DPA Armatures

Here are the armatures welded up. I used the drawings on the floor to size these. Think of them as skeletons to hold the foam and clay up. Tomorrow I will be gluing foam insulation board over these to fill out and roughly shape the figures. Got 240 pounds of Chavant sulphur free plasteline clay today. This is an oil based clay that will not dry out while I'm sculpting. In the past I have used water based clay and spent far too much time trying to keep the clay the correct level of damp. The plasteline will eliminate that time drain.

Duluth Public Art Project (DPA)

I received the first payment for the DPA project this week and can finally get started. I was awarded the project in February but it takes time to deal with contracts and insurance. Now the fun begins. I will be making at least weekly posts so you can follow the progress. First thing to do is figure scale, shrinkage and armature (steel skeleton). This is a picture of the two figures drawn out on the floor to the scale that the original clay sculpture (the pattern) will be. The tape measure is pulled out to 7 feet. The finished bronze sculpture will shrink about 5% through the process of going from clay to wax to bronze.

Judith's Spirit

Finished the sculpture today. When I put a head on the object it defeated the idea of expressing spirit. I'm happy with this outcome.

More Progress

Cutting out a pattern in cardboard or doing a drawing is always easier than realizing the object in bronze.

Judith Gesch Sculpture

Titanium parts, nice patina, sitting on the fab. table

one idea with the parts as arm and leg and hat, scribbles represent bronze to be sculpted

another idea using parts as legs and cap as umbrella, sculpture will be mounted on stone from the North Shore 

Judith Gesch was an artist, dancer, choreographer, and teacher. She had hip surgeries and joked that her children should use the parts left after cremation for a sculpture. Peta Barrett, her daughter, is following through with the idea.
Here are the pieces on the bench and some ideas on how they could be incorporated into a bronze sculpture.

Red and Blue at Home

Here are the two horses installed in their new location.

Red and Blues Great Adventure

Loaded up the horses for the trip to the cities and then on to Scottsdale. We had a nice opening for the Kickin' show at Grand Hand, then left for Arizona early the next morning. All day went through big winds and dust storms, temps to 90. This morning woke to snow in Texas.