#63 Momentum, relief

Momentum, 12"x10" clay for aluminum

Momentum is the first male dancer relief I have sculpted and I believe it came out quite well. Although I struggled with a title for this, Momentum seems to represent what this pose is about, yet also it has meaning for me artistically in that I hope to keep the momentum going by introducing the male figure into my relief sculptures. The model I hired for this is a modern dancer named Jeremy and what an awesome dancer he is! Jeremy introduced to me the idea that there are three types of dances (masculine, feminine, and androgynous), this pose being on the border between androgynous and masculine. 

#62 aluminum reliefs

"Awakening", aluminum 17 7/8"x 13 7/8"

Grace in Motion I, aluminum 21 3/4" x 15 3/4"

Rain, aluminum 19 1/2" x 8 1/2"

Summer, aluminum 12 1/4" x 6 3/4"

The first four relief sculptures that I had cast in aluminum are "Awakening", "Grace in Motion I", "Rain", and "Summer". They were all cast at MADD castings just south of Loveland in Berthoud and I was pleasantly surprised and happy that they came out so well. Debbie Bakel did the patinas on these and I was also pleased that the patina process is very similar to a bronze patina. Debbie did a great job! There are some minor differences between aluminum and bronze patina. Aluminum, for example, heats up much faster than does bronze. This is important to know because it means that you can burn a patina much faster so care needs to be taken. Being more familiar with bronze I have to be careful when doing the patinas myself that I do not get the aluminum too hot. 

As I had posted some time ago these aluminum castings were also a test of the art buying market. To see if people would like them and, if so, would people buy them? Would aluminum be appealing to prospective buyers or would people shy away from it? Were they curious what the castings were made of or would they assume it was bronze? Aluminum is a relatively new-comer to the field of casting, one of the very first sculptures to be cast was in 1893. Anna Hyatt Huntington later experimented with casting aluminum and her sculpture "Fighting Stallions" at Brookgreen Garden  is one of the largest. With this short history I wasn't sure how potential collectors would react. To my surprise, it was good! I sold two of the four castings at the Loveland Sculpture Invitational (Awakening and Summer). Many times, people would walk right past my sculptures to look at the reliefs. With this assurance I now have about 6 new reliefs going through the foundry being cast in aluminum. I will post them as they are finished.

#61 Waiting, relief

Waiting, 16"x20", clay for aluminum

For the last 3 days I've been working off and on on this mid-relief of the model Caroline. It is one of the larger reliefs I've done and therefore requires I spend more time on it. What I like about this pose is it is kind of a cross between what I enjoy doing the most in relief form: movement and portraiture. Caroline has studied dance and so just a simple seated pose such as this becomes more than just a sitting. She has beautiful eyes and her glance upwards and her expression implies that she is waiting on a friend, perhaps someone she loves.

On another note, Northern Colorado has been hit hard with flooding, Boulder taking on the worst punishment of all. For the last couple of days it has became clear to me that I, along with many many others, was falling victim to the sad events that were happening; watching videos of roads being destroyed, watching the flood waters down the street from us rolling through parks and destroying homes, hearing about people missing or dying, dealing with a possible shortage of water. Stuff that you simply cannot ignore! Amid all of the chaos happening, I am remembering a couple of lines from a commencement speech given in 2012 by Neil Gaiman: Life is sometimes hard. Things go wrong, in life and in love and in business and in friendship and in health and in all the other ways that life can go wrong. And when things get tough, this is what you should do. Make good art.

#60 Grace in Motion II, relief

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. 

#59 digital rendering of Norfolk Veterans Park

Digital rendering my client made of Norfolk Veterans Park in Norfolk, NE with the Grieving Soldier I am currently having cast in bronze. We plan on having everything completed by November 2013. On top of the 9' tall granite column is a bronze abstract flame that will encase an LED light.

#58 Flute Sonata on a Tortoise-patina day

This piece was sculpted back in late 2011 and I finally had saved up the money to have him cast in bronze. We decided to do the multi-color patina after the sculpture Sowing Seeds, which also had a multi color patina, was installed outdoors. This piece is designed to sit in a garden, we'll be showing him at the Loveland Sculpture Invitational 2013 in the garden area.

#57 Kneeling Soldier-clay

finished clay of Remembering

US Marine boots

the AR-15 rifle will be slung on the backside of the kneeling soldier

95% finished clay of the kneeling US Marine titled "Remembering"

This life size soldier is currently being cast in bronze through Art Castings of Colorado and will be kneeling in front of a 9' tall black granite column that will hold a 32" height bronze stylized flame. The bronze flame will cradle an LED light. More pictures as the piece progresses. The sculpture will be installed in Norfolk, NE early November, 2013