It's very difficult to be historically accurate if nobody is willing to do (or PAY for) the research.
An ancient grainy black and white photo and three scribbles were all the "research" I had. I wrote about the dilemma of sculpture and historic restoration here.
This called for educated forensic guessing. Pages of drawings with the deadline passing... In cases like this, the best thing is to just begin sculpting. The model was made in foam. I carved it to have the requsite sandstone look, lots of texture and popped edges. Foam is nasty, scratchy, the fine gritty dust sticks to everyting. I hate working in foam.
Other hands had at the art after I signed off on it, turning what I intended as a shield like shape,(to balance the companion piece) into what looks like a toilet seat.. Sigh, it's on the right.
Here's how the project turned out. After all the worries, it looks great.
The ironic part is this restoration is now the "Historic" version.
3 comments:
Yup. Seems we're always reforming history -that story we tell that changes with each telling, whether in words, memories, or visions of stone.
Deb, it's true. What's odd is being aware of how much the story changes in the telling.
Historic or new, the pieces look great on the building and add so much to it!
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