Victory Park and Mold Making... Finally!!

Movie of plaster mold making.









(above photos: Mao and small lake at Victory Park,Bronze relief at museum and party. also Lu the art instructor and Mold making and me and you know who.)

8/17/08 Sunday
I was certain today, as we headed to the studio, that we would be making the plaster piece mold of the sculpture, but upon arriving we heard that there was no water for the morning. Gee doesn’t this sound familiar (on Saipan, water and power outages are common), so I moved my attention to the stainless piece out in the yard. I noticed that there were a few grinder nicks in the polished surface and pointed it out along with some others problems to the assistance, and they set to work fixing them. I think that I will build a temporary base for the stainless piece so that I can stand it up and really get a closer look at the whole surface. This I will do tomorrow morning. I spent the rest of the morning talking with other artists helping with problems that they were having. Back on the bus and to the hotel for lunch…this is getting old, but the food is good and free, and it gives me time to work on the computer.
After lunch at the studio a water truck arrived and the water problem is solved. Mold making will proceed, this is important because the longer that the clay sits under the plastic wrap with the sun shining on it, there is a real risk that it will shrink and small surface cracks will appear and become large marring the surface. This has happened to other artist’s clay sculptures, and in some instances large sections of the clay have actually fallen off. Pictured are the three women assistants that are tasked with shimming and applying the plaster to the surface of the clay sculpture. The shim dividers are pressed into the moist clay making the different sections of the piece mold. The plaster is basically thrown on the surface of the clay to keep air bubbles from being trapped on the surface it goes everywhere and is by nature messy. Also check out the movie as well, it should play. The mold will stay on the clay over night to cure properly. That done I feel a real sense that the bronze sculpture project is going well.

8/16/08 Saturday
Finished the clay sculpture yeah!!! Some more very good news as well, Lu, the female Chinese art instructor at Changchun University, was instructed to offer to me a teaching position at Changchun University for a semester in the future. I felt quite pleased to know that they had selected me to participate in this, and that kind of respect and offer is something that I would very interested in.
…day off in the afternoon, so Michael and I went to Victory Park and the Puppet Government Museum (Japanese Occupation period 1930-WWII) …ended with a party back at the studio in the evening.