Rolling Around Dick

Last night I sat on my rolling gardening stool at Dick’s feet and began to look at the armature in an entirely different way. I noticed earlier while Jennifer was putting clay on the piece, it was hard to keep my hands off of it. I feel possessed, in a way. The creative and artistic person in me grabs the knife and I cut off an inch here add clay there.

Even in the afternoon I turned to Jennifer and asked where the armature now deep beneath foam and clay was welded. I instructed her to cut off the clay and foam and then I picked up the grinder and ground off pieces of rebar here, took the reciprocating saw and began to change the design, modest changes but changes all the same.

There is a knowing. I don’t know if this is an intuitive knowing as I know anatomy and this needs to go here and that there. Sometimes I feel like I am just a part of a process that is already done. The sculpture of Dick Hathaway already exists someplace else and I am no different than the clay or armature. I am just a part of the process. My mind jumps around elbow, to thigh, leg to shoulder. Certainly this must be attention deficit disorder.

I get frustrated when I misplace a tool for a second, “the knife I must cut where is the knife, and the torch this must come down, where is the torch?” My mind is going a mile a minute. I was going to try and do much of this while Jennifer was there so I could say, “Add about two inches here.” But I don’t know if she would be frustrated with me. I add, I take away, I add again, sometimes in the same spot or close to it. I’m working on Dick’s right side, but I must take all of Dick in, right side, top bottom left side, back. Jump around to make sure that it looks like it goes together. We have a long way before we are finalizing details.

I think of the shoes. I went to a thrift store to look for some shoes. Didn’t find the sneakers that I wanted. I’m going to go back. They won’t be Dicks but they are real and I can copy them. I love it when the sculpture seems to morph from the feet upward.

Today the foundry called. The waxes of Lucas are ready for pick up. Jennifer came along with me to have a tour of an art foundry. Upon returning we put Lucas on the table, in pieces ready for Miguel, my other apprentice to work on them. Some day Dick will be in this same shape. I look forward to that day, because that means that we have raised the $9,000. That is needed to finish this project.

We are still beating the torso into shape. Reciprocating saw, torch, bending this adding here, taking off there, taking and adding until we find Dick’s Torso.