Sculpture

Don’t you love these air splits! If you notice in the photograph, I brought the accounting lap top downstairs to watch the video. I turned it on, and paused it where I wanted it to be, and then would work on Jenna.

UPSIDE DOWN!
When sculpting, You have to work on areas that many people will never see. It is a good time to do this since her wings are almost ready to attach and after that, this pose would be impossible.

The delicate little hands have been cradled in my own large muscular sculpting hands for most of the day. It makes it much easier to work on them. The hands are roughed in and will be finished today, as the apprentice smooths other areas of her body, especially those legs. I’ll put a type of texture on those tights when she is finished. The two of us will also work on her lace on her bodice. Two people working on this may only take a couple of hours. Once I feel confident about her legs, and tights I will sit her upright and begin the final details, but before attaching wings and hands I want to take a good look at her face one more time. This time with the help of the videos. I can already see some things that I will change a bit, the indentation over both sides of her upper lip, when she holds such a big smile, the position of the teeth, and those special ears.

One would think that the left side of ones body is the same as the right. NOT SO! A sculptor must study both sides and in fact when reference information is not available for both sides of the body and an artist uses one side reference and flips the image to show the missing side the results are never a likeness. I remember one person I sculpted has a left side of her face was at least 1″ wider than the right. In her 70 years she had never really noticed it. I did!

Jenna’s left ear is very different than her right. I’ll be comparing a lot with the videos. We are well on our way to finishing. I know Monday is a holiday, I doubt I’ll be able to get my approval on Monday, so I’ll shoot for approval by Tuesday. Molds will be made on Tuesday evening, unless changes need to be made and I’ll push that to Wed and Thursday. Then Jenna will be off to the foundry for waxes!

No holiday, but Jenna and I will continue to play and I’ll post photographs of her through the weekend.

The small dvd that Jenna’s mom sent won’t work in my laptop mac. I can see it on the mac in the office even on the accounting computer, but because my lap top mac kind of sucks in the dvd it won’t work. So I am up in the office trying to figure out how to copy it. I want to play it while I am working down in the studio. I keep clicking the DVD trying this and that and get caught up in the watching the DVD.

I have had this thought for a while. Listen to the gurgles and mumblings of babies I would like to think that it is a sort of angel talk. Something that we somehow lose as we grow up and learn real taking. I love listening to Jenna’s angel talk.

I keep stopping and observing, the roundness of her ears… Ah there is a perfect shot of her hand, I was working on her hand… look there is the smile. I have to copy this dvd. I love to watch her squeeze the air with her hands, something that she seems to do a lot. the tights are perfect. Now I know I will get the downstairs computer filled with clay while I pause, start and stop this dvd, but first a way to get it down there.

The details in the sculpture of Jenna are coming along. Jenna’s mom sent her birthday dress and I had quite a few pictures of her in this dress. I could not of course show the fine netting material that is over the satin part of the dress, instead I put a pattern in the dress. Showed the little satin material hem peeking out from underneath.I still have a long way to go, the lace in the bodice, and my apprentice will come in and smooth areas that I have sculpted. The bows shown on the dress will be added later in the wax, as they would never make it through the mold process, same with the little roses. I’m attaching the photographs, ( as I did this I accidentally pressed the start button to Jenna’s movies and can hear Jenna talking in the background serenading me).

The sculpted dress has been shortened a bit to accommodate the showing of those dancing legs and her tights. I have changed many things from the foam sculpture. The hand positions are still being worked on and for the most part are in the way when I sculpt so I will attach them permanently later. Jenna’s feet are so expressive and I found a way that she bends her toe backwards in excitement. It accentuates the rolls in her tights. I have worked a bit on this with her right foot and like it. But my attention is really on the dress for right now, then I will move to her legs and arms, and back to her face and head. I think she would really like to have her hair now and feel compelled to put it in. Today is Thursday, I feel I will be able to ask for approval by Monday of next week. If I keep going at the pace that I am.

Jenna and I continue to spend quality time together. The photographs provided by her mom have been put in sleeves to protect them from the bits of clay that go on, and come off of the sculpture. Add, take away, add take away. It is a constant process. The photographs are everywhere. I am often searching for the perfect photograph to show me just what proportion I want.

Jenna’s dress hangs from a hanger on the other side of the room. A constant reference.

Some changes. I moved her left arm back a bit and shortened the dress in the middle. I think with it short it ads to her smallness. She will be wearing tights, maybe I can show a diaper underneath. Still in the design stages. I’m working from the top down, still have to work on the back of her head and indicate some hair, what little she had. onto the right sleeve and arm and then the dress.

Working on Jeanna’s face this morning I watched her morph from photograph to photograph, two teeth and then more. I thought about her teething and wondered how many teeth should show. Later I’ll take a close up of Jenna to show the mom. In the end, and for now her mouth is open and shows most of her teeth on top. It is funny that many sculptors hate to sculpt open mouths. I am not sure why and some will say they don’t look natural. They are hard to cast, but not impossible. I could see Jenna no other way. It seemed like she had to have that smile.

It will be a few days before I am ready to call or e mail Jenna’s mom and say, “approve this.” It is still a process. I state that just in case Jenna’s mom is reading this blog and watching the process, and if she is I must say, Can’t you hear the giggles, we are having a great time together.

oh yes,

hubby came into the studio a bit ago. I said, “I’ll be right back,” I had to run to the house for something. He replied, “no problem, I’ll keep an eye on the baby.”

I Need to order some foam pieces that I can carve to show her headstone. So that we can get a feel as to how that will work with her, but first, back to playing with Jenna.

Let it be known that on May 19, 2008 at around 2:45 pm I found Jenna!

There is a point that I try to reach with each of my sculptures. No matter what the subject, if it is from life or a sculpture created in memory of someone. The point I am speaking of is their appearance. The moment that I have coaxed them from the clay.

I have her. The ahhha. My husband has come into the studio at least 3 times in the last 24 hours and said , “it is looking like her.” But there is a moment for me, the moment was with her chin, I added a little clay and then I looked at her and she looked right back at me. TAAA DAAA! The moment never ceases to amaze me.

This element is very important to me, even if there are changes that occur after this moment it does not matter. It is a settling within myself the connection between subject and artist has been formed.

Another thing. When sculpting you can get so involved with the details, lets use for example an eye. But unless you can do both, be involved with the details and often pull yourself back and see the entire picture then you may work a long time on something only to find that it really never went with the entire picture. I have been thinking a lot about that. Somehow there is a metaphor for life there. The small stuff, the details are important, but work on them as you keep looking at the entire picture. Don’t lose site of the entire picture. The details make more sense that way.

I’ll try to post some pictures soon.

This presentation always happens with the face. I have worked diligently for the last 24 hours with Jenna’s head in my lap, turning her every direction. Here is another metaphor for life. If you are not sure how things should be, turn them upside down and take a look, you often will see things that don’t fit or are out of place.
All it is takes looking at things from another direction.

I have reattached Jenna and can’t wait to begin pulling her all together. Got to go, its very exciting.

Welcome to the studio Jenna!

It came to my attention that Jenna will be created in 90 days. Not that I counted on a calendar but that along with starting the Jenna sculpture and needing to have them both by the trip to Vermont on August 24th. I am also doing a new sunday school class with my sunday school. For those of you who don’t know I am a teacher, or what I call facilitator of a senior citizen Sunday school Class at my church. I say Facilitator, because most those people have a tremendous amount of wisdom and I don’t feel I can easily say, “I am your teacher.”

anyway, we are going to read the bible, yes the entire bible in 90 days! Cover to cover. It was suggested by our pastor and is really a program that was developed and that we are using. I have read the entire bible, but never cover to cover like this. So As I travel to Vermont with the Jenna, and Dick Hathaway sculptures I will have this other accomplishment as well.

Jenna,
Dick Hathaway
and the bible in 90 days!

The Jenna sculpture and I played all day, or should I say most of the day. I picked up the Jenna foam armature from the supplier. I will go into this process in more detail at a later date, as I have written about it recently in a national magazine and cannot write about it for a few months. ONWARD

The foam had to be modified look more like Jenna and that meant new tools! The foam makes a mess, but I kept my air tank on to blow myself off, and the vacuum nearby. I cover the foam with hot wax to seal it and keep the grit from getting into the foam. Then it is covered with hot clay that is melted in crockpots. I worked until about 10:00pm trying to get the basic shape of Jenna and added a fake butterfly just to get the “feel” of her. Before I ended I started on her face, that is the element that “captures” her. Jenna’s mom sent wonderful material to work from. This is so important when doing posthumous sculpture and it is vital when you are doing children. They change so quickly that often parents send reference material that is from several different ages and makes my job very hard. Not so with Jeanna. I have video, photographs and much more. I am sorry I have not posted the photograph of her face. I’ll post more later in the day. Once again I am aiming for an approval on this sculpture by next week. I need to do that in order to bring her to the northeast with the Dick Hathaway sculpture.