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.

Home of the Innocents monuments

I am creating two sculptures that will be placed in Cave Hill Cemetery to mark the grave of a
Sister Emily Cooper, an Episcopalian Nun who was the primary caretaker of Home of the Innocents of Louisville,KY and the as yet unmarked graves of some 200+ children. Home of the Innocents was originally an orphanage from the late 1800s - 1920s.
The photo below shows Sister Emily Cooper's grave site.

The sketch below shows a preliminary concept for the monument that will be placed at her grave. The monument symbolizes her important work with the children (lifting the child) and ultimate spiritual guidance (the dove). The concept and design for this piece is that of Don Lawler, though I worked out the sketch. It will be more fully developed in 3 dimensional form. This is the site for the Children's monument.
This is the design for the Children's site. It represents Sister Emily Cooper shaking out a blanket upon which are incised images of butterflies. At the end of the blanket the butterflies are becoming 3 dimensional. This symbolizes the journey of the children through her care (represented by the blanket) to their spiritual release (represented by the butterflies taking flight). The names of the children will be carved upon the granite plinth.This is the clay model or maquette for the monument which will be placed at Sister Emily Cooper's grave site. The skirt is fuller and has more movement than the original sketch. Also she has full sleeves.

Here the sculpture is laid out using the original sketch for the main armature. Plumbing pipe is used to form the armature.

The metal armature.Foam is added to the armature.

Yew Dell

Yell Dell Gardens held it's first annual Outdoor Sculpture Show which runs until July 26th. The gardens is located in Crestwood Kentucky. In addition to Don's and My work, there are a great deal of other area sculptors - Mary Dennis Kannapell,Craig Caviar, Matt Weir, Al Nelson, David Lind, Karen Terhune, David Kocha, Jeann Dueber, David Caudill, Brad White and Amanda Matthews Fields.

Here is a sculpture that I did for the show entitled "Breaking Free". The sculpture started with

a piece of stone Don started to carve and then discarded. I hated to see it go to waste so I

worked up a clay model that would fit in the stone.

The beginning of "Breaking Free"

Starting to block the piece. The sculpture is beginning to take shape. I use timber crayon (the black marks) to try out movements in the stone before cutting with a grinder. At this point I am uncertain what I
want to do with that sweeping movement leftover from what Don had done. I'd like to break up
the vertical line and get more movement in it. I haven't worked out the hands and I'm not quite
sure where the feet are yet, though I know they are at the ends of the legs.....

Here I have worked out most of the body feet and blocked in the hands and have just begun to work some on the the sweep of stone. I'm thinking drapery.

Here you can see that I have blocked in the drapery...
And here he is at Yew Dell... I also did an Ophelia for the show, this was the first one I have done in years. And here she is getting filled with water. Happily she was purchased on the opeing night of the show.
This piece is entitled "Overcoming Oppression" and is really about the struggle of the individual to overcome self imposed obstacles.This is the Cougar. It also sold on the opening night of the show. That made me very happy indeed.....

ha

Rocky Mountain National Park

This is what you see not long after you enter Rocky Mountain National Park. This area is called Horseshoe park. My first destination is to see how far up I can get on Trail Ridge Rd. It is the highest through road in the lower 48 states, reaching a peak of 12,183 feet. The road is closed in the winter months and won't open until May 23rd. My visit was on May 20th. Just missed the opening by a few days, rats. But lets see how far up I can get.
The termperature in Aurora was in the 80s, in the park it was in the 60s, but as I progress up Trail Ridge Road and gain in elevation, I get into snow....
I pause to take photos of the snow in the pine trees.
I have gotten up above tree line here and the snow is pretty deep. Thought I'd take a photo with the car for scale...
I got as far up as Forest Canyon Overlook which is 11,716 high. This is the view down to the trees.
For me, this is just beautiful territory. There's just something about mountains.......

The trip to Estes Park

After the meeting was concluded I headed to the mountains, as I could hear them calling. My Journey took me north to Loveland and then west, my destination, Estes Park. I unfortunately took the first exit for Loveland (needed to take the second exit and take 34 into Estes Park)and so instead of a straight shot from Loveland to Estes Park, I met a series of Ts in which I had to make a decision, left or right. When the direction was either east or west the decision was fairly obvious, head towards the mountains. When the direction was north or south I was less certain, but figuring I was too far south, I chose North, and it somehow worked out. I would be hopelessly lost if I tried to find my way back that way. I was so happy when I finally saw the Estes Park mileage sign. Only 20 miles!
The twenty miles up to Estes Park winds through a canyon with a stream to one side.
This is one of the many photos I took on my way up to Estes Park. It seemed that around every turn, and there are lots of turns, there was some view that begged to be photographed. It made for a long, slow 20 miles. But as I was alone I didn't have to hear a lot of sighing from the other side of the car.Don and I have stayed at the Discovery Lodge (formerly The Hobby Horse) when we have visited Estes Park in the past and I was hoping they would have a vacancy in one of the rooms that has a balcony - there are not many of these (only about 8). And yes! there's one available -only $50.00!
The view from my balcony. Out there, beyond that sign and the town of Estes Park is Rocky Mountain National Park. And I'm going there tomorrow morning! See ya in the next post....

My trip to Colorado

For my latest proposal, I flew out of Indianapolis Airport (more of a drive but much cheaper than Louisville,Ky) to Denver, Co. My final destination was Aurora Co. a suburb east of Denver.
Here is a shot I took during the flight. This is the Aurora Municipal Building where I am to give my proposal. There are three other finalists besides myself. They were Arlene Slavin, Evelyn Rosenberg and Dowe Blumberg who is a fellow Kentuckian, located in Northern Kentucky. Just outside the Municipal Building is a sculptor installing his work. No idea who he is, need to find out so I can post his name
The competition was for a sculpture to go on the grounds of the Star K Ranch which,while in former days was a ranch, is now basically parkland with walking trails. We were supplied a list of native animals and in researching the various species for a likely candidate for creating into a sculpture, I discovered the ecological importance of the black-tailed Prairie Dog.
Prairie Dogs are considered keystone species because they alter the shortgrass plains by keeping grass and weeds clipped in their towns. This serves to increase the nitrogen uptake and makes the vegetation higher in protein. Numerous animals utilize the prairie dog towns those who graze on the vegetation, those to eat prairie dogs and smaller animals who use abandoned borrows for shelter.

This is my proposal, entitled the Prairie Portal. It is an archway of Indiana Limestone with various species carved upon the faces of the stone. The Black-tailed Prairie Dog is on the keystone, of course. On top of the arch stands a coyote, looking down. It is not apparent why a coyote would be standing on top of an arch until you step inside....
This is a cutaway showing the inside view of the arch. A recreation of a Prairie Dog burrow. Theburrow leads further down which symbolizes another important aspect of the Prairie Dog - their towns are known as macropores and promote the rapid transit of water through the soil. The process is known as short circuit bypass flow and allows water to move quickly past the root zone into the water table. My sources for research are Munn,L.C.,1993 The effects of Prairie Dogs on the physical and chemical properties of soils ; Outwater,A Water, a Natural History ( a really interesting book) and Daniel W. Uresks 2007 Prairie Dogs, An ecological review and current biopolitics. The black-tailed prairie dog has been removed from 98% of it's original range. The western states have been having a drought for years. Makes me wonder how much of a role removing prairie dogs has had on the environment.

The view from inside the portal. While I really enjoyed doing the research for this job (kind of fed the closet biologist in me) ultimately I did not get the job. Darn! It went to Douwe Blumberg who will be doing 12 horses in steel (the ranch also has riding trails). I hoped I could educate people about the importance of the black-tailed prairie dog - I didn't know any of this stuff until I started reading. At least I educated the committee , a little. Ah well can't win them all,but I did get to fly to Colorado, and while I'm here.... well, you'll see in the next post.

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.