Sculpture and Expenses

 I needed 6 gallons of rubber to make the molds for these two carvings.

Nesting birds, carved concrete, 24"x 12" x 6" ©Patrick Gracewood

"Rich Autumn" carved concrete, 24"x 12" x 6" ©Patrick Gracewood

You can see where I ran out of rubber on the right side.

Somehow I confused gallons of rubber with pounds of rubber. It's sold by the pound. The result?  I was mixing and pouring rubber when I realized there wasn't going to be enough.

Stuck halfway. Go forward or retreat?

It was an expensive failure and a lesson in sculpture economics. To finish the project I need an 80 lb kit. That's $462.44 of material that I can't justify right now. So instead of buying more rubber, I'm scrapping the mold, and going to show the prototypes instead of casts.

The mold rubber I use is called Poly 74-45. It's made by Polytek, a company in Pennsylvania. I went online to see if I could get it directly from the manufacturer and save some money instead of buying it through Fiberlay, our local Portland supplier.

Polytek sells an 80 lb kit for $440.00, Fiberlay sells the same for $462.44. Their markup is only $22.00, which includes shipping it across the country! Comparison shopping made me realize what a slim profit margin Fiberlay makes on this product. A little understanding makes me appreciate them much more.

All this goes to show some of the material costs (and emotional costs!) involved in making sculpture. 

Sculpture and the Islamic Art Galleries at the Met

History's Hands is a great article in the New York Times, 3/20/2011.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art is creating a new 14th Century courtyard to frame the Islamic Art Galleries. They brought in a team of Moraccan craftsmen who worked on site creating a 14th-century Islamic fantasia covered with elaborate carvings, mosaics, and ornamental plaster work. 

photo by Ruth Fremson for the NY Times article.

Slide show from the NY Times.

Arranging tiny glazed tiles, face down before bonding them all together.

              To view the NY Times video of the installation click here.

Sculpture and Costume

photo by Robertt Caplin for the New York Times

Good article on costume design by Sylviane Gold, "What Befits a Legendary Queen?" NY Times 4/3/2011.

It details the process of costume designer Susan Hilferty as she created the clothing for the musical "Wonderland".

After coming up with the initial concept, Hilferty worked with the actress/singer, Karen Mason to ensure that Mason could breath and move easily in the queen's costume.The pleating around her hips is meant to evoke a fanned deck of cards. There are 80 fabric roses on each sleeve, (my favorite part of the dress). More than 18 people worked on her costume to get it just right.

Costume illustration by Susan Hilferty

 Costume development.

The actress/singer Karen Mason in her Queen of Hearts Costume. photo by Michal Daniel

Sculpture and Typography

It really is about conviction, commitment. 
Any art.

A short video by Ronnie Bruce animates a poem by Taylor Mali
(I was editing drafts and think I backdated this, so am re-posting it.)
Typography from Ronnie Bruce on Vimeo.

Sculpture and Rodin

“Art is only a kind of love. I know quite well that bashful moralists will stop up their ears. But what! I express in a loud voice what all artists think. Desire! Desire! What a formidable stimulant.” Rodin

Long before Picasso's self aggrandizement of artist as Promethian figure, there was Rodin.

A new book by David J. Getsy, Rodin: Sex and the Making of Modern Sculpture reconsiders Rodin's influence, arguing that the sculptor emphasized his hands on process as a means of asserting his own desire's inseparability from his works.

During his lifetime, Auguste Rodin's name became synonymous with modern sculpture-- and sex.

(Shocking! Sound familiar as a marketing device? Rodin may not have invented it, but he owned it for the late 19th Century)

Rodin emphasized the importance of desire and the sexual as the creative fuel of his art, using them to fuel his increasingly daring treatments of the nude. In the minds of many viewers, the dramatic and activated surfaces of his sculptures came to be seen as evidence of not just a sculptor's touch but of a     lover's touch as well.

Looking forward to reading it.

Sculpture and Advertising

It's a set up, but the sell is soft and the pitch is well worth the wait.

Great care is taken with getting and keeping our attention through showing the elaborate and beautiful setup. It keeps us waiting to see what it's all about. I was holding my breath while watching.




So how would you define this work?
Sculpture? Installation? Environment? Musical Instrument?Experience? Advertisement?

Papa Bach would have loved it.

Sculpture and Art in the Garden

It's not just what you got.
It's how and where and why you put it.

Small sculpture in the flower gardens at the Saint Gaudens Estate 

It being sculpture in the garden.

I'll be talking about sculpture and the garden at the Association of Northwest Landscape Designers meeting tonight.

ANLD April Meeting: Art in the Garden

where: 15800 SW Hall Blvd, Tigard OR 97224

From : Monday, Apr 4, 2011 - 6:30pm to 9:00pm

Join Patrick Gracewood (Gracewood Studio), sculptor, as he shares his perspective about placing art in the garden to its greatest advantage. In addition to this brief presentation, Patrick and four other artists will share with us their work and creative process. Please join Patrick, Katy McFadden (ceramic figurative artist), Peter Andrusko (artisan stonework), Chris Moench (ceramic prayer wheels), and Keith Yurdana (metal fabrication) for an evening of artistic inspiration.