Sculpture and Architectural Restoration

Successful architectural restorations depends on understanding the context for the sculpture.
How is it seen? What is the viewing angle?

This capital (photos) goes at the top of a street lamp, which means you are looking UP at it.
So the important aspects are the center and below. Only birds will see the above view,  that area must shed water easily, not retain it, but it doesn't need the same level of detail or finish.

The original concrete pine cone on the right is obviously hand modeled.
It has a good strong balance of light and dark. That's far more important for distance viewing than if the symmetry is perfect. Working up close, you can easily worry about the wrong things.

Here's the base form of the capital that I will model the swags of pine needles. You can see that all important center line. The drywall screws serve two functions, they anchor the clay onto the form. They also help me establish the depth of the relief. More in the next post.

Sculpture and Architectural Restoration

Everyone thinks of the arts as wild and free.
Everyone except artists, who know better. All of the arts require skills (work) and process (work).

Architectural restoration is technical sculpture.
It isn't about making anything up, rather it's how close can you get your object to match what was.

The pine cone roughed out.

 

Here's the pine cone almost finished. Note the pencil center line and horizontal lines.
Paying attention to drawing and constantly referencing these can seem like a student exercise.
You know what? It's makes working faster and more concise.

Overall, it's got a good range of light to dark. Now to tighten it up and make every thing align.

Sculpture and Architectural Restoration

Restoration sculpture is detective work, always looking for clues.
Instead of motives, I'm looking for forms, what did it originally like?

This light post capital has a Northwest theme., large pine cones with needles forming a swag.
The cast concrete that has worn down over time, exposing more and more aggregate. Other areas have been chipped and broken.

It would be pretty clear if I had the actual capital in front of me. Wouldn't that be nice?
Instead, working from photographs, I must not only interpret the object but also the image.
Thank god the photos are decent. Sometimes, I never know and must make an educated guess....

Does that black indicate a recess or is it because of form or mold, lichen, moss?
Is that highlight, that bright spot, the original plane? Or a break or bird poop?

  Restoration begins today.

Sculpture and Wildlife Rehabilitation

People think of sculpture as art.
Shadows On Stone champions how diverse sculpture can be.
Art, yes, but sculpture is beautiful in how it solves real problems.

Here's working sculpture in the form of veterinary medicine and wildlife rehabilitation. Video by Keith Bubach.
Beauty and the Beak from Keith Bubach on Vimeo.

Sculpture and Mark Tipple

Mark Tipple's beautiful photographs are of the ocean, but they're about Eros and Thanatos.
That's Beauty and Death, the quick line between summer play and survival.

Glass Slide #003 by Mark Tipple ©2012  Used with permission of the artist.

That's because Mark shoots the action beneath the waves on the Underwater Project. 

Dark Paradise by Mark Tipple ©2012  Used with permission of the artist.

The Underwater Project  captures the turbulence patterns of waves and swimmers tumbling within them.

Summer Storm by Mark Tipple ©2012  Used with permission of the artist.

Tipple sees his ocean photography as a call to arms, a merging of humanitarian concerns with the beauty of nature. “I realized that humanitarian concerns can’t be divorced from environmental ones – they’re one and the same.”

Click on the links to learn more about Mark Tipple's work or to purchase photos.
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My sculpture series, the Nature of Water, is very different from Mark's photography. It is so good to find another artist committed to both the beauty of water and the critical for awareness of global water issues.  His work gives me a larger vision of what I want to accomplish with my new work.

Sculpture and Paper Cuts

What happens when you take a flat graphic pattern and sandblast it on to stone?

It's fascinating how that image in stone becomes delicate.

Instead of a flat graphic pattern you see subtle nuances of texture and light.

Wild Rose by Patrick Gracewood ©2012

 Remember this wild rose papercut?

 
Peter Andrusko, master of all things stone, translated it into both positive and negative images on a 12 x 12 inch Pennsylvania blue stone tile.

This is the negative version with the image recessed.

This is the positive version with the image on the surface.

I'm delighted with both versions so I need your help.
Does one (positive) or the other (negative) read better for you?

Sculpture and Proposals

 Sometimes an orientation meeting can be very Disorienting.

........As in realizing that my proposed sculpture won't work with the site.

All of the site orientation talk was of trees and nature, community and history,
the site felt more like this photo.

Yes, there are trees, but there's also a major highway, full of cars going fast.
Then there will be trolley trains, a narrow planting buffer, then a bike and pedestrian "trail".
Trail implies a walk in the woods. Think freeway for bikes and fast, able bodied walkers.

I'd proposed a tall, vertical carving. There's no vista in this section. No one is going to be looking up if it feels like that would endanger your life.

This site needs anchoring and a feeling of safety, a place to pause by stepping out of all the traffic.

Time for plan B.