Sunshine Daydream!

This spring has been spectacular! The weather this week was perfect and the Locust blossoms filled the air with a wonderful fragrance. There are only 3 types of weather in Kentucky: too hot to work, too cold to work or too nice to work.

Nevertheless, work proceeds on the Washington commission at a brisk pace. Last week, the general outline around the sides was formed. This week will focus on blocking out the general shape from front to back.
This is the view of the north face as I began the week's work.
I've preformed the protective seed shell on the south face of the sculpture.
The procedure was repeated on the opposite side.
What is now the front side of the sculpture, was cut flat in the quarry as part of the mining process. I use the flat side to lay out the curves and forms of the design. By using a square, I get an accurate placement of the curves of the median line for the 3 shell pieces. I'm making the radius of the top piece correct at this point.
I begin to carve weight off the top.
This is the view of the south face as I continue to remove stone.
This is the view from the other direction. I have preformed some of the shapes on the front face, as well.
This is what the sculpture looked like at the end of work, late Saturday. The sculpture has its general preform. It probably weighs about 7,000 lbs, down from the original weight of 13,000 lbs. Next week, I will focus on forming the interior plant shapes.
The highlight of the week for me was the trip to the Victor Oolitic stone quarry on Wednesday. This is where the stone for the Washington commission originally came from.

The main purpose of the trip was to get the 3 bottom blocks of select grade cut stone that will be the bases for Meg's LSU fountain group. Of course, like a kid in a candy store, I had to get something for myself. The square block that I have my hand on, will be part of a base for the next project titled "Nexus". I rounded out the load with 8,000 lbs of variegated slabs (not shown here).

Meg has what she calls a "Daydream". She found and photographed a small flowering plant that has 2 state biologist stumped. She has the hope that she has discovered a new species. She will post pictures of it on her blog http://rockpaperscissorsnclay.blogspot.com/ later this week. Be sure to check it out. I hope her dream comes true!

Derby Week

The first Saturday in May is always a big deal in Kentucky. My own Derby activities were a little off beat, as you can see at the end of this post. But, business first! I have begun a new project that is entitled "Release" which is an earthworks and Indiana Limestone sculpture that will be installed in Ft. Nugent Park near Oak Harbor, Washington. This is the block of Indiana Limestone that will be carved into the form of a new plant as it is released from its protective seed shell. It weighs 13,000 lbs and measures approximately 7 foot long by 4 foot wide by 2 - 1/2 foot thick.

The first task was to lay out the outside dimensions onto the stone to determine how the design will fit into the block.

I determined where the bottom will be and incised the line with a diamond blade. The first task is to remove the material to the left of that line, which I don't need.

I used this big drill to make deep holes that are about 8 inches apart.

I placed metal "feathers and wedges" into the holes. By beating in the wedges with the hammer, it places pressure on the half-round "feathers" which directs pressure in opposite directions. As you hammer the wedges, they 'tune up' with an ever higher pitch as the pressure increases.

Stone has no elasticity - it won't bend, it will break. As the pressure increases, something has to give. A crack will form where there is a path of least resistance; in this case, the line of deep holes that I drilled.

I used our crane truck to move the one ton piece of scrap out of the way so that I can make the bottom flat. That piece of scrap will become another sculpture someday (maybe more than one).

I used the diamond wheel on the grinder (shown above) to make cuts along what will be the bottom of the sculpture. I cut a bit and then break off the pieces, so that I can cut a little bit more. I use a level to check my progress, so that the bottom will be true and flat.

Our crane truck can only pick up 4,000 pounds. The block still weighs around 11,000 lbs. at this point, so I hired a monorail truck owned by Breck County Ready Mix to move the block over to the studio.

After lowering the block to the ground, I re-tied the rigging so that the block could be stood up on its bottom end.

The block was then lifted onto my 'cart and rail' system. This heavy duty rail cart will allow me to roll the piece into the studio during rain or the coming hot weather.

I drew the design onto the flat surface of the block by gridding the drawing and gridding the stone. The drawing was sized and printed off from a computer so that it measured 5 inches high by 4 inches wide. The stone measures 5 foot high by 4 foot wide, so that gives me a 12 to 1 scale (1 inch on the drawing equals 1 foot on the stone). I incised the lines so that they wouldn't wipe off as I began carving.

I've begun the process of carving by cutting away the stone outside the outline of the design. I make parallel cuts with the diamond wheeled saw and break them off with the hammer and chisel.

By the end of the 1st week, I have removed most of the waste stone around the outline of the design.
On Derby Day, Meg and I found a mother possum that was hit on the road between our house and our studio. It had 8 babies that were still alive and clinging to her. We took them to Woodland Wildlife Rehabilitators in Radcliff, Kentucky, which is mainly the round-the-clock effort of Monika and John Wilcox who feed and clean up after an endless stream of distressed wildlife. They currently have 900 creatures that they are rehabilitating. I encourage anyone to make a donation to them, as they work so hard on a shoe-string budget. Their address is Woodland Wildlife Rehabilitators, 297 N. woodland Dr. Radcliff, KY 40160 (270) 351-3509. I don't think that they have e-mail or a website. If anyone finds out differently, I will post it.

Kentucky at its best

The weather has been exceptionally great this week. I was able to get in a full week's work to finish this stone sculpture entitled "Moments".

The sculpture came out better than expected, but it took a lot more time than originally planned.

When I say "Kentucky at its best", I'm referring to the abundance of flowering trees like redbud and dogwood which are at their peak. The wildflowers are out and the leaves are coming out on the trees. You can feel Life returning from its winter sleep. It's hard to describe, you just have to experience it!

We had time to go exploring a little, as well as putting in full time in the studio. Meg and I went to Otter Creek Park because I wanted to take a look at this old stone furnace. It was built and used in the 1800's. Someone told me it was a lime kiln, but I'm of the opinion that it was an iron smelter.
Meg showed me this cave that she found when she and her sister Liz hiked the Otter Creek Trail around the park (8 miles). She can feel the blast of cold air coming up from the cavern.

Shake, Rattle and Roll !!!

This week we experienced a 5.2 magnitude earthquake with an epicenter about 100 miles to our west. Meg was lying awake about 5:30 A.M. Friday morning and heard it coming from far off. Our underground house acted like a sound chamber and amplified the noise. It shook the house for about 30 seconds, long enough for Meg to leave the house. I was too lazy to leave the comfort of bed (shaken, but not stirred).

I had a small window of time between the Green Bay commission and the commission that will go to Oak Harbor, Washington. So, I began a project that will fit into this slab of Indiana Limestone.

This sculpture is entitled "Moments". I have described its concept and inspiration in last week's post, so I won't repeat myself. I have drilled off the extra piece on the end. The design has been cut into the top surface and the outline is nearly complete.

The sculpture was moved into the studio after removing the bulk of the waste. I have begun to shape the major forms and have opened an interior negative space.

By the end of the week, the design is emerging.

Last week, when I went out to get some extracurricular pictures for the blog, I came home with a stray kitten. I thought that it might be safer to stay home, this week, and post something from the archive. Here's a picture of a rock climber, about to camp out for the night half way up a shear granite cliff in Yosemite Park, California. Can you see the climber in the center of the picture?
There he is! I'm guessing that the black-and-white thing is to help people keep track of his position. Photo by Meg White. She took this picture when she was in California a couple of years ago to give a sculpture proposal for the City of Oakland. We spent some time in Sequoia park, as well.

The Devil is in the Details

Actually, the saying is "God is in the details", but the effort that goes into creating the details is other than heavenly. For instance, Take a simple phrase like "I crated and freighted a 3,000 lb. sculpture at the beginning of this week". Sounds easy enough, but the devil was in the details. I'll spare you.

The work on the Green Bay commission focused on the detailing of the intertwining forms on both sides of the sculpture. The "clean-up" phase of finishing a sculpture is the hardest. The initial enthusiasm of any project wears off toward the end. There are endless hours of work that go into the craftsmanship of finish work. In short - it's fussy and meticulous.

The sculpture is nearly complete. There are some minor "tweaking" that I'd like to do before pinning the sculpture to it's gray/blue granite base.

It will be at least 2 weeks before the base arrives, so I will leave this sculpture alone till then. It will give me a chance to "live with it", which will help me to decide about any changes or improvements.

This is the sculpture that I will make over the next 2 weeks. It is entitled "Moments" and will be carved from a slab of Indiana Limestone approximately 6' H x 4'W. The polished ring represents 'Here and Now', the large circular form rising from the bottom is the next moment (the future) that will be the new "Here and Now". The other forms are old moments, receding into the past. Every evening, I read before going to sleep - and I can't help but think that those stories work their way into my sub-conscious, and then into my work. I just finished a book by Isaac Asimov titled Nemesis, that features someone looking from an observation dome of a space station onto a habitable world that is the satellite of a gas giant that orbits a red dwarf star. Can you see the influence?

I've been too busy this week to have any fun pictures, so I took a quick drive 2 miles down the road to snap a shot of this roadside spring. We jokingly call it "Hepatitis Spring" because years ago it was closed for use because of contamination from a nearby elementary school. While snapping shots, we heard a meowing coming from... somewhere. But from where? We walked this way and that, having difficulty pinpointing the source of the noise.
Eventually we discovered it was coming from inside a hollow tree. Someone dropped off a kitten - I guess they were thinking that someone else would take it home. I wish that I could only show you "Waterfalls and Wildflowers", but there's another side of Kentucky country life that's not so pretty. There's a type of people who will dump garbage in the prettiest places - and give no thought to dumping off unwanted animals. Over the past 14 years we have had to deal with countless drop-offs. We currently have 8 cats - all 'road waifs', and all of our friends and family have their fill, too. I will lose most of a days work tomorrow and $25 to take this girl to the Louisville Humane Society, 75 miles from here where she'll have her best chance of getting a good home.

April showers...April flowers

On Tuesday April 1, I cut my hair and got a job....not!

The sculpture for Green Bay is looking pretty good. The first half of this week was spent further refining the current forms on side B. There was considerable work on defining the outer geometric ring.

This sculpture has been fairly restless. It's being set back upright with the gantry crane. Meg does the work, while I watch.

By the end of the week, I have refined and polished the 2 geometric rings. This is side B.

This is side A. The sculpture looks like it is nearing completion, yet there is quite a bit of finish work to do.

Waterfalls and wildflowers are the theme of this weeks extracurricular pictures.

This is the first year that I've noticed these White Trout Lillies.

These Yellow Trout Lillies are only around for a short time.

We went exploring up in Yellowbank Wildlife Management Area on this sunny Sunday afternoon. We followed a stony bottomed creek.

A little further down, we found this little waterfall and a secluded pool.

Further down the creek was another waterfall and pool. This one has a live tree that bridges across the top. It'll be a great place to sit between slides into the pool when it gets hot.