This week, I'd like y'all to write about a sculpture you have seen, not in a picture, but real life. Describe it using the terms we've learned so far.
When I lived close to Washington, D.C. several years ago, there was a Rodin exhibit at the National Gallery of Arts. I knew that he had created the "thinker," and I wanted to see it. I did. Several versions of it. Along with the smooth sensuousness of the sculpture, I saw "The Gates of Hell." This was a huge bronze casting and was around 20 feet tall. It was astounding. All I could do was stare. I also walked through the gates. The rope to keep people away was only 6 inches off the ground, so I stepped over it and walked through.
I turned around a looked up at the top of the gate and the open doors. It wasn't scary or eerie. I was conscious of being in a well-lighted museum. But I had still walked through the gates of hell. I cataloged it with being struck by ball lightening and wrestling a 300 lb. black bear (I lost). I thought of terrors of the unknown and the glories of an imagined paradise. I felt the weight of the suffering souls that were locked into the gates. The greenish cast of the bronze reminded me of something coming out of a primeval ocean covered with seaweed and moss.
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The sculpture that I am describing was a gift to my little brother from a friend. It was a hand-carved statue of St. Francis of Assisi that was about 6 inches tall and about two inches in diameter. It was intricately carved out of a piece of hard, dark wood. The little sculpture was definitely a labor of love. It was so beautifully and elaborately carved; every notch on the face to every fold in the cloak was performed with such preciseness and deliberateness. It took the shape of St. Francis gazing down as if talking to the animals or preaching from an elevated surface. The gentle motion of the lines in the wood seemed to flow the entire length of the statue; periodically, there was also a knot in the statue, slightly darker than the surrounding surface. In front of the saint, his arms are slightly crossed, his hands gently tucked into the sleeves of his cassock. His profile is one of complete love and tenderness – as he gazes downward, you can just make out the slightest lines of a smile playing across his face. This statue always reminds me of the love and kindness that St. Francis displayed. Though this is but a miniature, accurate as it may be, of a person that had a giant of a heart, it always makes me wish I could have actually met St. Francis in person. To have known him would have been amazing.
One of my favorite sculptures is in front of Cabela’s headquarters store in Sidney, Nebraska. It is a twice-life-size bronze sculpture of two bull elk locking horns in a fight for herd domination. I believe “Herd Domination” is the name of the sculpture. As I approached the building looking for a parking place, the sculpture looked big, but the enormity of it really wasn’t apparent until I walked up close to it. It caused my imagination to create the rest of the “battle” scene and picture myself there witnessing the entire event. The fact that it was made out of bronze reinforced the idea of a continuing battle lasting through the ages for the male elk to become the leader of the herd. I think bronze also gives a feeling of strength and solidity or resistance to outside forces. As a mechanic I know that bronze doesn’t corrode very quickly so it will stand the test of time. The detail was excellent on all sides as this sculpture is in the round. It caused me to want to view it slowly from all angles, contemplating which elk would come out the winner. It is truly a magnificent depiction of wildlife in action.
Dan J.
Zachary, Great description of the statue of St. Francis. I have also been intrigued by his legacy of kindness towards others. I was at a craft show in Bemidji years ago and bought a small wood carving of a marlin fish that was probably made out of a similar wood that you described. I thing the one I had was an extremely hard iron wood from Mexico. I was very dark and polished very smooth. Your description reminded my of it. I would like to get into wood carving someday, but right now all I have time to do is help my kids make pinewood derby cars!
Dan J.
Okay, to do this assignment I had to go and find a sculpture. I live near Bemidji, MN and there are outdoor sculptures all over the waterfront area. I went out in the blustery cold to view some “art”. I stopped in front of the courthouse and examined a sculpture called ‘Feathers” At first glance I found it to be interesting. It is made of a type of stone material. It has the face of a woman, her right profile to be exact, coming out of the stone. It is polished and darker brown. There is a brown hand the stretches forth from the bottom of the sculpture, reaching up toward the face. The rest of the statue has images of feathers that are multicolor browns and are polished to a high shine. The polished lines of the feathers are interspersed between the rough natural rocks surface. In between the leaves are the raw rough stone. I believe that the artist would have had a way to carve the stone. The sculpture beckoned the viewer to touch it and feel the differences in the textures. I felt the woman was Native American, and then I wondered why I came to this conclusion, possibly due to the subject matter of the feathers. Possibly the area in which the sculpture is placed or possibly due to the lines of the face, the high cheek bones, the shape of the nose and forehead, the color chosen for the skin. I then wondered why the artist chose to make a sculpture of feathers out of stone. I mean, feathers are light and stone definitely is not. (I was getting deep here). I wondered if the artist was trying to represent the woman as dead, half buried in the stone or coming alive out of the stone. The place on the sculpture stated the artist’s name, Suzi Rhea Ross. The sculpture was for sale $750.00 To be honest I wandered around the sculpture and thought would I pay $750.00 for this if I was not a poor student? I found it interesting but due to its size I don’t know where I would put it. I suppose if I had a large home with a vaulted ceiling entry way this would be the type of statue I would place in the center.
In response to Zachrey, Is St. Francis the patron saint of animals? I can’t imagine the work it took to carve the details of the sculpture. Is it light weight for it’s size or does it have a surprising mass? Is it fragile or sturdy? How can you tell it is St. Francis? I think the artist that carved this is extremely talented to be able to express so much with such a small sculpture. Too bad you can’t take a picture and post it to the blog.
The sculpture I chose is a metal sculpture. Which I found no title or artist.
It looks like a sculpture with fairy like creatures on it. Seven of them total, but three are at the bottom and aren’t that visible but the other four are.
The one in the center is in a green skirt and bikini like top. She also is wearing a green crown. It looks like she is helping a boy fairy, with a flute in one hand, onto the back of a giraffe. Across from the giraffe is another fairy she is wearing a green, long, and flowing dress. It looks as though she controls the weather because out of one of her fingers it looks like a cloud. Sitting by her feet is another boy fairy playing a flute.
It looks as though I’m viewing the sculpture through a window because right below the giraffe is a giant gecko, of a brown and green. At the head of the gecko is a butterfly, but a brown one at that! On the other side of the center fairy is a huge frog of green.
Along the left side is half of a sea turtle out of water. With fish down by the gecko and butterfly.
I think it is a brilliant piece of art. It seems to combine many worlds so to speak like the underwater, sky, land, and magical worlds. It has so many outstanding colors that make things, well stand out! The fish are of bright blue, green, and yellow.
It reminds me of that Fantasia movie with Mickey Mouse and the musical plays I guess is what you could call them.
This sculpture could probably be made into a play with music of jungle drums and other things. But maybe it’s just better to leave it as a sculpture!
response to zachary.
that is an amazing description! Good job. you should tell us more about that sculpture it seems so interesting! That's so cool how someone and crave something like that from wood!
There are many sculptures that I could talk about. On a trip to Chicago, I had the opportunity to visit many art museums and all the paintings and sculptures were beautiful, but the sculpture that I want to talk about is more personal. I have many friends that went to college for an art related career. To support one of my friends I came to a gallery she was having just for us fun to showcase all of her work, before she graduated from college. One of those pieces was a sculpture that she made of herself; representing the other side of her. When I first took a glance at it- I did not realize that is was suppose to be her. Meggs is your typical blonde hair, blue eye kind of girl; this sculpture had pitch black curly hair, and green eyes. The way she sculpted her face was brilliant. There was a real life texture to her skin, it was smooth and had a snow white glow to it. Her eyes where a piercing green color, it grabbed your attention telling a story that was both beautiful and yet showing flaws. I loved the way she showed a totally different side of her; a side that she never revealed before. She did not mean it as a Jackal and Hyde type of thing, but to show a side of a girl that she wanted to be. A person who does not have a care in the world, a person who could just live her life in the moment. And that is where she is now- living life in the moment and with dark hair!
In response to Zachary. I loved that you talked about St. Francis. I see this statue very often, at church and in my house. I would have loved to meet him too. I belive that his kindness could inspire us to all be good people.
in response to dan's last comment:
Yes! The marlin fish carving sounds very much like the statue that I have. I agree - that would be a cool trade to have. It always reminds me of the movie Treasures of the Snow, and how the old man could make AMAZING things out of wood... all with the simple hammer and chizel! I love wood carvings simply because you can display so MUCH in the intrique cuts and notches.
in response to Heidi's post
Yes, the carving is rather light - although I would have to say that it doesn't feel too light either. You can tell that it is St Francis because of the way his hair is shaped in the round circle on his head, etc. The man that made this for my brother is really amazing!
Even though I've seen quite a few sculptures, the one I get to fall in love with over and over, everyday, is the one in my neighbor's yard. A bunch of the local neighborhood kids got together to make a huge snow bear. He is in a sitting position, legs laying straight out in front of him, while his torso reaches an estimated 5 feet tall. His face radiates happiness, as if the kids traced their favorite care bear's features onto the snow bear.
I was quite impressed at the amount of detail given to the snow bear. His ears aren't just balls of snow on top of his head, but rather a set that have a concave center in them. The bear even has a set of eyebrows, sculpted out of snow, that dance in sync with the face filling smile planted on his face.
He is clothed in a rugged black and red plaid flannel shirt with two mittens over his paws. A tethered brown scarf wraps around the bear's neck, while the excess blows all around his face when the wind picks up.
I absolutely love how creative children can be, which is why I truely enjoy driving by and seeing the huge snow bear everyday. Even though I can't wait for spring, there is finally one thing I can say I like about winter.
In response to mandi20
That is such a great story! You must have been shocked to see the inner thoughts manifested into her sculpture. I think, as a woman, I can also relate to that feeling; sick of societal pushes every whick way, trying to tell us how we should live our lives.
My first thought about this assignment was, where am I going to find a sculpture to write about? As I read the chapter there were a lot of things that popped into my head. The one that most interested me was Maya Ying Lin’s public sculpture of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial. I instantly thought about the memorial that was raised in Eastman Park (St. Cloud) this past year. I had read about how the community of veterans got together to make this happen. There was a ceremony to unveil the memorial in the park. I did not make it to the unveiling, however, I did take a trip down there yesterday to see it. I’m glad I did it is beautiful!
The memorial is a huge (12'x24') piece of polished black granite, I believe it would be considered a sunken-relief type of sculpture. There are two solders, an American and Vietnamese, carved into the surface of the stone. They are in full uniform, the American is holding his helmet in one hand and his gun in the other. The detail is phenomenal! From the wrinkles and folds in the uniforms, to the belt worn with hand grenades and canteens. The Vietnamese solder is wearing his helmet and his gun is slung over his shoulder with a strap. The solders are etched in dark and light shades of grey, with black lines forming the fine detail. Their faces are finely detailed and the expressions are sober. Behind each of the solders is their respective countries flags, in full color. The flags are waving in the gentle breeze and displayed by gold poles with the golden ropes falling from the top of the poles. At the bottom, the solders are standing on a banner that says “You’ll Never Be Forgotten”. It is also in gold with traditional olive branches rising up from either side of the banner, enclosing the solders. This memorial is a beautiful addition to this park, however, the meaning behind it is so much more than a memorial!
in reaponse to Heidi's post, I love the way you described your sculpture. I could picture it in my mind but I'm not sure what the hand coming from the botton meant?Was it her hand or a more masculine hand as maybe a father figure or someone else? It sounds like a very interesting sculpture! Thanks for sharing it!
in response to mandi20's post
Yes, I see him all the time at church as well, and, obviously, whenever I'm in my brother's room! It's cool to see who he became after you know his past too. He went all the way from the rebelous, party goer to the saint and amazing role model that he is today. Pretty cool in my book.
Response to dalhoff
Isn't it amazing the detail that goes into such a small peice of art. I think I enjoy the really small peices of art so much because of the tremendous amount of detail they use to make it look real or imatate a larger peice of art.
I choose to pick the sculpture of military soliders from World War II. They are in Devils Lake when you are driving down college drive they consider it a memorial to them. There are 3 dark gray soliders walking up to a tank that sits at an angle because of the hill it sits on. I think they are bronze that has tarnished over the years either that or it is metal. I really didn't get out to see if they were metal or not. It think who ever did make these sculptures has some great talent because of the detail put into the soldiers. They looked like they were running and you could tell they were soldiers because of the detial given to the outfit and extras on the uniforms. One has a flag in hand as it is running. No matter what is going on in the artist mind the flag isn't being left and he had a great respect for America and soldiers.I just really apprepiated this sculpture because of the war in Iraq right now.
In response to Dan I really enjoyed reading your comment. This assignment was hard for me because I don't see sculptures where I am from so I had to hunt one down. The way you describe the animals is pretty cool. It made me think of the Caleba's in East Grand Forks with the mountain of animals on it. That is awesome.
The sculpture that i am going to write about is one that is downtown Kansas City. Which in KC art is all over it seems like no matter where you go you see are. This sculpture is by an open park where concerts are held during the summer. When i first saw it I was like really this is art? The sculpture is very large and it is made out of silver metal looks like pipes. At night it looks like it is kind of free flying. The pipes are all directions. The shape of it reminds me of a short fully bloomed tree. The reason for the sculpture is that during the summer when concerts are held, the music carries through the tubes and you can hear the music all over and sounds so wonderful.
in response to ASchwartz:
That definately would be a sculpture to appreciate. I have been to Devils Lake many times as i have family there and never have seen it, guess i havent paid attention and now i will. Thank you for sharing.
I really didn’t know what I was going to right about with this assignment. Then I thought of all the different sculptures at I saw in on my trip to Europe. We saw SO many different sculptures in Europe that it was really hard to pick just one of them. One that I like the best was a sculpture that was carved in the side of a stone wall. It is called “Lion Monument”, this sculpture is huge, and I’m guessing about 15 feet long and about 6 feet deep into the wall. This sculpture has and story behind it and has so much detail. You can clearly see the detail of the main, tail, and paws. The face too has much detail and you can see the sorrow and pain in the lion’s facial expression as he is being killed with a spear that is clearly seen sticking out of his side. The position of the lion is just lying on its side with his head lying on one paw. Around the dying lion are two shields and a long spear. We saw this sculpture in Switzerland, and we got the opportunity of having a tour guide tell us the story behind the dying lion.
In response to Sandra Gilk I really like they way that you described this sculpture. I sounds absolutely beautiful! I really want to go at see it now, since I don’t like too far from St. Cloud, it sounds like it is breath taking. I agree with you that the meaning be hide the sculpture is the most important thing of all.
I was thinking about this assignment while I was in Fargo last weekend, worrying because I have never been to an art gallery. Where in the world was I going to find a sculpture? All I had to do was look out my window. On the NDSU campus there is an iron and metal sculpture resting on the lawn in front of a campus building. It stands maybe five feet or so tall on iron legs. The metal shapes and placement makes me think it is some kind of warrior holding up shields to protect him. The “shields” are made of metal that is cut into a thick spiral and molded to stand out here and sink back there. There is no visible body or head to make it a being, and I feel that is a very important point. The viewer holds their own personal meaning of the piece. I think back to Andy’s description of “The Gates of Hell” and how he described his feelings after passing under it. I believe I would have felt a different kind of Hell. The same way I see a warrior and someone else might see something else.
Sandra-
I enjoyed your description of this memorial. I have not seen the one in St. Cloud but it sound similar to the ones in Washington D.C. My daughter saw the memorials in D.C. and was blown away by the way they represent American spirit. I hope to see them one day as well.
Great description
The sculpture that I thought I would write about is one which is really funny. I saw this in Chicago when my oldest daughter lived there. Chicago has a wealth of outdoor sculpture locations and it is very fun to see all of them. We were there for the parade of cows. It was fun because each cow was selected by an artist and made into whatever they wanted. There were cows covered with pink kisses, cows in canoes, and cows jumping over the moon. All of this was really cool. We went several times and walked up and down Michigan Avenue to see all the different cows. But the one statue that I had in mind was actually a moose. This moose was made by John Kearney. This Moose was constructed of bumpers of cars. It is silver and shiny. The funny thing about this moose is that it is anatomically correct. Odd that this could stand on a street side for so long and have little controversy. But this is a beautiful sculpture regardless of the anatomy of the subject. The artist said his collection isn't growing as fast as it could be because the supply is dwindling as the bumpers are now being made of plastic. This odd sculpture fit into the artistic climate of Chicago's outdoor art scene. What a fun place to visit and explore!
So being that I really was unsure if I have ever seen a sculpture done by an artist anywhere, I put my thinking cap on. When my brother was younger he was in art and worked diligently on a sculpture made of clay. He worked days and days on this so we all waited in anticipation of him bringing it home for us to see. Well, the day came and he brought home a sculpture of clay that stood approx. 12 inches high. It was a ‘character’ that was sitting on an open pail, I would say, and it was very detailed. There were crevices and bumps all over. It was what I would call more abstract art, but this figure, meant so much. He glazed it with a variety of colors, and although that paint job was not the most perfect, it was the sheer work of the underneath that has always amazed me. To this day it sits out at my parents, and reminds me of what hard work in a person’s art may feel like and look like to me. This sculpture, although not done by a well-known artist- it priceless to me!
In response to Zachary:
Amazing description, I too have seen recreations of St. Francis of Assisi. The thought of hand carving such detail totally amazes me!! Thanks for the great discription!
In response to Heidi McCormick:
I too hadn't seen any sculptures or I hadn't remembered ever having seen one. So I too went out and braved the negative temps to try find a sculpture to experience. But, I have a relative who lives in Bemidji and he had mentioned that they had a few sculptures around and had mentioned the one you had written about by the courthouse I just thought that was pretty neat.
WHen first given this assignment i did not know what to think i dont look around at sculptures im not much of an art person. So when I really started to think this topic through i thought about i look at art in so many ways, a building can be art a house or even a chair can be art. Thats when i knew what my favorite sculpture was it was my uncles barn. The barn where he kept all the animals the barn where the hay was all put in the top. The Barn my great grandfather built with his own hands. Every summer i would go there and was in aww, over the building especially when it came time to paint it the smell and the color of the bright fresh red paint in the sun was beautiful.This to me is my wonderful beautiful sculpture.
As i seen many others have not notcied art anywhere or really paid attention to where they could see art. i liked the feeling that i was not the only one having trouble seeing art.
My mom is originally from Chicago so I travel there every year for vacation, and every year my mom has brought me to the Field Museum. Outside of the mueum there is a huge totem pole, when i was little i loved it because of the colors and just the huge size, but as i got older i actually looked at it and saw all the details of it and it amazed me. To this day i look forward to visiting that museum to study this pole.
Recently I got the chance to view the "Daphne" sculpture by Audrey Flack. She was the visiting artist at UND a few months ago, and I attended the opening. The sculpture is the head of a woman. I think it was made from some kind of cereamics such as terra cotta. It stands about nine feet tall. The Daphne sculpture is of a womans face with a generic expression. Her hair is made of sticks, leaves and berries. She is made to represent any woman of any race, age or nationality. Flack is a feminist and she puts her views into many of her pieces. I enjoy the scalpture because of its great size and the meaning behind it.
The sculpture that I want to describe is really not famous or anyone really has seen, but my cousin that is has a mental disability made a sculpture out of clay in art class when he was in high school. It is a twisted piece of clay that makes 3/4 of a heart but he added a piece on the bottom of the heart that kind of cut through the heart and it was painted black. and the one piece that cut through was red.
When I asked him why he had done it like this he response was that I dont understand love. Why if God loves me what I am the way I am... I feel backwards from everyone else.
Through him and the art piece it was complete beauty and significantly different from any other art piece I have ever seen in my life.
My comment is to Dan...
I have seen the sculpture that you are talking about it is completely awesome! You described it just perfect and I would never had thought to do that as a "sculpture" You really have an eye for beauty.
I’m not one hundred percent sure if this qualifies but the only sculpture that rang a ball that I had seen or would be able to see. I remembered my eleventh birthday which I spent with my whole immediate and extended family a total of fifteen members in all, on our Caribbean cruise. It was the last night of our cruise and they have put on a beautiful buffet and everything was so amazingly decorated and crisp and words cannot explain how amazing it was. They put on a huge buffet like this one usually on all of their cruise’s, they first allow everyone to walk through and admire they craftsmanship and then after everyone who has wanted to see it had they let you go through again and eat from it. But what was so neat about our buffet was the gorgeously crafted ice sculpture. It was at least seven feet long, and about three feet at its highest point. It was a huge block of ice chiseled and picked until they crafted it into this amazing dragon. The dragon had its long lizard like tail and curled up to its body, looking at this sculpture was almost as accurate as looking at a photo, it was done who well. They sprayed some colors onto the sculpture to make it as life like as possible. The dragon had a lizard like tongue and was painted red and it was really something to see. Especially at the age I was because before I had seen that I never really thought about ice as being able to be displayed as an art form. It was great for me to see that because I probably never would have thought of ice pieces as art until I had to think of sculptures for this assignment.
The sculpture that I am going to describe I saw downtown by the river in Grand Forks. Some people may have thought that it was just a pile of junk but really it was a piece of art. I was walking across the bridge one day last summer with my boyfriend and his parents and we saw it. We walked up close to have a closer look. I believe that it was two students who had put this sculpture together. It was a contemporary art sculpture. They took different odds and ends and glued them to a metal structure. There were different pieces like cd’s, tapes, shoes, toothbrushes, etc. They also spray painted parts of it different colors.
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