"Flight of Fancy" monumental sculpture

I made a garden-sized sculpture from a piece of scrap stone that was the prototype for this new project.  By looking at the pictures of it in the post titled "first quarter of 2023", you can see how I intend to handle some of the textures and details in this large version.

This is a rough clay model with a figure for scale. The concept deals with letting your imagination take you away.  The climbing vine portion was inspired by the Magic Beans in the tale of Jack and the Beanstalk.  The wings give flight of your 'fancy'.

This view shows the flared composition in the back of the piece - for stability as well as visual interest.

I started with this quarry block of Indiana Limestone that I've been saving.  It measures 9-1/2 feet high by 4 feet wide by 2 feet thick and weighs 11,200 lbs.

There was a large corner that I was able to split off.  I will make a smaller sculpture from it one day.  You can see the top tip of the sculpture already emerging.

This is how that view looks today.

I laid out the central axis of the form to determine how to cut the bottom.

The bottom is finished and ready to stand the piece upright with a crane.

I have removed some of the stone from both long sides.

I took off some of the stone to make a tapered preform which will make it easier to stand upright.

 

First Quarter of 2023

The first 3 winter months of 2023 were spent doing designs for this coming year as well as trying out for public art opportunities (and various home improvements), so there isn't much to show in pictures.

The best design was for a piece of stone scrap that was 42"H x 18"W x 10"D.  It is called "Jack's Flight of Fancy" and is based on the tale of Jack and the Beanstalk.   

...moving around the piece...

The symbolism is how the seeds that are planted today lead to the dreams of tomorrow.

I had a small commission for an owl for a friend in Florida.

He also wanted a matching Eagle.

This is the back view.

I noticed that the chains that I carved last year are turning red.  It's aging quite unexpectadly well...

unicorn

 

"Attraction" Gateway Sculpture Delivery

Earlier this year, I created a gateway from 4 pieces of Indiana Limestone titled "Attraction".

It sold to a private collector and was delivered on December 1.

Each of the 2 main elements are about 6-1/2 feet high by 3 feet by 2 feet.  The top portions have a polished curving outer shell that contrast with the highly textured seed patterns (they also look a little bit like wings...)

The bottom portions have complexly carved roots covered in furrows of chisel marks.  Those forms emerge from a central polished cubic shape.

Meg used her crane truck to retrieve the gateway from the sculpture garden.

Dereck Sheroan loaded the pieces onto his crane truck after we had loaded a large figurative piece of Meg's.  We then made the trip to the site on a private estate east of Louisville.

After installing Meg's piece at the site,  we unloaded my gateway onto pallets brought to us by a forklift.

Joseph (on the left) was great help with installing Meg's piece and operating the forklift for unloading my pieces.

We used 4 separate pallets for the 4 pieces of the gateway.  The site has not been prepared yet for the final installation.  I'll post final pictures of the installed work soon.  This basically concludes my year, as far as stone work is concerned.  I will be spending the rest of December doing design work for next year's sculptures..

 

Resonant Journey Installation

November 18, 2022 was the day chosen to install my functional sculpture Resonate Journey.  The day started around 20 degrees and never got above freezing.  The steady breeze just made it that much more miserable.  

Dereck Sheroan of JBB, Inc of Hardinsburg showed up early with their 23 ton crane truck.

We loaded it and a large figurative sculpture of Meg's.  Then, we made the 75 mile trip to the private residence where both pieces were to be installed.

We installed Meg's piece first and then it was my turn.  A footer had been prepared underneath a large Cedar tree.  We tried to install the piece by going around the tree, but we didn't have the reach.

So, we had to go over it.  8,000 lbs. of months of work 40 feet in the air - this is why I wake up at 3:00 a.m. before big installations.

There were lots of people there who helped us immensely.  This is someone pushing back limbs as we lowered the piece into position.

The crane operator couldn't see me or the bench because of the tree, so John Neville had to convey my signals to him.

Here's the piece safely down and set.

Another view...

...and the back view showing how it overlooks a large pond.  This was a pretty tough installation on a breezy freezing day.  Definitely one for the books - and not soon forgot.  J.P. Shadley (standing in front of the bench) was the landscape architect and my contact person for the project.  He invited me, Meg, his 92 year old father-in-law and 3 other sculptors to where he was staying afterwards.  Beer, food, guitars (no less than 3) and good company - a great way to unwind after an ordeal!

 

Mother Nature

This is "Mother Nature", who just got finished with a major make-over.

She is made from Indiana Limestone and measures 8' high x 3' x 3' and weighs around a ton.

...and walking around the piece....

She is imbedded in a concrete base.  This is a technique that I had never used before - an experiment.

This project began in 2016 when I got a commission for a Virgin Mary to be installed in Cincinnati.

I had this 20' long stone block from Reed Quarry of Bloomington, IN.

I split off 8' and moved it inside, but I finally realized that it just wasn't thick enough to have the hands out in front of the figure.

I bought another semi load of stone to finish the commission.  This is the installed piece at a private residence in Cincinnati

Since the first version was already started and still in the studio, I decided to finish it and pour the concrete base around the bottom.  On Halloween 2017, we hired a crane to move the 2,000 lb. sculpture outside.

 For the last 5 years, I have used it as a feeding platform for wildlife.  We pour cracked corn and sunflower seeds on the concrete base at least twice everyday (yes, that gets a little expensive...).  One morning while drinking coffee and looking at the piece, I envisioned the changes to turn the Virgin Mary into Mother Nature - and it is a GREAT improvement!

 

Now Breaking Free From Chains

Happy Halloween!

This has been an INCREDIBLE fall (as far as the weather is concerned...)  Lots of great days to get work done outside - so I used the opportunity to give a final make-over on a monumental sculpture titled "Now".

The project started over 11-1/2 years ago!  On May 5, 2011, I bought this 43,000 lb. quarry block from Victor Oolitic near Bloominton, IN

Before leaving the quarry, they cut about 6,000 lb. off with this band saw to get rid of a bad layer - and  to help make the load lighter.

I worked on many, many drawings and models and finally settled on this design. A plaster cast was submitted to LexArts of Lexington, KY when  I was a finalist for a public art project in 2014.  I didn't get the project...

...but I began it on my own about a year later.  Meg had a 75 ton crane show up to unload and stand upright a 45,000 lb. stone for her  Univ. of Anchorage project.  I took the opportunity to stand the block upright after cutting the bottom flat.

Work began in earnest in the early spring of 2015.

This is what the front looked like by the end of 2016.

Here's a couple of back views.

Front view 2017

Back view 2017

Front View 2020

Back view 2020

Here is the final rendition, October 2022.

,,,and walking around the piece.

...and around.

That's the longest that I've EVER worked on a single project.  I'm happy to be finally finished and will be even happier when I move it to a final site (wherever that may be...).