Sculpture
Raising The Tiger
The winch is in place and takes little effort to raise such a massive structure. There is, however, a balancing act. We have decided for both the safety of myself and the interns not to put the tiger on all of the rocks while working on it. You can see by the digital sketch there is a good 3 feet of rock that we have from the bottom of the lowest foot to the bottom of the sculpture. This has already been sculpted and the sections come apart so that we don’t have to raise the tiger on the entire rock to sculpt it. Instead, the lowest foot will rest on a rolling base while we sculpt. The other two paws will be put on the individual rocks they go with. The lower portion of rock will be added at the foundry.
is sitting on a ledge that is about 3′ off of the ground.
This ledge is not. under the
cat at the warehouse but off to the side.
We are doing this for a couple of reasons. One is the safety of being so high when we are working on a piece. The other is that is much hotter at the top of the warehouse than it is on the ground. This clay will melt at a higher temperature and so we are opting for this solution. Actually, I have to commend my vendor who milled my design in foam. It was a good solution to a problem I had not anticipated.
finishing of the sculpting.
Installation Of Dallas Baptist Sculpture
How wonderful to receive this email from Dallas Baptist University executive Vice president Blair Blackburn. Glad to see it now has a name “Called to Pray.” I really enjoyed this piece. Prayer has always been important in my life and it was a blessing to be able to put that in a sculpture.
Stay tuned to how you can purchase a small replica of this statue. We are working on that now.
Bridgette,
Thank you for your faithful dedication to complete the “Called to Pray” sculpture for Dallas Baptist University. We are grateful to God for your partnership to advance the Christ-centered mission of DBU as we seek to transform the lives of our students as servant leaders.
On April 6, we celebrated the 25th Anniversary of Dr. Gary Cook as President of DBU. We have enjoyed this wonderful milestone in Dr. Cook’s presidency and in the life of the University. I want to share with you the pictures of the “Called to Pray” sculpture as it is currently mounted in the garden and will be for years to come.
Bridgette, the students marveled at the new “Called to Pray” statue dedicated in Dr. Cook’s honor as they entered the sanctuary for Dr. Cook’s 25th Anniversary Chapel Service on April 8. We are so grateful to you for your creative talents, led by the Holy Spirit, to craft this sculpture for the DBU Family. The “Called to Pray” statue will stand as a tribute to Dr. Cook’s legacy as a spiritual leader, but more importantly, this symbol will serve to remind all of us to be on our knees, submitting to the Father’s will and seeking His direction for our lives.
We enjoyed working with you on this special project. Thank you so much for diligently working with your team to accomplish this task in a remarkable amount of time.
Bridgette, your investment will forever shape the generations of students to come to study and to be transformed on University Hill. May the Lord abundantly bless you as you serve Him through your time, talents, and relationships.
Sincerely,
Blair Blackburn
I have moved on to a new project that is as consuming, if not more so than “Called to Pray” . Having this e-mail come in today really raised my spirits as my head is spinning with the new project and raising a 13 1/2 foot tiger in a warehouse space. Here is the project blog on the Grambling State University Tiger project, for those who are interested in following along with my work.
Moving The Tiger
Well we have moved the entire studio. The cat was muzzled and all of the sculpted pieces wrapped. Remember we have to move, not only the pieces, but an entire studio to another location. Our reason for this is to be able to lift the tiger on a wench and put it together. We still have not sculpted the torso and we need to see how all of the pieces go together. If all goes well we will only be in the new space a short amount of time. Grambling has been notified that we expect that the final approval will take place in the next 3 weeks. Then the tiger must go through the bronze process.
everything into the space. But then we had to come back in
and get things organized.
the floors and our different work areas set up.
We Are Moving The Beast!
Here we are at the first of May and we have the following sculpted:
1. A very large rock
2. 4 incredibly large paws and legs, with tiger stripes
3. 1 large tail- with tiger stripes
4. 1 large head growling- with tiger stripes
to give us a bit more space when sculpting pieces. It will
be nice to uncover it again. We will however, miss eating
lunch at the pond. Instead we will be eating in a dark
warehouse.
The only thing left is for us to put the pieces together and carve and sculpt the torso of the tiger. This means we need 13 1/2+ foot clearance, which we do not have in my studio. So, we are moving. Yes, Sunday morning we will be hauling sculpted paws, rocks, tail and heading to another location and assembling them in the warehouse.
1/2 of the torso. it got wedged between a tree and a waterfall.
Waiting for male interns to come rescue us from the situation.
This may be a foam armature, but the reinforcement inside is
making it very, heavy.
This is a little unnerving as I don’t want to harm any of the work that we have already done, but it is also a part of the process.
We will miss the atmosphere of my studio. We love to have lunch at the pond with the turtles, instead we will be in the belly of a large, non air conditioned warehouse space, with no windows.
We are motivated to finish this last part quickly as there is no air conditioning in the warehouse, and we are in Texas, and it does get hot, and my clay melts! So the clock is ticking. The final countdown begins.
The hoist has been installed in the new/old warehouse space. I am happy to report no one was injured hanging this hoist 20 feet in the air. I have had nightmares about this part. I must say, when looking up at how high this sculpture is going to stand I say the same thing over and over, “That is a really big cat!”
in the warehouse. We are
lifting the tiger next week!
I’ll be sure to post some pictures.
Moving
One of my interns and I tried moving the back end of the tiger foam, and well… it is very heavy and we are waiting for ( male ) assistance as we now have it wedged between a tree and a waterfall. This rear end is headed to a welder to modify the armature. Then it will be brought to the new location with the rest of the pieces on Sunday.
Our goal is to get the sculpting done and the sculpture approved in 3-4 weeks, or less. Remember we are motivated by working in the heat. Then we will take the sculpture apart and send it through the foundry process.
This is the tiger mascot created for Grambling State University. This entire process can be found on this blog by searching the category Grambling Tiger. You may also visit the process blog created for this project at http://gramblingtiger.blogspot.com/
STUDENT, TEACHER AND ALUMNI CHALLENGE
While visiting the Houston Alumni group I was able to hear their song and some of their cheers. Boy, when we are working late nights in the studio, being able to listen to a cheer would be just the thing to get us into that tiger mode. So here is your challenge. Shoot a creative video of yourself or a group doing a cheer and send it to us so we can listen and post it on the blog. Be creative. Show us something that depicts your school spirit and help to make this tiger roar.
Spending Time On The Head And Paws
behind the Tiger?
We have lots of paws and legs around the studio. I’m alternating from head to paws. Here is the progress from the last few days.
My Distractions
I’m not always sculpting. It is true that I have a life beyond the Grambling tiger, though I have to say, the tiger holds a great deal of my attention, even in my dreams. My biggest distraction is the birth of my new granddaughter Issabella, but you could say that we sacrificed her to the Grambling Tiger as well. Now don’t get upset with me, I didn’t come up with this idea on my own. It was my daughter who thought of it as we were wandering around the studio looking at the progress. Christina is a very creative person, and by the way, my photographer from Diliberto Photo and Design. We both kind of made up with the idea of putting Issa in the mouth of the tiger.
Presented The Tiger Process At The Houston Alumni Group
This past Saturday I went to the Houston Grambling Alumni group to present how the sculpture is coming along. The best part was to hear the school cheer. I think everyone enjoyed the presentation. I volunteered to come back and to show more slides when it was further along.
“How can we get involved,”someone from the group asked. Well if you are following the blog you know that we have been looking for warehouse space to put the sculpted tiger together. That means I have to move my entire studio. So we may need helping moving the tiger pieces and the studio to the “temporary” location. Moving within the next week or so.
Sorry I don’t have pictures, I thought I saw someone taking pictures, if they want to send them to me I’d be happy to post them on this post.
The Dedication Of The Praying Man
The Rock
The rock is pretty much complete, thanks to the wonderful milling at Across the Board Creations They were able to take my digital model of the rocks and enlarge it along with the cat. It has come in sections so that we can take different sections of the rock down and work on the paws attached to the rock. We painted the rock to look the same color as the clay.
for injuries or death caused by interacting with this sculpture.
Do as I say, not as I do. It is very tempting.
a few sitting ledges for photo opportunities. I will need to
check these out. I like the design of the rock digitally, but
seeing it this large gives me an opportunity to inspect how
it works in real life. We painted it the same color as the clay.
This will help both my client and I to see how they
work together.
it works with the top most paw.
in about the same position as it is in the picture
where I am pretending to climb.