Duluth Public Art Project

After a week visiting Washington DC and the WW 2 Memorial with my dad it's nice to be back at work. We visited the Capitol building and the Hall of Sculptures and the Korean War Memorial. All gave me inspiration for these big figures.

Whole Foods, Minnetonka, MN finished

I finished installing the cattails at the new Whole Foods in Minnetonka. The grand opening is October 12th so I made it in plenty of time. Thanks to John  of J. Swisher Construction install was as it should be. No surprises.

clay, YEA!

The female figure just before adding the first layer of clay

Clay on the figure

Working with the Plasteline clay on wire mesh is a bit hard on the fingers. Having the right amount of heat on the clay helps a lot. Posters on the wall are from the event in the studio announcing our new venture, Studio Forma, Click here for info.

Duluth Public Art Project (DPA)

Off with his head, weld on the support

On with his head

The wire mesh on styro to hold the clay in place,  I'll have to remove this head too for the support rod

A brain storm. While working on the figures and thinking ahead to the mold making process I came up with this idea. Why not create a way to support the figures horizontally to facilitate mold making? The rubber mold material always sags and runs down before it hardens when applied on vertical surfaces. These figures are so big I was concerned about obtaining good results so why not make them to fit a rotisserie? I cut off the heads and welded an extension to the steel armature. Now I will be able to support them from both ends and turn them to make the mold application easier.

Whole Foods, Minnetonka, MN

A couple weeks ago I received a call requesting  a sculpture for an identifier for the entrance to the new Whole Foods store opening in Minnetonka in October. Speed was essential to complete and install the piece by grand opening. My client gave me permission to change the suggested design. Minnetonka has cattails painted on the water tower so this is what I came up with. Still need to do a finish patina but it looks pretty good, I think.

Sense of Scale

This will give you a sense of how large these figures are going to be. I'm still roughing out the styro which is going to be covered with clay. This process is valuable in getting the scale implanted in my mind. It's a bit harder to work larger than life than smaller. For some reason our minds are really tuned to life size and reluctant to accommodate the bigger scale.

My, You are a big girl!

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.