Praying Man- Dallas Baptist University

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

Before the final date of reviewing the sculpture I jotted down some of my thoughts. I sent them to the DBU and thought I would share them here.

To: Dr. Gary Cook, Dr. J. Blair Blackburn, and Shannen Smith
Gentlemen,Thank you for this opportunity to work on this project for Dallas Baptist University. This was the crunch time. It was essential to get this sculpted as quickly as possible so that the sculpture could go into the foundry process. We had a dedicated team working on the job. We had interns from two colleges and one high school student along and three assistant sculptors.

Even with such a time crunch, creativity and education are motivations behind each sculpture. I thought you would be pleased to know that your piece was an excellent learning process for our group. I am elated with the commitment, compassion and the creation completed in less than 30 days.

THE PROCESS

As soon as I can catch my breath a bit, and the sculpture is at the foundry. I will be documenting the work that was done with pictures. I’ll do this on a private blog where you can see the process. We can make it public after the unveiling. I did want to share some of my thoughts, prayers and what I feel are creative revelations as I proceeded with the piece.

You have a “God given talent”, people say. I humbly agree that the passion that comes from my hands is greater than the human artist. My creative process is one filled with revelation. I feel the Holy Spirit speaks to my heart, and somehow that Spirit comes through my hands. I wanted to share a bit of that with you, as well as the pictures that you requested I send before you come.After approval, it will take a week to get the sculpture through the beginning of the foundry process. To do this we need to cut the man and chair into about 10-15 pieces. At this time, we work on some more detail and smoothing. It is a lot easier smoothing the underside of something when it is a small piece and flipped on a table as you sit upright rather than reaching around appendages or balancing upside down.

If you would like to familiarize yourself with the foundry process here is a link where I have documented it for others- Mold making https://creativesculpture.com/mold.htmlWax https://creativesculpture.com/wax.htmlMetal and finishing https://creativesculpture.com/metal.htm
THE CHAIR
Originally, when I spoke with Shannen Smith about creating this sculpture on such a tight deadline, the plan was to visit stores in Houston and find the appropriate chair. That way I did not have to worry about sculpting a chair and only needed to focus on the man. However, we all know that the chair became a sentimental and important aspect for DBU.

I must admit, that if you were to suggest a rocker before we started I would have said it was not a good design idea. The arms of the chair would hide what is happening, and be a visual distraction. I fell in love with Dr. Cook’s rocker after seeing it.

Someone at DBU asked me what rockers mean to me. They have so much meaning. When I was young, everyone had a rocking chair in his or her home. It was where your parents comforted you, read you stories at night, taught you, and listened to you. I recently said to my daughter, who is now pregnant with her child, “You need a rocker, something with arms that will help you to hold and cradle your baby in the wee hours.” That is what I did with her.

I picture this praying man resting his bible on the arms of this chair as he searches the Word and contemplates them in his heart.

I have a wicker rocking chair on the porch of my studio. This is my favorite place of meditation. I rock and look at my pond and wait for God to speak to my heart.It is safe to say that I have an emotional involvement with Dr. Cook’s rocking chair. It is a good thing I am invested in the rocking chair, because recreating the rocking chair was as much work as creating the man. We had an entire “team” working on just the rocker.The pieces were at first, created separately. I knew what I wanted, and could see them together in my mind, but I could hardly wait to put them together, to unite praying man with the rocker.

I realized some things after the man was added to the rocker• Though I feared the arms of the chair would distract from the sculpture, once I placed the man, I realized they cradled him.

• This space between the arms was a physical representation of his prayer closet.

• This is the same place he will sit later waiting and listening for God to speak to his heart.

• Though it was extremely difficult to reach inside this area, the place, smooth, and sculpt, I had the feeling it was a sacred space.

I am sorry we lost the view of the man through the back. I’m sending it in this correspondence. It is one of my favorite views, but again, an intimate glance into a special place of a man and his God.Technical note: There are dowels in the lower half of the back of the chair that is visible in these pictures as well as screw holes. These will not be in the bronze version. They are necessary to disassemble the chair for the mold making process. Please try to overlook these. We also did not have access to a lathe to put the detail in front of the chair. If I can do this in the wax I will, but with the time crunch I may have to let this go.

There is still much work to be done on the chair. James smooths out the base of the chair to represent wood and then Antoinette painstakingly adds many, many carpet tacks.  We also have a studio visitor.  An intern brings a family Christmas present. OK we might not have gotten as much work done when Daisy arrived, but I really enjoyed having her. 

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.

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.