Grace in Motion II, 11"x8" clay for aluminum
This year, 2013, I have made an effort to focus on creating a body of work with something that I love to do more than anything. What I'm finding as I spend more time creating large commissioned pieces is that I actually enjoy sitting down and making small to medium sized reliefs. They require so little of my energy and I can get one done pretty quickly. In the last 3-4 months I found out that I can cast these in light weight aluminum and patinaed very similarly to a bronze sculpture. And what I learned from the Loveland Sculpture show this year is that people do like them! Although there are limitations to casting in aluminum, such as it is not very malleable and almost impossible for me to figure out how to weld, I can work around this. For example, if I give the foundry a wax that has little stubs in the center the wax is less likely to bow in the middle from it's own weight, therefore eliminating the need to pound on it to flatten it out. As for the welding, if I keep them smaller than 30" or so there is no welding required. This is huge!!
This relief Grace in Motion II is of the former Russian ballet dancer Anastasia, one of the models that I hire. This pose fascinates me because it shows off her back muscles while her right foot comes out of the relief giving it life that otherwise wouldn't be there if it were all low relief. I wanted to make a relief that mimicked Grace in Motion I which was the center of attention of all of my sculptures at this years Loveland Sculpture Invitational. This pose has a little more movement and is quite a bit smaller in size but equally as powerful as the first Grace in Motion.
