Today's Studio Progress

I was able to get in another 5 hours of studio time today, I left at 10 tonight and will be back for the better part of the day tomorrow.  Thought I'd share some more progress pictures!  A few more layers have been added to the base, it is still not quite high enough.  The entire piece currently stands at 3.5 feet.  Enjoy!  Comments appreciated!

Cut Short...

I made my way into the studio today, rearing to go and in hopes of getting another good block of studio time in.  I was able to get another layer built on the base and the bottom portion of the middle section attached, as well as a little more structure modification.  This was all that I was able to get accomplished before security came in and told me that I had 5 minutes to clean up and leave before he came back, due to campus closing for the storm.  Frustrating, I just want to work.  :(  Oh well, better luck tomorrow I hope.

Progression

I was able to get into the studio again yesterday.  I put in a solid 9 hours of work.  The weather is supposed to be much less than desirable tomorrow but if I can get up early and get in there hopefully I'll get another solid block of time to work.  I have some new progress pictures that I will include below. 

Two weekends ago, the day after my great grandmother was admitted to the hospital, I ran into a pretty good case of Sculptor's Block and wasn't able to make anything work for me.  After that I had classes and the 4 times daily laxatives with my daughter and appointments, etc.  I feel that I really needed that break away from my work so that I could go back in with a clean view, and boy did I! 

Yesterday I built some more of the lower middle section and also started on the base which will be the portion between the ground and the middle (which you have seen if you've been keeping up with my blog).  I made some good progress yesterday and hope to make some more tomorrow!

Center Section #1

Center Section #2

Center Section #3

Center Section #4

Alternate View #1

Alternate View #2

Base (Plan View)

Base (Elevation View)

Base (Perspective View)

Detail #1

Detail #2

Detail #3

Detail #4

Detail #5

Detail #6

Sculptural Writer's Block

Where to start...  At this point in time I have sculptural writer's block, I think I just have too much on my mind.  I went into the studio today to get some work done and it was ok for the first few hours but slowly things went downhill and I just wasn't getting the results I wanted.  I felt lost and didn't know what to do next...  I'm not sure if it's from lack of sleep or having too much on my mind - probably both. 

I lost 6 hours of planned studio time yesterday.  My great grandmother, who is 92 and has progressed Alzheimer's, had fallen Friday night and was taken into the hospital.  She was sent home that night with a sore leg, a fractured rib and some pain medication.  Saturday morning after breakfast my mother found that she was all of a sudden unresponsive and called an ambulance, she was taken into the ER again.  I wasn't sure what was going on an,d in her condition, I also wasn't sure if this would be the end or not so I felt that I needed to go into the hospital to see her, if I hadn't and something had happened I would have regretted it.  After 10 hours in the ER they still weren't sure what was wrong with her and admitted her into the hospital, she stayed last night and is staying again tonight, they still don't know what is wrong.  I suppose this is weighing on my mind pretty heavily.

I'm also thoroughly exhausted with the battle I'm going through with my 4.5 year old daughter.  Since October she has not been able to pass a normal bowel movement, she has been on laxatives daily since the beginning of December.  Two xrays and a couple of "cleanout cocktails" later we still have had no luck, she is very blocked up.  After finally seeing a specialist last Monday we had to start a more aggressive regimen of laxatives and are not really able to send her to daycare.  The "cleanout" portion of the new regimen hasn't had much impact and we are now implementing a schedule of laxatives 4 times per day.  It is now a matter of coordinating schedules between my fiance and I, since she can't attend daycare right now.  There are so many times in the schedule that he is working and I have to be in class, I have had to choose wisely which classes to attend and which I cannot...he has had to try and switch his schedule around a good deal as well.  Things are just super crazy, hectic, and a huge juggling act...  At this point I'm not sure what to do, where to go, or how to stay sane... 

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference. 

I need serenity.

Applicable

In checking my horoscope this morning I found it very fitting and thought I would share:

You may feel as though you have been wasting your time with a certain person or a certain goal.  That may be because - despite investing a lot of time and energy and passion into something - you have seen few, if any, results that will help with your objective.  But just because you haven't seen evidence of progress does not mean it isn't happening.  On the contrary, you have come further than you know in realizing your dream.  Keep plugging ahead, and have faith that you will achieve what you hope for.

- - - - -

Yesterday I had a few hours to work, I was also able to speak with Bob about the critique and where I'm headed.  I'm not really sure what the expectations are for how much work should be produced in regards to Senior Project, I will have to get to the bottom of that.

Other than that, I began building more of the piece yesterday, most of what I tackled was within the piece working up.  I also began a bit with working the bottom of the piece downward more.  Right now I am focusing on the building portion for the most part, it will be built in 3 pieces, you all have already seen the middle section.  I am now working on the upper and lower sections.  After these have been built I will be clamping them together and working the material at the joining sections so as to visually mesh them together.  After they have been worked at the joining sections I will again, take the 3 pieces apart and work the structure and surface separately so that I can get into all of the smaller, tighter areas.  Also a benefit of working on them separately is that there will be less of a chance for the pounding and vibration to weaken the glued joints while it is bigger.  After I feel the majority of the surface work has been completed I will then laminate the 3 sections together to make the one large piece.  After doing this I will fine tune the surface texture, or lack thereof, respectively and then begin to work on finishes.

This is a brief explanation of my process, one that I hope is easier to understand.  The rest of the work; the intuition, the connection and the passion is much less easy to talk about, it's more a feeling - a conversation with both the materials, and the piece as a whole.  I feel a special bond with my work, that being said, it is difficult for me to explain, it's one of those things that "you just know".

In a recent issue of Sculpture Magazine there is an article and interview with Ursula Von Rydingsvard, I have been familiar with her work for some time now as well as her process.  When I watched the episode of Art21 with her in it, I really felt like I was watching my twin soul...my style is so similar to hers, before I had even heard of her.  It was really a breath of fresh air and a nod that I was headed in the right direction.  I want to point out a section of her interview because it really struck a cord with me.

"As I'm working on a sculpture, my base is a highly intuitive one.  I never speak to myself except to say, "No, no, not this" or "Well, this might be a little more doable."  It's all visual and psychological response, all a feeling that has to do with a reaction that comes from - I'm not quite sure where.  One of my goals is to make the process of my making even less about consciously editing.  I'm trying to engage something that I can't control as easily, from a realm that might, in fact, be a more consequential place in terms of the core of what human beings are, or who I might be."
~ Ursula von Rydingsvard
(Sculpture Magazine: December 2010, Vol. 29 No. 10)

I have also been looking at some of David Nash's work, he also has an interview in the recent SM.  He works with wood as well and a lot of his pieces are very intriguing to me.  Something about him that really clicked with me is that he calls himself "a researcher into the science and anthropology of trees".

- - - - -

So there is the piece that I wanted to get out and share this morning.  I'm sure there will be more as soon as my progress becomes a little more defined.

Artist Statement Revision

My inspiration comes from nature and is a prominent factor in the creation of my pieces.  I pull inspiration from little things, big things, and all that lies between.  My interest is focused less on final product and more on process.  It’s about connecting with my materials.  My initial notion stems from inspiration and begins to take form, piece by piece.  Materials are added, they are taken away; the materials may be broken, changed and reassembled.  It is my belief that when art can be interpreted for what it is that the viewer does not spend as much time with it.  When process is left and a sense of mystery is created, a viewer may spend more time investigating the piece.  The purpose is not to have an end product of perfection but one that invites you to ponder the methods used to create it.

It's About Statement

It's about process and connecting with materials.

I will be adding an image on Tuesday.

Critique Results

Here are the images of my piece all put together for yesterday's critique.  Keep in mind that this is only a portion of what the sculpture will be...what has been constructed is the middle portion.  

The side with the sample finished parts.  The section of the piece above the clamps is where I have modified the surface.

What I have done is started in the middle of the form and will continue to build upward and downward until the final form is achieved.  I plan for the final sculpture to be between 6-10' in height.  So far in my process I have begun to build the basic structure from pine boards.  After completing the base structure I will continue with my original plan and add in old or found wood, or both.  After I have done that I will look at the progress and determine whether other materials would be useful in contributing to the sculpture, at that time I will know what would work or not work...but that is all contingent on where the sculpture is at that point.  The beauty of sculpture is like a charcoal drawing where you can add more or take it away, and you can continue to add and take away until you've achieved something successful.

For the first full faculty critique yesterday I worked as hard as I possibly could in order to get enough of the actual structure built to give everyone some sort of idea of what my plan is, as well as get as much of the structural modification done so that everyone could begin to understand how I will transform this basic 'ordered structure' into an 'organic structure'.

As far as the critique...After that 10 minutes of brutal hell, I came out of the critique feeling completely obliterated, as though I'd been hit by a freight train.  I understand that a critique is supposed to challenge me and get me to think about what I'm doing, but a critique is also supposed to be somewhat of a safe haven where constructive criticism takes place and of understanding where I'm at and where I plan to go.  It blew my mind to be told that it didn't matter what I am going to do but what mattered was the work that had been done so far.  In my feeling it was treated much like a final critique...what I had was supposed to be 'finished product' when in fact that is absolutely not the case.  This was the first critique, one where we have only had 2 weeks to work...and I have utilized every free moment of my 2 weeks to get this done.  I have neglected my household cleaning, I have neglected my fiance and the children, I have neglected to go grocery shopping...  All I have done for the past two weeks is go to classes and spend hours upon hours in the studio working.  Every day is getting up early and going to class or the studio and working for the entire day.  For me to be told that all of my work pretty much didn't matter and that we weren't going to talk about the future of my work was brutal.  From my understanding this was a first critique, work in progress, and the next in March is another process critique...  If my work was at the stage it is now for the last critique on May 13th, I completely understand that I would get that reaction.  School is supposed to be a safe haven, a learning environment to grow in before heading out to the harsh cruel world.  

I'm not disrespecting other disciplines by any means but if I had put 30 hours into 2D work, I would potentially have much more work to show for the 30 hours that I put in...  Sculpture is a completely different beast...sculpture has to be built first then modified and finished...  I put my all into building as much as I could.  My first plaster carving had a total of 120 hours of work into it, my second around 150 hours and the wood carving that I'm still working with has had 80 hours put into it and is not half done.  This is my senior project where I have a whole semester to work in it, it only has 30 hours into it so far...there will be much more.  Sculpture is something that can't be completely seen for what it us until it is 2/3 to 3/4 of the way through.  Please, correct me if I'm wrong but that is my thought and experience.

I have gotten some feedback from several people since the critique yesterday and everyone has come back with the same opinion...keep going, keep pushing and do what my instinct tells me.  I know that I'm on the right track, I can't explain how or why, but I know that I am.  I know where I am going and how I'm going to get there and I just have to put the negative nellies on the back burner.  Stay tuned for more progress in the next few weeks!