LS-147
LS-147 |
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| This is it. Taking my show on the road and inviting a horde of outsiders into my big studio. Teenagers, especially, the group I have the hardest time communicating with. Crossroads School people are different, and perhaps this will all work. First, there's a demonstration sculpture to make. |
| Build number: | start #147 (DNF, complete construction failure) |
| Date: | November 20 |
| Location: | Venice Beach |
| Start: | 1045; building time: approx. 3 hours aggregate |
| Height: | 2.5 feet |
| Base: | 1.6 feet X 1.6 feet, cylindric |
| Photography: | None. Rich got some at about 50% complete |
| Related pages: | ||
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The schedule was determined by when the class was available, so I'm on the beach with the tide high. The plan is to have a simple sculpture finshed before the students arrive so they'll know what I'm talking about. Sunlight pours onto the warm beach. There's a nice high spot to put a sculpture on, and the sand is reasonable. I'll just have to be conservative in carving, which shouldn't be a problem for this quick and simple sculpture. I've been trying to do a simple sculpture for a couple of years. The goal is just as elusive this time; as I carve, the ideas twist and curve and develop in my mind. My hand hastens to follow, but time flies by and the sculpture is only half done when the group arrives. The stage is set. This is Leslie's ceramics class, so I brought plenty of information sheets and the small ceramic sculpture made in 1985. None of this was necessary; their eyes are on the sand and they're ready to go. After a brief introduction I lead them down the beach and start digging. I'm demonstrating free-pile sculpture because all we need to do it is hands. One thing I always hated about having visiting teachers when I was in school was the usual statement that "This person has made a lot of effort to be here today, so let's be respectful and appreciative." Dutifully, we looked up to this stranger. I didn't want anything like this to happen, and it hasn't. Leslie made no pronouncements, and offers only enthusiastic thanks after she calls time and gathers her charges. Much to my surprise, the students also come to me as they leave, shake my hand, and thank me. Whatever they're doing at that school, it works. Suddenly all is quiet and I start to unwind. After finishing and photographing the free-pile sculpture, I return to the half-finished one on the beach's cusp. This sculpture that started as a simple quick example has turned into a quite complex, if heavy, piece. The heaviness is required by the coarse sand. Still, I do what I can to hide the necessary bulk. It has dramatic curves and undercuts, and a swayback panel crossing the top to a convex piece hanging over the seaward side. There's a lot of interior space that should be illuminated nicely at sunset, which isn't very far away now, so I carve an opening that will admit the light. A man stands, watching as I carve. He's young and intent. We start talking and it turns out he's from Holland, wandering around looking at various cities. A slight accent and his interest lead me to feel he's Dutch. Somehow people from Holland have an affinity for sand sculpture. In this case I'm right and he tells me about the Schevningen contest. "Mainly buildings. Castles and the like. This is much more attractive." He also tells me about the beaches there: fine sand everywhere, gathered around groins built to protect the beach. The new space in the sculpture looks good, so I trim and widen it, adding definition. Suddenly half the sculpture falls into my lap. Well, I guess this won't really be the first day in which I complete two sculptures. "Maybe I was distracting you too much." "No, it's the sand. This is the first sculpture I've done this year with sand this coarse, and I asked too much of it." Further thought and examination of the ruins indicates compression failure, a return of the too much top, not enough bottom problem. I should have lightened the top some more. Yah, there was distraction, but mainly winding down from the class and wondering how I did. Well, now I get a chance to watch the sun set.
About the image: Copied from the background of a photograph of a student's sculpture, it's the only extant image of this sculpture. It's grainy because it's a tiny part of the original image; some of the grain you're seeing is film grain of the ISO 100 slide film. With this sort of enlargement, sharpening the image also sharpens the grain. | ||||||||||
All contents copyright 1998 by
Larry Nelson
Original: 1998 November 21 | ||||||||||
ls147rpt.htm 99 February 13