Monday, June 23, 2008

old friends

Last week, I worked Saturday so that I could take off Monday after my long birthday adventure on Sunday. So, that left me with a short week this time.
Tuesday, I focused my efforts on grinding the south lower shell into its final contours.

Wednesday, I repeated the process on the north shell form. You can see the grinder with the diamond blade that I used in the lower portion of the photo.

Thursday and Friday involved final grinding and sanding on both sides. This is how the east view looked after work on Friday.

This is the other side of the sculpture at the end of the weeks effort. In last week's post, I showed the process of finishing the shell surfaces. First, there was a grinder with a masonry wheel to prepare the surface for sanding. Then there were 4 separate sanding passes.

Meg went to the 1st annual Riverspan sculpture show that was held on the purple bridge that spans between Covington, KY and Cincinnati, OH.

The Positive: There were 71 sculptors who had a large amount of very high quality work. In fact, it is the largest and best collection of sculptures that I have ever seen in our region. Furthermore, it was well planned and executed by the promoters. They had a very effective covering that provided shade, but allowed a cool breeze from the river. They had also provided pedestals that created a unified look. There were also quite a few sales.

The Negative: They charge a high jury fee ( I belong to the grass roots movement to abolish jury fees). They charge a high booth fee and a 33% commission (it should be one or the other, not both). A bridge is a poor setting for sculpture - a park would have been much better. Also, they insist on handling and setting up all sculptures (I'm very uncomfortable about the idea of other people handling my work and sales). And they charge an outrageous $15 entry fee.

Make your own decision about attending or participating in the future shows. It was a very high quality collection that was presented in a very professional manner.


The high point of the week was visiting my college roommate and best friend Tom Mitts (center) who lives close to the sculpture show that Meg and I checked out. John Kaiser drove up from Danville, KY to join us. That's Tom's dog in my lap. Tom is a painter who went on to LSU for his Masters in Fine Art, after receiving his BFA and a physics degree from Centre College in Danville, KY. John works with his father who is an industrial designer. We used to be inseparable as friends back in school. But time and distance had got between us and we hadn't seen each other in many years. Tom and I used to take lots of road trips and adventures together. We'd been from Maine to Texas and east coast to west coast many times. We'd managed to see all 48 lower states.

No comments: