One Month Out from the Installation of "Cor Liberum"

The Care Giver and Patient, the central elements of "Cor Liberum"

As I continue to march towards the installation date of February 26th for my Norton Hospital commission "Cor Liberum", it feels good to be in a place where I am confident I will be ready. Back in November, I was very stressed out as I was not on schedule to be able to complete the sculpture on time. The large figure (the Care Giver) was carved and standing up. However, the small figure (the patient) was not even close to being done. Also, at that point, I had one bird complete and sanded but without the mounting collar attached. I did have a good start on all of the rest of the birds, but none of them had seen a sander at that point.

Since then, I have finished carving the small figure and I received help from fellow Louisville artists, Karen Terhune and Chris Mozier. They spent a lot of time sanding and refining of the central figures. I have made great progress on the sanding of the birds and am fitting their mounting collars. This has gone a lot faster than I thought. It has been a non-stop process, but I am nearing the end. 

These are the stainless steel posts that the birds will be sitting on.

This past Thursday, representatives from Norton Hospital came out to do a studio visit. They were very happy with the work. I asked them if it was what they were expecting, and they said it absolutely was. They said it look just like the model! It is most important that I like my work, but it sure helps when the folks that are paying for it like it!

There is still a lot of coordination work that needs to happen over the next month. The concrete is sill to be poured, the sculptures still need to be totally finished and delivered, and the installation crew still has their work to do. But, I feel like the bulk of the work is behind me. 

Wish me luck the week of February 26th as there will be a lot of work that has to get done in those 5 short days to complete the sculpture.

Progress Report on "Cor Liberum"

I have mad some good progress the last month and a half on the central figures for my commission for Norton Hospital. "Cor Liberum" will be installed at the end of February. It is moving along well, but I still have a great deal of work to do. Below is a photo of the care giver and patient as of tonight. Both need some refinement on the curves, and the patient (smaller figure) needs to loose some weight, but I am happy with the progress.

LVA Open Studio Weekend is this Weekend

If you are in Louisville this weekend (November 4th and 5th), come by my studio and say hello! I am participating in the 2017 LVA Open Studio Weekend, a fundraiser for the Louisville arts community. I will have a lot of work there ant it will all be at a special studio sale price. You can also see the progress I have made on "Cor Liberum", my commission for Norton Hospital. You can stand next to the pieces and get the feel for how big this piece really is. I will have special pricing on Limestone carving blanks as well.

My studio is located at:

1807 Cargo Ct.

Louisville, KY 40299

"Peace Lilly" is Selected for Inclusion in the LVA Open Studio Weekend Juried Exhibition

I received some good news yesterday. My sculpture "Peace Lilly" was selected for inclusion in the Louisville Visual Arts juried exhibition. "Peace Lilly" is carved from Indiana Limestone. This is the first time I have participated in the open studio weekend. I am happy that my piece will be included in the juried portion of the weekend. The Jurors were from Cincinnati, Nashville and Lexington. Now we just need to get it sold!

"Peace Lilly"

Progress Time Lapse of the Large Figure of "Cor Liberum"

Here is a short time lapse to show the progress on the large Figure of "Cor Liberum". She has lost about 7000 pounds and is finally starting to take shape.

More Progress on "Cor Liberum"

Removing this 3300 pound chunk of Indiana Limestone from the big figure of "Cor Liberum", my Norton Hospital commission, made a big difference. I ordered the stone a little larger than needed. I was moving along ok, but wanted to move a little quicker. I used a hammer drill and feathers and wedges to split out a large piece of stone. Splitting it out is one thing, removing it afterwards is another. One of my favorite tools is the pry bar I am using in the video to get room to slide my straps under the stone. Then the gantry makes small work of a big job.

My New Gantry Crane is Set Up and Ready to Go

I have a shop made gantry crane that I have been using to move some of the smaller pieces of stone around the studio. However, I do not trust it with more than 3000 pounds. That is not going to get it with the two blocks sitting under the crane in the picture below. They both started out at 17000 pounds. They will become the central figures of my Norton commission, "Cor Liberum". Once I get more of the off fall off what is now the tops of the stone, I will need to stand them up to be sure they fit together just so. This is critical to the success of the piece. The central negative space that they create forms a heart. The only way to be sure they actually do that is by setting them up and making sure!

"Cor Liberum" - The Little Figure Goes on a Crash Diet

I love the whole sculpture process. However, there are some moments that are just a little more fun than others. One of those is when you are splitting off a large section of stone from the main body. Last night, I was working on the smaller figure for my Norton commission. The stone came in at 8' long. The small figure is only going to be a little over 5'. So, I had a lot of stone to remove. This video shows how I used a drill and feathers and wedges to get rid of 2000 pounds of stone in about an hour.