Approval and on to the next part.

My client came by today and brought his wife to see the mom and baby sculpture. As I said before he was creating this for her for her birthday. She loved it and was so surprised. I’m glad I could give her something to remember her birthday by, but sad that I could not send her home with the bronze today. It was important to me to work hard for her to have something to look at on her birthday. It was a long night but I did it and both she and her husband seemed pleased. I think it is a good piece and I am glad it is going bronze limited edition of ten. The other detailed version will not be going to bronze until I find a buyer for it.

I also received approval for the bust of the man shown below. So they will both going into the foundry process next week.

simplified!

After days of doing the detailed version of the mom and baby I spent the night working on the simplified version. Ugggg… I groaned, searching for inspiration in contemporary sculpture books. Funny it feels like I had to get the detailed version, the emotions and passion from it to get capture that it the simplified version. Hubby came in and said, try this, this and this. I don’t think it was anything anyone had to say or advise. I just think sometimes you need to spend time with a piece. Enough time and enough pushing and you get to what you were after, even if you never knew what that was supposed to be when you started.

I also though I would post this little tiny head from the other version. I always think it is funny when I am holding a tiny little body part in my hand. I think I am just drawn to miniature things- dollhouses, and stories of little people.

Murmurings on mom and baby

Is it mother and baby or midwife in baby in this logo? I wonder, and yet the mother in me says it is mother. My child is 22, last month, graduated from college and headed off to live on her own, but staying with us for the summer. What a long journey from that moment of adoration, connection, dependency. The rest of the journey is spent breaking away, growing yes, but breaking away. This commission comes at an appropriate time and I fine myself reminiscing and thinking about many different things. What this logo depicts is an incredible moment, unlike any other. I remember the world could have disappeared. It might have even done so as I sat in the hospital 22 years ago. I want to stop working on this and then create a simplified version, now that I have found the passion and the connection, the movement I just can’t stop working on this sculpture.

If would have had more time, I could have simplified this sculpture

I wanted to create the mom and baby sculpture in a more contemporary style. It would force me to “Work outside the box.” Mark Twain once said, “If I would have had more time I would have written you a shorter letter.” Ah, I can identify with that in writing, I also identify with that in sculpting. If I had more time I could have simplified it. Here I am two days before my client is to come to the studio and I have gone from a quick contemporary sketch to a detailed piece. I could do it again and simplify it, make it more contemporary, but the problem is… I love what I am doing. The sculpture is developing into a more art nouveau style, a style that seems to be a part of my deepest soul.
Given the opportunity to play it seems I play art nouveau.

This is the logo that was to inspire me.

All day out of the studio?

I was not sure how I could spend an entire day out of the studio at an all day seminar on software. How could I justify it with deadlines overhead? Still the software is something I have worked on for about 20 years. Wow it sounds strange to say that. I even saw people that I knew from over 20 years ago when I worked in the advertising business. You could tell us from the rest in the bunch becuase we were the ones with the grey hair sitting in the front of the room because of our poor eye sight!

Some areas of this software I have never worked in because frankly I don’t know how. My fear of the unknown part of software and the frustration of learning- we all know it. So I opted for this free symposium on Quark Xpress
. I picked out the clay from under my fingernails and cleaned up headed off to a day of lectures.

Hey the food was great, and it was free and I did learn. i was especially interested in the web tools and quarks interactive designer. I quickly surpressed the urge to learn more about interactive designer when I found out it cost an additional 199. How I will find the opportunity to do something with the rest of the knowledge that I obtained is yet to be seen. That would mean more time away from clay and writing. It was a long day yesterday but I'm back today and it feels good to be back to the studio.

David- a possible pose

I am surprise I took on a commission where it is going to be created in ceramic instead of bronze. There are design limitations with such a project. And I rarely create something in fired clay these days. The chairs were provided and I wound up a wire armature and roughed in David with wax based clay. This is easier for me to manipulate and to pick a pose. I think I like this one. My husband asked, "What is he looking at?" So I plan on sculpting some really tiny cars. I'll place one on the floor next to the chair. SO MUCH FUN... but can't get to it now. Must get other things done for the other commissions and oh yes, the web site updated. UGGGGGG, sometimes business stuff is not fun at all. But it is oh so necessary. I am thrilled with the updating of the website. I have not put any new work on there in five Years! I am also excited about the new bells and whistles and the interactivity.

Contributing Writer for Sculptural Pursuits?

I was thrilled to have found this magazine Sculptural Pursuits The editor and I have been e-mailing and if all goes as planned I will be a regular contributing writer for Sculptural Pursuits and be contributing to the Artful Business Column. I am thrilled to be able to share. As an artist and in business I have shared a great deal of information on the business of art in a weekend workshop. (I still do present this workshop. If you are interested please contact me through my website.) Now the readers of Sculptural Pursuits will be reading all of my wonderful hints. I plan on creating a portion of my new forum that we are building and dedicate a section to the Sculptural Pursuits articles that I write. Individuals can ask questions, post comments and suggestions for further articles. I also will try to provide further material for the users. That is once I get my site updated, which is as I have said before, a herculean undertaking! Funny thing is the first article Sculptural Pursuits has asked me to write about is creating a web site!

If you would like to subscribe to Sculptural Pursuits you can do so on their website.

Are we creating from life, or from a desire of our clients?

Sometimes working on commissions and talking to clients you have to be very sensitive to what you think they are trying to say. Sometimes the need is deeper than a voice. That was the case with this commission. The son asked for a bronze of his father. I loved the sensitivity the son explored in wanting, almost having to have this done of his father. I think I can identify with the son. He lives in one state and his father in another. That is the case with myself. I live in Texas mom and dad live in NY. I too desire to have something artistic of them. I plan on casting their hands. There is just something about hands. I seem to remember a line in the movie Beaches where the woman forgets what her mothers hands look like and does not want her daughter to forget hers. I guess I’ll have to watch the movie again, it is has been years. I do remember crying during that scene. Being an artist, hands are not the only artistic expression I felt I had to have of a loved one. Many, many years ago I took reference photographs of my grandfather, he is long since been deceased. The pictures are of him reading the paper, legs crossed in front of him and his hand nestled under his chin, fingers outspread, and pinky playfully brushing his lips. It was grandpas thoughtful look and I wanted to have it forever. I still have not created a piece in the likeness of this picture. Their have been many emotional times of feeling the compulsion to have this person, to hold this person in my memory and in art for everyone to see.

The father came for a sitting and I began the sculpture. As I came nearer to completion I posted it on the blog. The son contacted me and said that it was not his father, not the way he remembers him in his mind. AHHHHH that is entirely different than creating from a sitting from life. It also can be difficult to find the hidden need of the client. Now I had something to work with. Probing some more the son sent me pictures that resembled the dad he wanted to capture. Which really turned out to be quite younger. Here is the progress on deaging the dad and working not with realism but with a clients desire and memory, a need to hold something dearer than just an image. First picture is the older sculpture and reference before finishing. the bottom picture is the young sculpture and reference.

The work in progress

A New Article About the Newsboy

There was an article printed in the North Carolina Press Association (NCAP) newsletter about the tribute that the life-size Newsboy was involved in. I have been told that the NCPA will be doing an article on my artwork next month. I'll let you know.

"Carter's Battle With KKK earns NC's Top Honor"

Press Magazine is also doing an article on the newsboy and my work. I'll post that as well.