Work, Play and Food!

8/11/08 Monday
Working in the studio is not as loud now, however, it is filled with the toxic odor of fiberglass resin. Some artists are finished with their clay modeled sculptures and the team of mold makers have come into the studio and have begun pulled the piece molds off of them, and are beginning to lay in the fiber glass. The fiberglass is used to create a mock-up sculpture that will be on display during the symposium while the molds are taken to the foundry and used in the process to cast the bronzes. It is quite a complicated substitution process, and difficult for people to wrap their head around the concepts used to cast bronze. The fumes from the fiberglass resin are really not good for your health, so we are looking for charcoal respirators to filter the air, we should have them by tomorrow. The photos above are some of the activities and goings on in the studio… mostly hard work but, at times there are moments for clowning around. Ryan from Aruba is taking time-out to do a little jump rope, to the delight of the assistants and interpreters. Outside work was in full swing on my second sculpture to be made of stainless steel, WASAI!!!. I have three assistants working on it and they are very competent, I mostly need to inspect their work and make sure that they understand how to assemble it correctly. Already one section had been placed on the wrong side and upside down, this they quickly corrected and so I have made it a point to check their progress every hour. Also pictured are the activities out in the stonecutters yard. About every four days a huge crane comes in and turns stone sculptures over or stands them in the upright position so sculptors can work the different surfaces. It’s a blast to see their progress each day but it’s noisy, dusty, strenuous work and these artists go at it all day in the hot sun.