Lost in the Fog

This week involved 2 big road trips.

There was an all-day fog on Monday when I went to the Owensboro Museum of Fine Art. It was also foggy on Friday's trip. (photo Meg White)

Friday, I went to Victor Oolitic Limestone Company near Bloomington, Indiana. This is how they cut quarry blocks into slabs. It's called a Belt Saw, and it moves down a geared track to get into position for a new cut.

This is a vacuum lift for moving individual slabs.

The 2 blocks on the left are for St. Theresa Cemetery, which is the main reason for the trip. I rounded out the load with the 2 eight inch slabs, that weigh about 4,000 lb. apiece. I only use my old truck (shown) for handling stuff around the studio. I rented a flat bed truck from Penske for hauling the load.

It's rained constantly for the rest of the week. Meg snapped this photo of water backing up from the flooded Ohio River, in the swamp below our house.

Meg snapped these photos during the freezing fog on Monday. ( ...send dead flowers every morning...)

(...send dead flowers by the mail...)

(....send dead flowers to my wedding...)

A New Decade

The temperature hasn't been above the freezing mark, ever since the decade began.

Thursday, we got about 2 inches of snow. (photo Meg White)

I was glad that I had indoor work to do. Meg needed an armature for her Terre Haute commission. Steve McMillen helped us out with the welding and fabrication.

We used steel pipe to make the armature, which was cut to length with a chop saw.

The armature had lots of complex angles. We constantly checked our progress against the scale clay maquette. Besides taking all the photos on this post, Meg transposed all the measurements from the scale model to the full scale armature and directed our progress. See her blog for more details.

The sculpture consists of a family group of 4 figures rendered 2/3 life-size. The first armature to be made was for the woman.

After making the armature for the man, we began to fasten everything to a steel base plate. We added metal props under the 'seats' of the Man and Woman, for strength and stability.

Once we had the armatures for the Man and Woman in proper relationship, we fabricated and added the Boy.

Then, we added the Girl.

After adjusting all 4 figures to their final position, we cut and welded braces to strengthen the assemblage. Meg will add at least 200 lbs. of clay to create the sculpture. The armature must support that and the weight of the mold.

Steve finished up the welding, and the armature is now ready for Meg to add foam.

...and now, for something completely different.... bird tracks in snow. (photo Meg White)