Stone Work: Process

The first step is to cut the foot of the sculpture flat making it the base, so the stone is upside down. Next, we lop off small sections because I needed to see how the stone was going to split, stones fracture differently. Once the foot was cut the crane was called in and the stones were rolled up right. (see video) I chiseled some lines that later would guide my saw work. I made lots of measurements where I wanted the holes drilled and the splitting pins driven to break off larger sections before we start moving toward the final surface with the 7 inch diamond saws . The holes would take about 20 minutes to drill and we had to drill 20 holes some times, do the math. This part of the process took days and was slow and careful. I could work inside the studio on my second sculpture (bronze) that was just in the clay stage.

The Processes: Bronze and Stone (The Evolution)

The Stones are here!!



Relaxing and the Studio space!


Building the Armature for bronze "Auto Pod" in China (video below)


I arrived and the studio was huge, a gigantic ware house that was used to store cars out of the bad weather. Some of the other artists were already working, but I showed up a few days late because of registration at the college. I was ready to work, six weeks is a short time to create two sculptures, so the metal armature for the clay work had to be built (it is cast into bronze later) and besides the stones had not arrived yet.

Saipan Artist's Adventure in Changchun China: PART ll

I was selected. This Symposium was an internationally juryed competition with 1060 submissions from artists from all over the world. Twenty-nine artists were selected for this years symposium, out of the 29 artists, four artists including myself were asked to create two works of art. I was the only artist from this region, the countries that participated were from Slovakia, Romania, Germany, Ukrain, Russia, Bulgaria, Netherlands, South Africa, Turkey, Canada, Zambia, Sri Lanka, Egypt, Am. Samoa, France, Qatar, Rwanda, Mexico, Armenia, Korea, Saint Lucia, Vietnam, India, Polynesia and Israel.

Changchun China International Auto Park

Bronze Sculpture-Auto Pod, and my trusted Assistant(L) and Translator(R)

World's Car- Red Granite Sculpture

Auto Pod- Bronze Sculpture


Each artist was assigned a full time translator, who was a college student from one of the cities large universities. In addition, each sculptor was also assigned an assistant, from a university and in my case I had more because of the two sculptures I was making, the difficulty of the medium and the short period of time allowed to complete the two artworks. All materials and tools were supplied to the artists, but this did not rule out difficulties that may have arisen from differences in tools, clay (not all clays are the same), stones (not all stone is the same), it was all a challenge to the artists, translators, and assistants. With-in a short period of time there was a real spirit of teamwork and an understanding of a common goal, and the vision of the artist’s concept behind the artwork. Weather was a real factor for many of the artists who came from warmer climates, half way through the symposium the average temperature during the day was 18C (64F) and early morning 5C (40F) a shock after living on Saipan for 21 years. Safety equipment was an issue, poor quality respirators and eye protection were supplied, so I had to have Maggie, my lovely wife, mail my good ones from Saipan. The artists had a general health screen early on, and all our medical needs where taken care of. We where really taken care of very well.

Pool Fountain Finished-Not the Pool

You can check the earlier post to see the "Fish Fountain" being sculpted. What you see are glass pebbles epoxied to the surface and then a grout (white) in between.

Working in the Studio

Students at the studio got a treat when I produced the turtle platter design and showed off the new t-shirt design as well.

Sculpting the Fish Fountain for the Pool

Finished!!! I like it!







Usually I work down in the studio, but that was before we built the deck, and what beautiful weather we have this time of year, sooo sculpting on the deck just makes sense. I put on some Coltrane and drug the 75 pounds of clay up from the studio and went to work. As you can see the view was awesome, the birds were chirping, sun shinning, and a wonderful cool trade wind wafted the sweat smell of the langilan tree across the deck. Below the deck is the pool and the fish is going to be a fountain covered in glass pebbles and squirting water. Maggie, my lovely better half came out and began taking a gillion pictures. I started working in the late morning and finished by 4:30. Vaughn (my son) and I went down to the park for a great run, what a wonderful day!!