#96, Remembering dad

I posted this sculpture titled "Remembering" a year or so ago while it was being cast, but this statue has significant meaning to me as it was my father's favorite sculpture of mine as it portrays a US Marine, my father was a Marine. It was the reason he came to CO in the fall of 2013, as we had planned on installing the sculpture together, driving to Nebraska, however the project wasn't finished in the time he was in Colorado so we could not drive out together. 

On April 30, 2015 I sold a second casting of this statue and a few hours later David J. Betti suddenly passed away while walking his dog Sarge. It was a day of a high and a low, to both extremes, and a day that I will never forget. "Remembering" will forever remind me of dad.

#95, Natalie relief

Natalie, 20" height

What I'm after when I sculpt relief portraiture are not just interesting forms and compositions, but capturing the essence of a model through pose. I usually have the model take many poses before something strikes me. I can never pinpoint what it is that I'm after so modeling sessions are usually haphazard. But I think this is the way to approach it as I believe this is how I get to really "see" what it is I'm after. I don't usually come to the table with an idea I would like to express. It's more like "let's try this" and see where it takes us.

I think this portrait of Natalie works well because it makes use of dynamic angles which leads your eye around the relief. Her bent legs and arm, slight turn of the head create a zig zag that keeps your eye inside the piece. Then when you are ready to leave you follow the pointed foot to direct you to the exit. Generally, successful art has this composition. A place for your eye to travel within the artwork, some interesting stops, but not too many or you'll get overwhelmed (as the critical Emperor pointed out to Mozart in the movie Amadeus: "there are only so many notes the ear can hear in the course of an evening"). 

#94, Orchid relief

Orchid relief

This is the latest limited edition bronze relief fresh from the foundry. It is freestanding and because of this I was able to cast it in bronze and mount on a granite base, unlike most of my other works which are cast in aluminum. I hope to be doing more of this type of freestanding bas-relief sculpture as I am pleased with how this came out.

#93, James Dean bust

James Dean bust, 19in height

I sculpted this clay bust of James Dean over the past few weeks, mostly for me since I won't sell editions of it. I have been a fan of James Dean since I first saw Rebel Without a Cause and East of Eden when I was a teenager. There is something intriguing and mysterious about him that I thought it would be fun to try to capture his likeness since there is so much available photography on the internet. This was a bit challenging since he was such a good looking guy, but I am pleased with how it came out. I will post photos of the finished casting in a future blog post.

#92, WW2 monument

Since October 2013 I have been working very hard sculpting a world war two monument that consists of 12 life size figures (pictured are three of my favorites). I haven't had time to work on my own projects and therefore post anything interesting so I figured I'd show what it is that has been keeping me busy (and quiet). The monument was designed by a former WW2 army air corp pilot and will be installed in Louisana sometime either later this year 2015 or 2016.  I am very pleased with how it is coming together and seeing this completed will be such a tremendous joy on so many levels. Currently, I am finishing up the tenth guy (standing figure) this week. Many of the figures are engaged with and touching another figure and doing everything separately has introduced challenges of fitting the entire monument together "seamlessly". I expect a good part of the year will be spent at the foundry making sure everything gets assembled properly.  

#91, Peasant woman relief

Peasant Woman, 16in x 13in, clay original

Heads and hands are two of the most challenging parts to sculpt on the human body, but they can also be the most rewarding. In this pose the hands of the model are really interesting and I couldn't mess up up the anatomy or the foreshortening or else the piece would fail, at least that was my belief. The head also needed to be delicately modeled as the slight tilt back can be quite challenging. But I think one of the reasons that this relief works so well on the eye is because care was taken on those important areas.

Lately, I've been interested in carving the area around the head slightly deeper into the background as this allows me to get more of a depth in the head. Because this is an area that is usually the focal point the deeper sculpting on the head allows a somewhat contrast to the flatter body. It's a very subtle "trick" and I don't think it works on flatter reliefs as much, at least in my experience. I first saw this technique on the relief sculptures of Bill Mack. In much of his work he will carve back a little further around the body and into the background which helps give the illusion that the figure is emerging off the background. More recently I saw this on a self portrait carved in marble by Michelangelo. I'll post examples of this technique on a future post.

#90, video: from miniature to monument-Paganini sculpture

This is a video I put on youtube about a year or two ago showing a time lapsed video of sculpting a small scale sculpture of Niccolo Paganini. I've often thought of doing more videos of sculpting, especially relief, but sadly I haven't taken the time. I hope you enjoy this. :)