Turn of the Wheel; a new commission, semi finalist and finalist

The Home of the Innocents commission will be finished soon. Three of the committee members were out recently to give final approval and, as that job ends, another is just beginning.

I have been awarded a commission for the Charles City Iowa Art in the Park project. Below is a photomorph of the sculpture that will be placed in the park. The concept that the city wanted to convey is education. Entitled "Girl Reading", the sculpture will be created from Indiana Limestone and earthworks. The little girl and the book will be carved from stone and her skirt will be earthworks with a groundcover planting. The plants symbolize the ideas that become a part of us when we read.
The sculpture will be a little over 5 feet tall; the figures shown for scale.
In addition to this commission, I am also a semi-finalist for a $225,000.00 commission in Stockton, California.

The very day that I was getting approval for the Home of the Innocents clay prototypes, I received a call that I'm a finalist for the Hux Cancer Center in Terra Haute, IN ($42,000.00).

And now for something a little different, tree blossoms.


Can you guess what tree this is? You've seen this tree in bloom, but you may have missed it's inconspicuous flowers - what looks like white petals are actually sepals. It's a closeup of a Dogwood.This is a Cherry tree bloomI'm not entirely sure about this tree, I think it is a persimmon.

Update on Home of the Innocents sculpture and some photos of spring beauties

I have changed the blanket of the Home of the Innocents blanket, making it wider and giving it little more depth from front to back. I am bringing the butterflies out of the front and middle of the blanket as well as the top. I
have changed the hand position so that the left hand is more visible, because it was obscured by the blanket.

This is a profile view of the face. The change here is to give her an expression of wonder...

Another view of the face.

A detail of the blanket showing the butterfly pattern. The pattern is simple at the bottom, becoming more detailed and dimensional as it goes up the blanket.

And now for some pics of flowers and other things....

This flower is called Henbit. This photo was taken on a frosty morning.

Rainwater on Bloodroot. Or is it Twinblade?

A little grasshopper pays me a visit.

A Great Blue Heron, down in the creek in front of the house.

A prothonotary Warbler that was photographed in Holt Bottom, a few miles from our house.

finishing the second home of the innocents sculpture

I was down with a flu a few weeks ago, and so I fell behind in my blog postings. Now I will catch up ...

Here is Emily cooper, the top half is almost complete, I am still working out the skirt and apron.

For the blanket I attach a section of woven wire. This will act as an armature for the blanket. On the left you can see that I have already applied some clay.

I have worked out the skirt and apron - she doesn't have ties in the back - yet. I have also filled in the blanket with clay.I use a wire attached through the woven wire and attached it back to the frame. This stiffens the blanket.
This is the pattern of the butterflies. They will be more simple at the bottom and become more detailed as they approach the top of the blanket.

My favorite view of the piece....

Home of the Innocents, the ice storm

I have added more clay to the second sculpture for the Home of the Innocents which is entitled "Metamorphosis" The sticks you see are wooden skewers which secure foam which makes up

the inner part of the sculpture. After I pack the clay on I use a rake tool to smooth it out.

In the last blog I showed pictures of Don and me walking back to the studio in the freezing rain to feed the birds. That night we lost power as there was about an inch of ice on everything. And then we had several inches of snow on top of that.

These conditions are really hard on the birds and I really wanted to get to the studio so I could

put seed out for the birds. We couldn't get out as the roads hadn't been plowed yet, so our neighbor Steve Mcmillen (former manager of Yellowbank Wildlife Management Area) drove us

up - thanks Steve!

This is the view from Steve's truck about 1/4 mile from the drive to the studio. He dropped us off at the gate and came back in an hour to pick us up.

The road was unrecognizable. Trees were bent down from both sides of the road. As we walked back we could see the track of some creature that walked down the road before us. Both subsequent snowfall made identification of the tracks impossible. Fox, maybe?

The trail continues

and continues....

This is a cypress trees bent by the ice.

I don't know if these are seed pods or buds, or what kind of plant, I just thought it was pretty...

One of the many reasons I walk back to put out seed...

When Steve picked us up from our snowy walk, he said he had seen an otter slide on the creek, so I went down to take this shot. Steve fixed us dinner that night - a steak, potatoes and corn. Really great food. Thanks again, Steve!

When we got back to the house we had to restart the fire. The wood had ice on it and I thought it looked kind of cool and I had the camera so.....

The second sculpture for the Home of the Innocents and the beginning of the ice storm.

We have been without power for 6 days because of an ice storm that hit Kentucky Tuesday January the 27th. However, power has been restored! (at least for us). There are still many thousands more in Kentucky still without electricity and the windchill is below zero.

I have begun work on the second sculpture for the Home of the Innocents. The first sculpture will be located at Sister Emily Coopers' grave. This second sculpture will go to the area where most of the children are buried. The second sculpture shows Sister Emily Cooper shaking out a child's blanket, which has a pattern of butterflies upon it. At the top of the blanket, they are becoming real butterflies and are taking flight. This piece symbolizes the children's spiritual release from this world.
This is a maquette of the sculpture. In order to create the final sculpture, I have to determine where the armature will go. I take measurements from the maquette which will tell me where to place the main pipe. It will go through the center of her body, and determine the position for the armatures that support the arms and blanket. I attach a floor flange to a four foot wide piece of plywood that I have cut into a circle. The plywood circle is placed on a large turntable, so that I can spin the piece easily, to work on different areas.

I use galvanized pipe for the armature.

The body is first shaped with construction foam. I have cut sections of foam with a hole in the middle to fit down over the pipe that serves as an armature for the center of the sculpture. Taking measurements from the maquette, I have cut out the profile of the torso in 4 pieces of foam. I then glued the pieces together with wood glue, so that I will have 2 halves (left and right side of the body). I then slotted out a section of one half so that it will fit over the pipe. I use wood skewers to attach the 2 halves to the pipe.

I cut down the foam to form the torso. I need to make sure I cut off enough as I will be adding clay to flesh out the sculpture.

I use Chavant clay which is an oil based, sulfur free clay. It is fairly hard at room temperature so I need to heat it before I can pack it on to the foam. I cut the clay in slices about 1/4" thick and place them on black plastic - the plastic is large enough to cover the clay slices. Then this plastic is on a towel which is also big enough to cover the clay slices. This is then placed on a water bed heater which gives a gentle even heat.

The warmed clay is applied to the foam.

The arms have been cut from foam and attached with wood skewers.

On Monday we woke to snow and sleet. It was too treacherous to drive back to the studio. I feed the birds every day and felt it was important to make the walk. They especially need to have seed in such inclement weather. The studio is about 1/2 mile from the road. When we were walking back, the freezing rain had begun...

This is the first section of road leading back to the studio.

This is the next section

Don trudges through the rain..... little did we know how much this road would change in the next two days....

A spent flower encased in ice. But there is more ice to come.... much, much more...

Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association and an article in the Courier-Journal

Here is the cover of the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association.

And here also is an article in the January 18th Courier-Journal about that sculpture and other

work I have completed.

The article was written by Diane Heilenman. You can read the article online at:
http://courier-journal.com/article/20090118/SCENE05/901180333

Daphne refinement and photos of ice

I am finishing up Daphne, refining areas all over the piece; the body, limbs and leaves. I am experimenting with different textures for the trunk of the tree.
It is slow work finishing up the leaves, I want to have as much movement as possible.

I have spent a lot of time working out areas inside the piece, smoothing out chisel textures, etc.

I will refine the leaves further, but I have to be careful not to get the sculpture too fragile as it will have to be loaded onto a truck when goes to its new home.

Last spring I took a lot of macro photos of flowers. Now that it is winter, the flowers are all gone, but there is still beauty to be found, you just have to look close...

This is a photo of frost - the temperature was about 5 degrees, and I saw pockets of large crystals in the grass.

This is a closeup of a leaf in a frozen pond.

A tiny forest of ice crystals

An oak leaf in a frozen pond.