this hidden object?- See Finding Alice- Process book.
She is the White Queen but is also in the image of the artist’s mother.
3. Where is this physical piece located?
I guess I can’t answer this for you as I have not placed her, and how on earth I will get her to face east is going to be a challenge.
4. What is the literary reference?
(Hint—it is a number. Include the sentence written by Carroll.)
Six “Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” (Chapter 5)
Of course, I have been writing the books as I work on the commission. However, I need to place the bronze sculpture before the book is complete. That delay means I won’t have final images of the installation for the book until July 4th 2016 and it does take a while for a book to be published. Maybe the books will be ready by July 4th, 2017? I’ll let you know after I secure a publisher.
Media and Press Page
I am delighted with this project and the work it will entail. If you are interested in publishing a story about the project, I will soon have a media page with some images. I will be adding more images to the page as we progress on the project. If the media page is not up yet, it just means that I have been terribly busy. Just fill out the contact form and I’ll zip some images and information off to you. If you know of anyone who would like to document the creation of this sculpture as a film documentary, please let me know. I think it would make a very interesting film.
Speaking Engagements
I’d be delighted to share the project through speaking engagements and lectures. I’m already planning a speaking tour about art and technology and will be delighted to share this portion. Maybe I’ll even pass on a few more hints for the field guide.
Curriculum
There are many ways that educators can use this sculpture and the works of Lewis Carroll to encourage education in such things as history, literature, and math. Educators can also use the technology and art aspect of this project. The artist will be providing curriculmn associated with this project on this website.
Interns
If you live in the Houston, Texas area and are an artist that is available from March- September and would like to intern on this project, contact me through my contact page. Be sure to let me know your availability and give me links to your work.
Publicist
I’m also looking for an assistant to help with the publicity for this project and will be interviewing individuals immediately.
I’ll share more later, but for now… I must jump in the hole with Alice.
Bridgette Mongeon is a sculptor, writer, illustrator and educator as well as a public speaker.
Her blog can be found at https://creativesculpture.com.
Follow the artists on twitter twitter.com/Sculptorwriter
Having Fun With Alice In Wonderland- Morphing The March Hare
How does a sculpture morph? As I stated in previous posts, sometimes I will create a 3D digital model to work out the design process. This lets my client and I change and modify sizes, placement, interaction and poses. These digital models are done quickly usually using preexisting models that I can change to fit my needs. The photographs on this blog post show the morphing of the March Hare. For the monumental bronze sculpture of Move One Place On- a scene in Lewis Carroll’s book Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland.
I would continue to create the sculpture digitally, but sometimes I just like the feel of the clay. So I then went back down to the traditional studio, my office is upstairs my studio is downstairs. Downstairs I worked on the March Hare, in clay. Besides making the monumental sculpture of this scene I will also be making a number of table-top versions in bronze for sale. Sculpting downstairs in traditional clay and seeing things in a physical form helps me to see how this smaller version will work as well as the interaction of pieces in a physical world.
Once I got something I was interested in, I brought the clay piece back upstairs and scanned him with a 3D scanner. I will need a digital model to enlarge him, but I also did not want to sculpt a tiny cup, saucer and watch traditionally. I put these items into the model in the computer.
I love the action of this piece. Remember also that he is interacting with the visitor, that will be seated on a bench next to him. You also remember that I mentioned in a previous post that I will be hiding things in the sculpture. When you see this sculpture be sure to check out the stump that he is sitting on. I am sure I will be hiding things there. I also have a bunch of other ideas for hidden objects in this piece of the March Hare. I can’t wait to sculpt him life-size. As soon as the other figures are ready I will send the 3D files off for enlargements. Stay tuned.
Bridgette Mongeon is a sculptor, writer, illustrator and educator as well as a public speaker.
Her blog can be found at https://creativesculpture.com.
Follow the artists on Twitter twitter.com/Sculptorwriter
Presentation For a Park
I have been working on this pitch for a life-size bronze sculpture scene that individuals can interact with. This is a quick sketch of a possible design. Do you want to join the Mad Hatter at his tea party? The idea is that you could go to the park and sit at this bench. Each character is created to interact with a real person. My next part of the pitch is to see if I can pose children with this piece.
MY WORK FLOW
The project has been created using a variety of materials and software. Daz 3D models were very helpful, though often not enough. I had to sculpt quite a few things using ZBrush such as the rabbits clothes, his watch, the benches the table and the table clothes, along with the head of the Mad Hatter. Everything else is pretty much Daz 3D. My work flow is to bring Daz 3D characters into Poser and then once posed bring them into ZBrush. I can change the mesh to be able to sculpt on the figures and it gives me a way to expedite the presentation. As in the past, the actual sculptures don’t really look like the people in the scene once it is physically sculpted. For example, if I can convince my client I would like Alice to resemble my daughter when she was that age. Though it is not an exact replica of the planned life-size sculpture it sure helps my client to visualize my presentation.