Duluth Public Art Project (DPA)

After the Grand Marais art festival, a small group show at Johnson Gallery in grand Marais and a death in the family I am finally back to work on the DPA project.
Over the welded steel armatures I'm using Styrofoam insulation board to fill out the figures. Over the styro I'll be stretching expanded metal mesh, over that will go the clay.

Notice the drawings on the wall I use to check my proportions.

Last Weekend, Grand Marais Art Festival

Here I am after giving myself the art sales person of the day award.

Celebration of Fiber Art

Studio transformed, Karen speaking in the tent

Jo Wood

Stu's tools

Debbie Cooter

Yesterday, July 2nd, we hosted a Celebration of Fiber Art with guest artists Karen Lohn, Jo Wood and Debbie Cooter. Each artist spoke about their particular view of fiber art and gave demonstrations. Good weather, good food, good  music. What could be better?

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.