Digging in the snow

 (Tuesday, 5/18)

 

So here's where we are after Monday's session. This is the part of the project where it starts getting exciting. Now it's no longer a chunk of rock, it's a figure taking form, and coming into being. Too, the farther along, the faster the progress. Now we're starting to move. Bit by bit the stone is beginning to look like... uh, wait a minute, here. Beginning to look like...

 

Maybe a penis? A fish? Darth Vader? An elephant? a bird? I never set out to make something look like something else. Nonetheless, my stones always seem to turn into three dimensional Rorschach tests. Everyone seems to see something in them that I never intended to put there. It's really pretty cool.

Except when it's embarrassing. As I've mentioned before, I have no formal training in the arts. Even so, I've learned stuff as I've worked along. One thing I've learned about crafting a surrealistic figure, is that you have to be wary of free association. Not to get all Freudian here, but anything remotely cylindrical is gonna' be a phallus. An ellipse will suggest a vagina, and anything rounded turns into a head or an ass. A circle becomes an eye. Two circles and a line will always suggest a face. If a form bears the remotest likeness to a life-form, it becomes that form in the mind of the viewer.

As a side note,  I recall attending a show at a fine art gallery in Pasadena some years back. This was a professional show, not a local art association. There is a famous illustration by Da Vinci, depicting a nude male body, arms outstretched and standing in the circumference of a circle. A sculptor decided to do that illustration as a relief carving in Carrera marble, the pure white stuff. He had the male figure emerging from the stone disc like it was pressed against a membrane. It was beautifully done, and it looked for all the world like a guy flopping in a giant condom. 

(Wed. 5/19) 

I've mentioned several time that I haven't ever studied art.  I don't draw well. Painting doesn't interest me. Neither do I have any desire to create images of people, flowers, or animals.

The whole business started with me doodling in class when I was in high school. I never took any notes in class; I'd just sit with the ball point, and draw these weird surrealistic things. Sometimes other kids would ask me for the drawings. I had one teacher who just let me grab the chalk and fill up a chalk board with this stuff. 

The same thing happened in the one and only office job that I had. My co-workers had my psychedelic doodles pinned to the walls of their cubicles.

And then there was college. More of the same. So I bought some Bristol board, a set of rapidograph pens, and a box of colored pencils. I started taking the doodling seriously. 

As I began a teaching career in the late 1980's the time spent drawing took on a new aspect. I'm not going to go into a lot of detail about the teaching job. It was an inner-city pressure cooker. I'd get home in the evening, and since I never had a TV, I'd sit and draw for hours. I found the intense concentration I poured into drawing served to metabolize that anger, and frustration. I could turn it all into something of grace and beauty.

The pressure cooker blew in 1997. I cracked. Everything that I had worked for went to hell in a flash. I had three years of lawyers, and hired gun "doctors" to deal  with. 

But enough. This isn't a biography. Point is, drawing, and later carving provided me with a way to process    the very bad vibes that dwell in my head. From 1997 until the burn went out in about '02, I had bad vibes by the acre and ton.

Now, thanks to the end of the world as we knew it, the bad vibes are back. I realize that "bad vibes" is  inarticulate hippie vintage slang, but I can't come up with a better term for the toxic pall hanging over everything these days. Having the burn back is a blessing.

(Thursday, 5/20)

I had been ending each day's session with taking photos. But I got lazy, and decided to take the pictures in the morning. Now I'm photographing what I did yesterday, but does that mean I should put yesterday's date on today's post? I get myself confused with this kind of stuff. 

Anyway, here we are, mid week with the stone:

Up until now the focus has been on the lower half of the figure, but now it's time to move upstairs. Truth to tell, I am not entirely sure what I'm going to do with the "head", but whatever it is it will be done to display the translucence in the stone to its best effect.

(Friday, 5/20)

It was a slow day, yesterday. Morning was lost to a couple of errands, and then waiting on the the grounds guy to finish the lawn. Too, I had to put up early to fire the Barbecue. But I got one very important task accomplished, and I did a darn good job of it. I had to drill through the 'head'. Problem was, the hole had to curve. Trying to line it up in one shot would be really tricky, and I didn't want to risk screwing it up. So I did it the hard way. I sunk one hole pointing downward to the right, and the other pointing up to the left. And I scored a hit; drilled one hole right into the other so they met in the middle. I got the holes reamed into a tunnel. The next part is going to be a big challenge.

(Monday, 5/24)

I've reached a point where I'm not altogether sure how to manage the upper half of this thing. I know where I want to go with it. Or I think I do. But I'm not getting there. Wait, yes I am, it's fine. No it's not...

So this week's work begins with a return to the sit-n'-stare phase of construction. That means quiet time. Coffee (lots). Maybe a bowl or two...

Anyway here's where we are getting close to six weeks in: