I love faces, any kind of face. No matter the size, shape, color, symmetry, asymmetry, or age of the face, it’s all freakin’ awesome. If I’m hanging out with a group of people I have to keep myself from getting distracted by comparing all of the unique features everyone has. It’s an awesome game that I have to be careful with because I can completely lose the thread of the conversation if I’m not careful (adding to the eccentric artist stereotype). Also, don’t get me started on how distractingly fun twins are!
In my own creations, my two main loves are deep conceptual work that portrays universal emotions and struggles, and portraits that reveal someone’s heart through their unique features and quirks. Now and then I have been delightfully surprised when a magical combo of the two coincide. An example of this in my work is The Discord of Harmony (see image below). The concept for this piece started while I was studying Frida Kahlo’s life. When Frida was 19, she was in a terrible bus accident where she was gruesomely impaled. When this happened somehow all of her clothes were ripped off and she was covered in gold paint/flakes—a painter on the bus had spilled it. The imagery of someone so completely in pain yet splashed with gold is a strong illustration of the dichotomy between pain and beauty, between visual horor and visual wonder that is embedded in this life.
I had to create.
I decided to attempt a portrait, not actually of Frida, that (as stated above) got to the heart of a person but also accomplished the concept I was attempting to convey to the viewer. I believe that I have achieved it with this sculpture, and as a result it is one of my favorite pieces. It was an “ahaa” breakthrough moment for me, bringing my two figurative sculpture loves together.
As I mentioned in my last post I was about to head to the National Sculpture Society’s Conference at Chesterwood in Massachusetts to compete in a portrait sculpting competition. I got there and was delighted to hang out with/sculpt with my fellow competitors! I don’t have that many opportunities to sculpt with my contemporaries since I’m not in a huge city like many.
In the 4 hour competition we were given the guidelines that we needed to make it our own, as in, not an exact likeness of the model was required but instead that we infused our own artistic personalities into the piece. Something that could be accepted into a gallery show and not just be a likeness. In 4 hours this is a very tall order. I don’t know how well I accomplished this but I worked my sculptor fingers off trying to make this happen. And ever since this event, I have been analyzing how to better infuse my artistic personality into all future work. I don’t think I have an exact answer/formula to make this happen but I intend to continue the attempt no matter how much time I have to create. Because when that magical feeling of a successful conceptualized portrait strikes, I can even feel it when I sculpt. There’s nothing quite like it.
So if you’re ever in a group of people having a conversation with me, you might notice me looking swiftly back and forth between faces. This is the look of an artist analyzing facial features attempting to imagine those faces as interesting portrait busts and maybe, just maybe that artist might be at the cusp of creating a conceptualized portrait.
Thanks for reading!
With much love,
Your friendly neighborhood sculptor.
