Light of Hope sculpture finishes, a new sculpture begins...

The sculpture is finished and I have sent photos for approval to the committee. Below are some views of the sculpture.


This the front.


This is 3/4 left of the front.


This is the back.


This is 3/4 left of the back.


The next job is a limestone mother Grizzly with 3 cubs. She is lying on her back cleaning one of her cubs. Her head is on the left side of the stone. I originally designed this piece as polar bear playing with it's foot, but then I got interested in grizzly bears and decided to change the sculpture to a mother bear with cubs.


Most people can't see the bear in this piece. I try to explain, she's on her back, cleaning a cub and there are a couple other
cubs somewhere on her belly, and the response is "yeah, I see it" but I'm not sure they do. But a woman who had purchased
a pink marble snow monkey from me could see what I was doing with the piece and asked me to do a maquette of what the bear would look like finished. So I did - it's posted in an earlier blog - and she liked what she saw, so now I'm carving this Grizzly family for Kosair Healthcare Center on Brownsboro Rd. in Louisville,KY. The second bear cub will be gripping his mothers back leg, playing with his littermate who is lying on his mothers belly.


This is the rear end view of the mother bear, the third cub will be lying on it's back playing with it's brother. You can see it, right?


I waded out in the creek the other day to visit the island. This is a view upstream.


This is the view downstream, I like the cathedral feel of the trees.


This is a guy that went past who was taking photos with his camera,just like me.

Continued work on Light of Hope and Healing

This is the front of the little boys shirt - I am pressing a section of clay into place.

I smooth down the clay of the boys shirt with my fingers.

I'm defining the little boy's belt with a wood tool.

Individual folds of the hand are made from coils of clay and pressed into place

This is the back of the mans hand, removed so that it can be more fully detailed.

Defining the little boys show with a small loop tool.

The sculpture showing the little boy from the back.

A cow sillouetted against the evening sky.

For a contrast in scale, this is an inchworm on my hand.

I have no idea what kind of plant this is. Ideas anyone?

With the warming temperatures,the leaves are just beginning to open

"Connections" at LSU dedication Cover of Journal of Veterinary Medicine Association

The bronze and limestone sculpture entitled "Connections" was dedicated November 6th at the
LSU School of Veterinary Medicine's Serenity Pavillion in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

This is the sculpture with the finished brick work and the fountain running. There is a copper pan between the woman and the animals to contain the water. Milton Womack Construction did the brick work and WHL Architects did the copper pan and plumbing. I am very happy with their contribution - really first rate!
The dedication turned out great, with a large attendence. Present were representatives from the Humane Society of the United States, the American Kennel Club, the International Fund for Animal welfare, and the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.


While I was in Baton Rouge, I stayed at the faculty club on campus. There was not a hotel room to be found anywhere around Baton Rouge, because of hurricane Gustav, which did a great deal of damage to the area.

The inside of the faculty club, where I had breakfast the four mornings that I was there.The campus at LSU has live oaks everywhere. I took a stroll to see some of them. This one is in front of the Faculty club. (Really a great tree!)

In my stroll, I visited Mike the tiger. He has a large natural area with a pool.

Not far from Baton Rouge are Cypress swamps. I had to go out and see them, while I had the chance.

This is a rose mallow that I saw down there. They have a huge flower - a wild form of Hibiscus.

When I was on my way home, the plane was delayed getting into Chicago, which caused me to miss my connecting flight. I had time to kill, so I wandered around and took this pic of a Brachiosaurus from the Field museum. Pretty cool....

My newly installed sculpture, "Connections", will be on the cover of the Journal of the Veterinary Medicine Association. Photo by Harry Cowgill, LSU School of Veterinary Medicine. The sculpture is dedicated to all those who give care to animals. It illustrates how people reach across the gulf that separates us from animals and that, by providing care, they "Connect".

Home of the Innocents sculpture

These are materials I used to build up the armature over the pipe.

Pink construction foam is attached with liquid nail and wooden skewers which help stabilize the foam. A knife is used to cut the foam to the desired shape.
After the foam is blocked in, I pack on clay. This is an oil based clay called Chavant HP.
I use sidecutters to remove the ends of the wooden skewers.
A detail of the dove and child. The arms have been removed so that detail on the doves tail can be applied. The arms will be reattached when the work is finished.
One of the babies arms.

Here is the sculpture as of August 3rd, 2008. I am still working the clay on around the edge of the skirt. Next will come finish texture.

Now for the "scissors"

The scissors of course refer to bronze. Bronze offers what durability and
color without the weight and technical problems of stone.
This sculpture is for Veterinary College at Louisiana State University. It will be a fountain. Water will pour out of her left hand and fall into her right. Sitting across from her will be a cat and dog. The sculpture is about giving care to animals.

Next comes Rock

I met Don Lawler in 1991 when he was set up at a fair selling stone sculptures with his then partner, Bobby Howard.

"Wow!" I thought. They were making and selling sculptures made of stone. Maybe I could learn to carve stone!

No more piles of paper clippings, endless folding of paper, sore fingers from scissors. Stone didn't have to be protected in a case like paper. Months of work wouldn't be ruined because it got rained on.

Of course I discovered that stone has it's own unpleasant qualities, like weight (150 lbs. a cubic foot) unending amounts of dust ( it gets in everything and goes everywhere - it took down two of our computers) and it can be annoyingly slow as you only work stone one way, by removing material, take too much off,

well, that's too bad. So it's carve, look, carve, look from this angle, with a mirror, on and on. But overall it's a lot of fun.

This sculpture is the Waking Muse which is an earthwork and stone sculpture at the Prairie Center for the Arts in Schaumburg, IL. This sculpture was done with my partner, Don

Lawler.