Finishing work, getting needed water and way too much water

I use a slender diamond bit to carve in between this sculpture's fingers - she'll be at the Yew Dell show.

We had trouble with the water and needed it to be fixed, so I can work out the water level on the otter and the sculptures can be power washed before the show. There's Don's guiding hand telling BJ and Mike from J.B. Bennet Plumbing what they need to do. ( ...like they need guidance..)

Here is the otter basin filled with water. I am making cuts down the sides of the piece, as I felt the sides were a bit boring....

We've had a bit too much rain; this is a neighbor's farm that is flooded. The Ohio river is behind him, so right now his place is an island. But, he has a boat and his brother and sister-in-law live right next door.

Another view of his farm from his brother's property.

Another view of the flooded Ohio river. The trees on the far side are in Indiana.

The water has come across our road about 2 miles from the house. If we want to go to Hardinsburg, we'll have to take the long way around. This is another neighbor driving through the flood waters. The man's name (aptly so) -is Phillip Flood. (I can't make this stuff up).

Our property is going under water..

The waterfowl like it. This pic was taken from the front yard before he sunk below the water. I think it is a Grebe.

This is a buttercup under the flood waters, yet it continues to bloom....

Eddie is not happy about his land going under water. But, we've got plenty of hay for him and the other two donkeys to eat until the flood subsides.

But, the water is still rising, forecast to rise another 2 feet. If it does, it will be too deep to drive through. We will have to move the car over to a neighbor's before it gets too high. Then, we'll have to canoe or wade to go any place.

The waters are starting to take out the bridge at the corner of the property.....

Continuing work, a turkey display and flooding returns

I continue work on the otter basin. I have refined the petals and leaves with die grinders and have opened up the basin using a 4" angle grinder.

I have started blocking out the womans arm. I am cutting it full and little low and as I refine it will get it into the right position.

I do almost all of the carving with a 4" angle grinder with a diamond wheel. While I was working, the grinder started making a funny sound. I turned it off and saw that a section of wheel had come off. Where it went is anybody's guess....

A sculpture of a leaping man I am working on and hope to have in a local show. It is in oil clay for bronze.Here is a Tom turkey doing his spring display, looking for girls.

We've had a fair amount of rain and flooding has returned - this is in our lower field. The pink tree is a Red bud in bloom.

Continuing work on the marble sculpture, and an angel sculpture for a Louisville show.

Work continues on the Marble sculpture, with continued refinement of hand face and leg. I am just beginning to work out where her left arm is. It will be lifting fabric away, the title of the piece is Lifting the Veil and deals with seeing beyond the "reality" of this world.
The crayon marks show where I think the arm will be. The very dark marks are for the view looking from her left side, showing where the profile of the underside of the arm might be. I will cut wide of any mark, the closer I get in to the form, the easier it will be to see where the arm really is.

This is her right foot. I am just beginning to cut the toes and work out the creases in the sole.

I have marked the areas that need to be removed, on the thumb and around the knuckles of the fingers.

This is an angel sculpture that I am doing for a show in Louisville.

Another creature with wings; I found this wasp in the window at death's door. So, I fed it a bit of soda with a bit of towel paper.

Before long, it was feeling better, cleaned itself and away it flew.

While I was feeding the wasp, I looked up and there stood a deer eating snacks....

Refining the figure, Otter in the basin and a river walk

Work continued on my Sylacauga Marble figure. The stone that I am carving does not have a lot of depth, so I have to be careful to fit the figure into it. Everything was fairly flat, requiring that I cut back areas that needed to be deeper. Also, I decided to cut back the front face of the stone to add dimension to the piece.

I had the foot too high and used a black crayon to visually remove the stone. I will now cut it off with an angle grinder.

Almost all the carving has been with grinders - 9" for larger areas, 4" for smaller areas and shaping. I also use a large die grinder with a mounted stone for interior and very small spaces. I have been steadily refining the sculpture; a little bit here, a little bit there. I want her arm to be lifting up fabric in front of her. I haven't determined exactly where the arm will be. I used a sander on the arm and face with 40 grit sandpaper. This is the first time that I've carved Alabama Marble - and I was curious about what it would do. I have carved Georgia Marble and some Colorado Yule. This is a very tight stone, with tiny crystals. It's great to carve and has a transluscent, fleshy quality.

I switched back and forth between the marble piece and the Otter fountain. I have hollowed out the basin enough to hold the bronze otter. I have roughed in the leaves and flowers of the lilies.

Another view...

The weather was so nice the other day, Don and I went for a walk by the Ohio River.

The path to the river goes by a field where corn was grown last year. This time of year lots of fields are covered with this purple flowering plants (some sort of cover crop) which makes for striking displays.

It was very windy, and these are bees were blown from the blooms of a plum tree where they were gathering nectar.

Figure in Sylacauga White Marble continues...

I roughly carve out the figure and use black crayon to indicate the profile of the face. At this point I had considered having both legs in front of her and have indicated that in crayon. I decided to fold her right leg under her and have removed stone to indicate the leg, leaving it roughly cut to indicate fabric. I have cut the profile of the face and have removed some stone from behind the head. I want to move the left leg over and indicate that in crayon. I also need to remove more stone along the line of her back to give her more depth. I crayon the center line of the face and the features. At the end of the stone, I mark where different parts (foot, elbow) are. I leave the foot intentionally wide, so I can move it left or right as the carving progresses. I remove the corners and some of the back of the stone with a 9" angle grinder, in order to open the stone more. Here she is, for now. The arm and hand are wide, for the same reason that the foot is wide. I may want to move things around as I finish. I work a little bit on various areas, like the face, foot and back, as I move toward a finish. Here is a little bumble bee that got into the studio and was anxious to get out. I got it onto a piece of paper and put it outside. Not sure what these are, but they are tiny. Each clump of blooms is only 1/2" across. Close up of a Twin-blade wildflower. The bears have been officially approved- from right to left is Mary Ann Pollard who commissioned the bears, Genie Lee her sister, Mary Ann's niece, Karen Coke, Lauren Wigginton and Lynnie Meyer, administrators from Norton Healthcare Foundation. On the far left is Katherine Vowels, who is responsible, not only for me securing this commission, but also the commission of the baby elephant sculpture (Ely) at the Louisville Zoo. Many thanks Kate!

Otter fountain sculpture and carving Alabama Marble

This will be a bronze otter and limestone basin with waterlilies. I chose a fairly thick stone, so that I can make the basin deep enough to accomodate the otter. I use a 9 inch angle grinder to remove stone from the basin. But, it is difficult to work like this, so...

...we used the crane truck to turn it onto it's side. I can now more easily remove the stone from the basin.

Then, we turn it back up, so that I can finish the lily pads and flowers.

I am just starting to work out the flowers and leaves.

Don helps me with the bronze otter, so that I can see the way that it will fit into the basin.

This week, I started the Syacauga Marble sculpture by sketching on the shape with a timber crayon. I worked out a model, but changed my mind about what I wanted to do with the piece. So, I had Don take pictures of me in the pose before I began.

The side of the stone. I have marked out how deep various parts of the figure are - hand, head and shoulder, so I can refer to that as I carve.

The figure just beginning.

This figure has progressed, but I like to get away from a piece for a while by working on other sculptures - that way, I come back with a fresh eye.

We've had some flooding in the area; this is our neighbor's field.
The weather has been warm and flowers have begun to open...