Sculpture

My sculpture page is very limited, as sculpture has never been my strong suit, nor my area of interest, except for stone. See more about my experience with stone below.

This dang plaster head! If I were to talk about making it to a close friend, I'd probably include every swear word in the book. I hated this project. First, I spent hours sculpting a clay head, then I let it dry. Then I coated it with other stuff, some web-type material and something else to make a mold. Then when the mold was dry, I had to dig out the clay from inside the mold, so all those hours of working in clay were thrown into the clay bin to be recycled into new clay. Next I had to pour plaster into this mold, dipping and dipping again, to make approximately a 3" layer of plaster inside the mold, swirling the plaster around and around to make it even on the inside. It got so heavy, all this dipping and re-dipping to add more plaster, that I felt like my arms and back were going to break, along with the piece of work I spent so much time on. Once the plaster dried, I had to chip off the outer mold, a very slow process, to reveal the plaster head underneath. And in that process, I had to hope that I didn't accidentally chip off a nose, an ear, or an eyeball. Then after that, I had to make an "aesthetic base" for it. I said to myself, "screw the aesthetics of the base," and I just made a base, period. At the end of my sculpture class, I was getting ready to throw this head in the garbage, and my teacher told me I should save it, that it came out pretty good. So, I kept it, not because I like it, but more as a reminder of the sweat I poured into making it

If anything, what I got out of my art studies at Hamline is a love for stone sculpture. I connected so much with the stone, it being such a permanent thing, and something you could rough up, smooth out, and have to be so very careful with, because if you chip off a part you didn't mean to chip off, you can't put it back. Of course, that can always lead to something more interesting than what you had intended in the first place. This sculpture is my interpretation of a shiva linga. Shiva is a Hindu mythological god, often known as the Creator, but he also takes on other forms. A shiva linga is a symbol of procreation, and it is often depicted by a phallic structure, representing Shiva, with a vessel at the base to collect water and the seeds of birth, which represents the womb of Parvarti, wife of Shiva. I chose to forgo the base as the womb, and sculpted it within the body of the phallic symbol (left), and I suggested a hint of the two lovers with arms wrapped around each other. Media: Limestone

I sculpted the clay figure on the left in the summer of 1999, as a model for a stone sculpture of the same. Four years later, it has fallen apart somewhat . . . the nose, the legs, the arms. But it still has the look of what I wanted to portray in stone. I started working from the clay model, in stone, but I didn't have the right stone. It was a piece of limestone which wouldn't smooth out, and I wanted some roughness and smoothness to the sculpture. I chipped away at the stone for way too many hours, and I finally decided to give it up until I found a more appropriate piece of stone. On the right is all the further I got. Doesn't look like much like dude on the left, does it? Duh.

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