Sculpture

Continuing our work on the Praying Man for Dallas Baptist University. You can find their project blog on Blogspot.

Once again ,we move the praying man higher. This saves me from having to roll around on the studio floor.  The Christmas holiday is upon us and my interns have been very accommodating  God bless them all. I do love my alone time with the sculpture.  It is the time where we get to know each other better.  To meet this deadline I’m averaging 14 hour days.  I stagger the interns but am thankful for all of the time they give me when they could be with their families. Thanks for stopping by to visit the studio, be sure to check your shoes when you leave, you don’t want to track any of this clay home and onto your carpets. 

There are so many elements to this sculpture. There is the man, the chair, the cushion, the floor, the placement of the hands and arms, and the creases in the chair, the folds in the pants. We keep putting things together and creating and then taking them apart and working on them.

Continuing our work on the Praying Man for Dallas Baptist University. You can find their project blog on Blogspot.

I love sculpting hands.  I have always loved sculpting them. Interestingly enough, if I am doing a life-size sculpture of someone, it is not only their face that must be spot on, but their hands as well. I have a strong attraction to hands. Is it because touch is so important in what I do?  Someone asked me if I would create a hand sculpting tutorial. I certainly will, and will add that link here as soon as things slow down. 

Continuing our work on the Praying Man for Dallas Baptist University. You can find their project blog on Blogspot.

OK well not flipping out, it is  more like flipping over.  Another thing that interns help me with is smoothing the clay.  Often times I’ll work late into the evening, adding clay and taking away, and they come in the next day only to have to clean up a mess and smooth out the clay.  Slowly we begin to add the details into the sculpture, the folds are a key to making the sculpture look like it is real and has action.  They take a lot of work.  

Continuing our work on the Praying Man for Dallas Baptist University. You can find their project blog on Blogspot.

Continuing our work on the Praying Man for Dallas Baptist University. You can find their project blog on Blogspot. I love reference. It is important for me to have something to look at. This shoe reference came from Sears. Yes, I bought shoes so that we could look at their shape.  

Meanwhile… We had an entire crew working on fabricating a rocker.  

Continuing our work on the Praying Man for Dallas Baptist University. You can find their project blog on Blogspot.

Heads are always created separately from the body and then added to the sculpture.  How is it added?  I pound  long rods through the head and body.  Though I am working on it in another location of the studio, the interns are adding wax and clay to pieces, and we are pulling them together. From time to time,  I’ll add the head to the body and step back.  It is necessary to make all of the pieces in proportion to the others. A perfect head that is the wrong size compared to the body is totally useless.  So, I am constantly checking proportions by putting the head on and then taking it off again to work on it.

Originally the chair in the sculpture was going to be created in wood; however, my vendor surprised me with a foam chair. It was ok for positioning, but later another helper would create a wooden chair from scratch.  It was a real team effort on this project.

Today is my birthday and as a gift the foam has arrived to start sculpting on the project. There is still much to be done with the foam. We have to put all of the foam pieces together, shave, and sand down what I don’t want, and cover the foam pieces with wax.

When you have many interns on a project, there are multiple things happening at the same time.  After roaming and searching for just the right texture for the floor of this sculpted scene, I have found wood that will work.  I prefer to have a wooden base rather than a sculpted base as the floor gets much use from moving things on and off. One of my interns comes in and makes a rolling base for the sculpture and the floor.  James, another intern spray paints the base a brown color. I like to have everything the same color as the clay that I am using. It helps me to see the projects as a uniform piece and offers less visual distraction. I also think it helps the client to see the sculpture.  James also fills in the cracks.

Continuing our work on the Praying Man for Dallas Baptist University. You can find their project blog on Blogspot.

Upon my arrival back to Houston, I realize that the next few weeks, which also happen to be holidays, will be extremely busy. I warn my family that I might not be able to do much during the holidays.

We have already planned The Upside Down Christmas Party and Art Show.  It is a tradition for the studio.  We hang the tree from the ceiling, and it is decorated from anything on your person, in your car or found.  The party is pretty much planned, and the visiting artist has their work hung.

The first part of the DBU job takes place in my computer and not in the studio. I’m up in the office on the computer gettings files ready. I know once the party is over we will have our physical materials to create this work of art.

The first job is to create a digital model of the sculpture so that I can have it enlarged quickly.  My traditional vendor for this project is Synappsys Digital Services in Oklahoma, but on such a quick deadline, I decide to use a local vendor.  Mental note: never use a new vendor on a tight deadline.

My job while working in the computer is to sculpt the folds so these will translate into the foam when it enlarged. This will save me lots of time when sculpting.

The chair is also recreated digitally. It was originally going to be milled in wood.  I cannot even list the amount of problems we had in recreating this beloved chair during the holidays on such a tight deadline.  I will end with saying it was with determination and an act of love that this chair came into being.

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