Sculpture

I have been focusing on Dick Hathaway’s sneakers. I took his right sneaker off and replaced it with a Folgers can for the time being. I love working on shoes. Florencia has been helping and in the studio just about every day. I am so thankful for her assistance. I don’t know how I would be able to finish the project on time. Though until we have further funding for casting I have no real deadline. I just want to be able to show the completed sculpting for my graduation scheduled for November 1, 2006.

I miss working on Dick but find that I need to work on the proportions alone. My brain goes so fast and I jump around so much that I need the focus and concentration. At night is a good time to work. But I have yet to really get back to the torso. I did put on the left hand; at least I began to rough it in. I hesitate in putting pictures of it on the web because I don’t know if others can see the finished product, but then that is what process writing is all about. Strange now that the hand is on he feels more alive, more talkative. The previous photo that I took of myself, where Dick appeared in the background proved that.

A rod attaches the hand. You can see the rod sticking out of Dick’s hand. If you remember the entire arm has rebar in it. So I stuck this rod through his hand and then pounded it into the arm. Quickly adding wax and clay between the two to secure the hand. I hate to get in the studio in the morning to find that the hand is fallen off.

The rebar in the arm causes me some concern. I wish I could reposition it a bit, but instead I try to manipulate the foam and rubber around it to bring his elbow in and down a bit.

This entire left side of Dick has been difficult because of not having good reference photographs but now that I have them it should move along quickly, if I could find the time to get downstairs to the studio.

I seem to be overcome with this black book writing. I am writing the final pages today and hope to get the rest of it off to the proofreader this weekend. My it is a great deal of work. I get down into the studio to work on Dick in the evenings. It was interesting that when this picture was taken I thought, “Hmmm looks like a never ending lecture from Dick Hathaway.” I like working downstairs in the evenings, I can turn the TV on and put myself in a different position than sitting in front of the screen working on the black book all day long. I can hardly believe this final semester is coming to an end.

It has been a while since the last Dick Hathaway post. I have been busy doing my writing for graduation. Still not done, but Dick was getting lonely down in the studio and my new apprentice Florencia was anxious to get going. So I have taken a break today to get back to Dick Hathaway. I sat down with Dick and had a chat, he understood perfectly. Getting my work done for residency is a priority.

Have I said how much I jump around while working on a sculpture? I think it made Florencia a bit nervous. Add a bit here and then work on this section, and yet there are section of Dick that have not been touched and in those cases I force myself not to look at them until I need to or until they affect something else that I am working on. When there are no more spots to jumps around to, I know I will be finished.

While working on Dick’s arms I began to notice that he wore a watch. Opposite wrist as mine, he wore his on his right wrist. I wondered what type of watch Dick Hathaway would have, would it be a Mickey Mouse watch, or would he be more formal? I also wondered how he felt about time. Are there any hathawayisms concerning time?

Hathawayisms provided with permission from Tom Slayton

        It was that amazing combination of brilliant wit, deep learning, and blather,  that would turn a cymbidium orchid into what he called, “An iris that’s gone Episcopalian,” a bottle of ginseng tablets into “a placebo for intellectuals,” a plastic case for Star Wars figures as “a post-industrial fantasy item,”

“It is my job to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.”

Hathawayism provided by Linda G

(Picture is a jar from Dick’s office)

Hathawayism
“My body is just something I use to carry around my head.”

A comment Dick used concerning exercise

I hope I have that hathawayism correct

I have not been back to work on the sculpture of Dick in over a week, instead I am writing about the process of finding Dick Hathaway and sculpting the deceased. Hopefully Dick and I will be reunited in a week or so. Until then I thought it appropriate to post a picture or two of our beloved friend and professor. Hey Dick, what’s cooking?

Jennifer is gone but, before she left she and I were able to make our way ½ way around Dick- his right hand and foot, right arm and leg. I’m taking a break from the sculpting to spend my days writing my black book for school- writing and sculpting. I have had this little dance my entire life. When I am sculpting I think of things I want to write and when writing I wish I were back sculpting. The push pull is not as bad as it used to be when I was younger. Now I enjoy the time doing each, and know the other ferments inside of me. It builds my passion to write or to sculpt.

This writing does give me less time to think on Dick and on Charlotte. I feel myself emotionally and physically distancing myself from them when I am upstairs in the office writing instead of down in the studio.

I have interviewed a new apprentice. We will see how that works out.

The shirt on the side and part of back, as well as part of the pants on the right side of Dick have been roughed in and are ready for Jennifer to smooth out. The legs are far from being done.

I have added the roughed in right hand to see how the entire side works together. I am debating about making the right hand a bit higher and need to decide this, but major reconstruction and cutting of the underlying metal will have to be done to accommodate this. I have put the roughed in shoe under Dick. When the shoe is not there a coffee can supports the weight of Dick Hathaway. I can’t wait to get going on this lower leg. Now, with the shoe in place, I’ll be thinking about the entire area, shoe, pants, leg and right arm/hand. Everything is worked on while I look at my reference photographs of my fellow classmate that posed for me. YOU NEVER HAVE ENOUGH REFERENCE! Plus some of the pictures of the classmate pose has small changes that probably only I notice. And the left arm is not in the position that I would like so I have to be very creative with the other arm and hand. Presently no work has been done on the left arm and hand.

Jennifer groaned a little as she began to smooth out Dick. She is off on Tuesday so I am anxious to see how far she will get with smoothing out Dick through the week before her last day on Friday. Jennifer’s internship is a nonpaid internship and this has helped me tremendously in being able to donate my $16,000 to this project.