Ballerina sculpture

I"m doing another session of sculpture and so far have made a sort of "tree person", but last session I did this ballerina. I had an idea for something different that didn't sketch out, so took some drawings of Iva to use them. It was from the five-minutes rotating pose. I had to carve, rather than model, the legs. That was a bit different way of working. She has ended up being a bit sturdy for a ballerina but I like the attitude of the pose. Working three dimensionally is a good practice and a challenge. It is a different way of thinking compared to putting three dimensions into a two dimension medium.

More about Emily

Interesting that when a person is noticing some particular thing, that that "thing" then starts cropping up all over! I've barely finished with the fictionalized account of Emily Carr's life when it seemed like she was mentioned in many places. Now the Globe and Mail had an article about two photos that have been in separate archives and are now together. Photos of a tennis party, one has a young man gazing at Emily instead of at the photographer, while one taken minutes apart has him, seated, leaning against her leg - which as the article states would have been very unusual behaviour for the time. and then there is a recently published story by Carr called "Stone and Heart" in which she recounts a tennis party and a young man lifting her down from a ladder and kissing her. She went on to say "Soon I found the young man was only flirting with me, but too late, my heart was lost. It took 15 years to pull myself out." Interesting indeed, as I found that a far more realistic "romance",considering the times and her upbringing, than the one in "Forest Lover".There is going to be a new Exhibit about Emily Carr at the Royal BC Museum in Victoria, curated by Kathryn Bridge. She is hoping to find out who the man in the photos is before "The Other Emily:Redefining Emily Carr" opens in March. -How times have changed! ---- This photo is the figure I did in the last Sculpture session. The nice contrast with the black against the fired white of the sculpture, was provided by a strategically seated cat!

Sculpture class

Painting, of course, is a two-dimensional thing- although a person is representing something three-dimensional. Back at Art school, we took a sculpture class in the first year. I liked it- to a certain extent- but didn't feel it was my strongest point. However, we did work in pairs and did portrait heads. We had calipers to measure each other as they were life size. They were meant to be cast and never got to that stage.Last year I had the chance to take a sculpture class through Richmond Potters. We worked on sculptures that were fired. We did have an inner support that had to be removed later and the inside hollowed out. Since they were to be fired in a kiln, they were definitely not life-size. I worked from photos of Marjanka who had posed for some of us. I decided to do a head, rather than figure study - and- a bit to my surprise- it actually turned out quite well. It even survived firing! Now I have signed up for another session and am doing a complete (clothed) figure of a friend. It is a good experience to be working in three-dimensions. It is supposed to help your drawing...not sure of that... but it is interesting to do. The photo is my head before firing - now she is white in colour.