Angel face with hands in Plasticine above:
Positive shape sculpted in wet- clay for wings below:
Creating a sculpture series...
THE PROCESS of creating a finished sculpture can be fascinating, lengthy, detailed. A face, two hands and a wing shape modeled in clay are the parts before making moulds.
The clay comes directly from the earth. I started sculpting when I was 4 years old. Pretend baking juicy mud pies on the sidewalk leaving ugly dirty patches as they dried in the sun which annoyed my mother. Moist earth is fragrant with growing living things too small to see. Living things grow in water & clay if you let them.
The angel hands are made of powdered clay mixed with a refined petroleum. Nothing grows in plasticine clay although I am strangely fond of the smell of that too. Some artists prefer only one type of clay over the other. I have uses for both. I have never been a snob about materials.
The negative mould for the wing shape is made from another earth element. Plaster of Paris is a magical powder. You add water then agitate aggressively which causes it to heat, expand, then shrink back together while it sets very hard. Plaster remains wet for a long time, a month. The mould is usually 'set' within an hour or two. The sculpted wet clay will be recycled in another sculpture. Working with plaster is also wonderfully messy. It's fortunate I learned to make mud pies.
Dedication...
My art teacher in junior high school was Miss Clark. Who became very excited about me when I started "taking Art from her". She had a wonderful method of teaching us how to mix colors. She gave us only 5 jars of paint. Red, yellow blue black and white. She supplied hundreds of jar tops to mix our own colors then gave us an assignment to paint flowers in any color but red yellow or blue.
Beside my parents, Miss Clark, who was known for her steely blue hair, was the most supportive person I had ever met when it came to my early art training. She was beyond disappointed, somewhat angry, when I took shop classes instead of art for our electives in ninth grade. She mistakenly thought I wanted to be with the boys for romantic reasons. I only wanted to learn what they were being taught, which until that year, 1965, was not allowed in our district. I wanted to learn about carving wood, and making paper, about electricity and engines. In those days girls were taught how to sew and cook while boys were given this other very interesting information. I recall a lot of boys took cooking that year.
Distraction...
The shape of the wings was so fascinating that I pulled 4 positives which became bas relief paintings which I have named the Wing Series. I have yet to finish the first Angel which is of Miss Clark my 8th grade art teacher.
KHM - 2010
