Sculpture Self-Portrait Part 1

Time to start including artwork in this blog!

I like to explain about the ideas behind each piece, what went into the inspiration, what problems I encountered and why certain things change through the process. That's what's exciting about being an artist :)

But it does get wordy, so feel free to flip through the images and explanations.
Right now I'm working on a self-portrait in my Sculpture class. It will first be sculpted out of clay, and then we will make a silicon mold around our clay model. We'll make two sculptures from this mold, one out of plaster and then one out of a material of our choice.

We begin with the concept idea.



 

"If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him." ~John 14:23.

 

I wanted to create an open cavity in the chest to represent the sense of Home I find with God. I haven't settled on what I will use to symbolize this, but I may end up going with a flower that is tightly in a bud. It would be based off of the following poem by Tagore:

 

No, it is not yours to open buds into blossoms.

Shake the bud, strike it; it is beyond your power to make it blossom.

Your touch soils it, you tear its petals to pieces and strew them in the dust.

But no colours appear, and no perfume.

Ah! It is not for you to open the bud into blossom.

He who can open the bud does it so simply.
He gives it a glance, and the life-sap stirs through its veins.
At his breath the flower spreads its wings and flutters in the wind.
Colours flush out like heart-longings, the perfume betrays a sweet secret.
He who can open the bud does it so simply.

You may have noticed the funny, little quark of a smile depicted in the concept drawing. I wanted to get across this sense of restrained joy that is bursting through, like a bud that is slowly opening.

The second part of our assignment was to use historic influences in our sculptures. I chose the Egyptian and the Hellenistic styles, which contrast each other

The Egyptians were known for their solid statues made out of stone- expressionless and enduring forever. The Hellenistic style, however, is much more humanistic. The Hellenists valued truth in their sculptures, catching every wrinkle and sign of old age.

Hellenistic

Egyptian

Here is a progression of the process.


Step 1. The Base

 

We started by adding wire around the base of the sculpture like a skeleton, securing the neck and then wrapping newspaper around the wire. This gives us a solid but pliable base. A traditional bust usually ends at the beginning of the shoulders, but mine will be a bit taller since I want to include the chest cavity.

 

Step 2. Basic Clay Structure

 



 

Now we just add clay to the newspaper base. We will not be firing this clay, so we used a recycled clay that was not very high quality. It still gets the job done though! We let the clay set up and harden for a few days so that it would be sturdy.

 

Step 3. Rough Facial Features

 

 

I'm prone to get attached to details too quickly, so it's important to remember that clay dries quickly. It's best to get the basic forms down first and then go into detail as the clay enters its "plastic" state. That is after the clay has set up a bit, but is still pliable. Never let it get bone dry! *Also, do not become discouraged if your sculpture begins to take on very creepy expressions. She'll mellow out after a while...

 

Step 4. Details!!!

 

Yes, details... this is my favorite part :) Once the basic forms are down and in the correct place, you can begin adding the... details :) Such as hair, ears, and refining the nose, eyes and cheek bones. *Hair does a lot to de-creepify a statue.

 

 

My sculpture was getting dry, so I had to score the scalp with a sharp tool and spray water to remoisten the clay. I used fairly moist, new clay for the hair, and wet my fingers down and ran them along the individual clumps of hair as I attached them to get the look of waves.

 

Final Steps.

 

 

Here she is, mostly finished. I have recently added a flower bud to the chest cavity and refined the neck and shoulder area. The finished clay sculpture will be included in the next post about making a mold.

 



The Rainmaker

Matt Damon plays young lawyer, Rudy Baylor, who is interested in the law for the sake of civil justice. He is a lawyer who gets to experience the good only the good know.

Fresh out of law school, he goes to work at a shark-tank law firm, where the boss is involved with shady business, but promises to take care of him.

He goes to work for the boss chasing ambulances and studying for the bar exam in his spare time at the hospital. Rudy Baylor battles his first case as a not-so-official lawyer against a big insurance company. Inexperienced and unlicensed, he and his partner (who has failed the bar exam six times) represent a poor family whose son is dying from leukemia. Their insurance company, whom they have been paying good money to, "it wasn't big money, but good money," informs them multiple times that they will not cover him. Their final letter went something like this:

"Dear Mrs. Black, on seven prior occasions the company has denied your claim in writing. We now deny it for the eighth and final time. You must be stupid, stupid, stupid."

Not surprisingly, she decides to hire a lawyer.

On the day of their first case in court, Rudy's boss bails on him, leaving him and his partner alone and unlicensed, to defend the case. Stepping into the courtroom for the first time he says, "I've memorized the black files cold, I've read all the books on jurisprudence, the Rules of Evidence and Discovery. But I take one look around the courtroom and I realize, I haven't even been born yet."

The old judge nearly throws him out of the courtroom, demanding he get a license before he shows his face again. However, one of the elderly opposing lawyers turns smoothly in his chair, rises and says, "May it please the court... For the record, my name is Leo F. Drummond of Tinley-Brit, Counsel for Great Benefit." He approaches Rudy and pats him tenderly on the shoulder, as one who is indulging a small child; "And I say, if this young man has passed the bar exam, Your Honor, let him argue the case." He smiles and says, "We welcome him to... Big-Time Litigation."

With that, Rudy Baylor is sworn in on the spot.



Sworn in by a fool and vouched for by a scoundrel. I'm a lawyer at last.

The judge sits down with the two lawyers for a meeting in chambers and begins to mumble on about "frivolous" lawsuits and how tired he is of these types of lawsuits. Rudy quickly finds out the two intend to tag team him out of the case, as they convince him it would be better to settle the case for $75,000.

As Rudy confers with his clients, they ask him whether he thinks they should settle. He pauses for a moment before a look of determination crosses his face. "No way." he says, "I want to expose these people."

Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. ~Eph. 5:11.

And so the battle begins.

Fortunately, a new judge is appointed to the case (think, Angels in the Outfield), who is hard on insurance companies and pro-civil rights. He quickly evens the playing field, but there's only so much he can do. Before Rudy leaves his office, the judge asks him, "You in over your head, son?" Rudy stands and replies, "Absolutely."

Soon after, Rudy calls for a deposition, or out-of-court oral presentation of the witnesses, and finds that he is still coming up against impossible odds. Rudy begins calling for witnesses from within the company that have, oddly enough, "resigned" or have been "downsized." The opposing side uses underhanded techniques and schemes to cover their tracks, making them seem impossible to take down. But there is one truth that stands up to it.

"Everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible." ~ Eph. 5:13-14.

This next scene showed me just how important it is to know the truth. The opposition begins by trying to hijack Rudy's deposition. They slyly insinuate his inferiority and lack of experience while welcoming the "Young Rudy Baylor" and telling him not to be intimidated by their number and experience.

Fortunately, Rudy knows very well that it is his deposition, and he is the one who is going to be calling them into account. Rudy could have easily fallen prey to their tactics. Instead, he knew the truth of his position, and what sort of authority he was given. He had the right to expose darkness for what it was.

"Everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible."

This movie was satisfying and intriguing to watch. It showed that, while others may do their best to hide and distort the truth with lies and "half truths," darkness truly crumbles once the light exposes it.