A horse for Derby

With Derby approaching I thought I'd do a horse emerging from stone. The concept is one of achieving freedom -the horse is releasing itself from the confines of the stone. I've always liked horses and have drawn them from the time I was a kid. It has been years since I have carved any and even then, they were just rough sketches.

This piece of limestone is a section from a large block for an earlier commission. It was cut from the block with a hydraulic chainsaw. That is why it is this odd shape. I like using pieces like this, there is a challenge to fitting a sculpture into it and sometimes you end up with a better sculpture. This piece will be carved directly, there will be no model though I will use various reference photos. The horse was drawn on out in the stone yard to see if it would fit.

I cut a line around the outside of the drawing with a 4" angle grinder. Any stone beyond that line I can safely remove though I will still cut wide. I begin cutting with an angle grinder with a diamond tipped 9"blade. I make vertical cuts and I will come back across with the grinder to remove them. The diamond cuts quickly through the limestone and it makes a lot of dust!

I roughly cut the front profile of the horse then start removing stone from over the horse's back.
In this photo I have drawn the horse with a raised knee. As I get further into the piece I realize that I can't do that, the leg and shoulder will have to be dropped on that side because of the shape of the existing stone, the body will have to twist down on it's right, but that's okay, I enjoy direct carving because you may start with an idea and then changes as I carve. Sometimes the changes occur as I carve because I see a new direction to go in. With this horse it's because I am limited by the existing stone. It is a challenge and I enjoy it.

The cuts in the horses back. You can see from this photo that the stone is somewhat wedge shaped. It is also seems to be leaning to the right. I will have to twist the horse's body slightly to fit the stone.

The stone sticks out on it's left side and I know I can comfortably remove this area. The facial features of the horse are barely cut in and thick. As I work I will define various areas. I leave the ears very thick until I have a better form on the head.

I work my way down the horse shaving away areas with the grinder. I have cut the ear although it is still a bit heavy. While I use a 9" angle grinder to remove large sections, the 4" angle grinder is the tool of choice for the actual carving of the piece. I use a diamond blade for roughing out the piece. I approach it from various angles - front, top, back as I carve to be sure of where I need to cut. I find it is best to define one area (such as the head) and then follow that form down into the stone - the head leads to the neck, the neck to the shoulders and so on. As I refine an area it becomes obvious where the next part of the horse is.

I use an air hammer to remove stone from behind the sholders. I start defining the mane being careful not to cut into the neck underneath. I have marked the line of the neck with a china marker in order to maintain that line.

The horse's right side will be slightly lower and the neck will have to run on an angle in order for the horse to fit into the stone. I drew the neck on the stone with china markers before I made any cuts.

I grind over the area that had chisel marks from the air hammer in order to better read the form. I begin to form the horses leg and shoulder.

I used the crane truck to rotate the horse so that it faces south. I was having trouble with one side as it was on the north side and always in the shade. That side was lagging in progress but now it will catch up.

I draw on the facial structure of the horse, making a line across the head to ensure the eyes are symmetrical to each other. I mark the bone structure and draw on the vein that is usually seen running down a the length of the face. I switch to a masonry blade for forming the face. It is less aggressive than diamond so I can get a smoother surface. I will cut the basic details (eyes, bones, vein) with this tool.

I begin carving this side of the horse by starting at the front and working back.

I refine the forms with a 4" angle grinder. I have yet to define the shoulders and leg on this side.
I am undecided whether to have the leg bent (as drawn) or straight and pointing down.

This side is more finished though it still needs work. I was going to define the lower leg but I like having it disappear into the stone...

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.

Mold work on the Home of the Innocents Sculptures

The sculpture entitled "Ascension" is the first to get a mold applied. Here is the finished sculpture.

The various parts of the sculpture, arms, babies arms and legs and dove get cut apart. This is so each section can be made into a two part mold. A mold release is then sprayed on.Two coats of Polygel 40 applied with paint brushes and now Don draws on a part line - this is where the two parts of the mold will separate. Steve McMillen helps Don by fitting shims to the Dove after applying the first coats of mold materialThe part line half-way down the body. Shims will be attached to the sculpture with polygel 40 combined with polyfiber which thickens it.

The shims are applied. This is plastic bubble sheet which can be purchased from Sculpture Depot in Loveland, Colorado. The bubble sheet was waxed with Trewax prior to use so that the mold material won't stick to it.

The baby's shims.
The sculptures will get approximately 6 coats of mold material.

When the sculptures are completely coated in Polygel, they get a plaster mold which is called a mother mold. The polygel captures the surface of the clay - even fingerprints, while the mother mold provides the basic support for the rubber mold. Without it, the polygel mold would distort.

After drying, the plaster and polygel molds are removed from the clay. Each 2 part section of the sculpture will then be taped back together and readied for shipping to the Foundry - Art Castings of Loveland Colorado.
Duct tape that baby!
The mold for the baby gets taped up and the bottom of the woman sculpture is turned upside down so that the inside of the skirt can be finished. It's much easier to finish this way than lying on my back reaching up inside....

Recently, my cousin Joe Marsh came to visit (he is on the right). My sister Liz is in the middle hidden behind her daughter Bethh, and her son Joey is in the red shirt. Joe, Liz and I (on left) were great friends as kids - we grew up together and went everywhere together. But as we reached adulthood, we kind of went our separate ways, but nows he's back, kind of like a long lost brother.

On Monday May 11, Liz's other son, Danny, had his 17th birthday. We celebrated at Fuji's, a Japanese restaurant in Louisville. Those are onion volcanoes.

The chef throws a ball of rice to Danny. Will he catch it? -----Actually he does!

Fireworks in honor of Danny's birth - a family tradition.

Danny blows out the candles.
In the next post I will show the quarry where I bought the stone for the Reading Girl for Charles City Iowa. It was selected for me by the quarry owner Steve Reed of Reed Quarries. It is an excellent block that I am looking forward to carving. More pics including the turning of a ledge in the next blog posting.

Going to Colorado - I'm a finalist for a percent for art commission and a sculpture for the upcoming Yew Dell show

I am a finalist for a public art commission ($55,000.00) in Colorado. I will be flying there on Sunday and will give my proposal on Monday. Can't show any pictures or tell anything about what I am proposing, so I'll show you what I have been working on for a sculpture show for Yell Dell Gardens in Anchorage,Ky . The show opens June 6th and runs through the 26th of June. This scupture began with a limestone block that Don started to work on and then abandoned. I hated to see that stone go to waste, so I tried working up a design that would fit into the remaining stone.
Here you can see I have crayoned on the basic design which will be a dancer, leaping. The inspiration for the piece was a stick caught in a spider web that if you squinted just right,
might have been a person leaping with this stuff trailing at the back. I guess you had to be there.
Here is the beginning of the figure. I had a small oil clay model to help me determine where everything was and what I needed to remove. This is the ugly stage of the sculpture. Just got to have faith that the form you want is in there, somewhere....
Another view of the dancer as he emerges.