F.E. Young        
                 Sculpture
  • Home
  • Latin American Sculptures
  • Multicultural Sculptures
  • Drawings and Toys
  • About the Artist

September 15th, 2012

9/15/2012

0 Comments

 
Picture
I set the door up where I intended it to stand (held in place by a few pieces of clay), closed enough to  allow the viewer to take in the skeleton and the box together, but open enough to leave room for the skull.  It worked for me.  

As it turned out, the entire foot didn't quite fit on the door. I  decided that the rest of it would be a later addition to the sculpture.  Hopefully it will look like it belongs without becoming too much of a distraction.  

A Little History
I was working on a series of sculptures...works that honored and celebrated the incredible diversity of the United States.  (Check into the website at www.feyoungsculpture.com to see the Multicultural Series.)  But while I worked on these sculptures, America - my country - began to build a wall to keep people out.  In the blink of an eye our country went from "give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breath free" to its very own Berlin Wall.  

As the daughter of an archeologist whose first love was the Myan culture, and with a B.A. in Mexican Art History, my focus naturally turned to the incredible art forms of the Latin countries.  

It started with honoring a beautiful Mayan Lintel (Lintel 26 from structure 23 at the Matan site of Yaxchilan, Chiapas) that had meaning to me.  These are pictures of the real Lintel 26 and of my interpretation.  
Picture
To the left is the Lintel at Chiapas.
To the right is my sculpture.

It gave me an opportunity to talk about an issue related to the war in Iraq for which I found I had deep feelings.  In the Lintel, Lady Xoc is presenting her husband Shield Jaguar (the ruler) with armor with which to go into battle. I thought of the families sending body armor to their children fighting in Iraq because our government wasn't providing them with proper equipment. It was difficult for me to imagine the pain that would result from this act of preparing a loved one to go into war and the feelings that would stir in that husband or wife, son or daughter, brother or sister who received that gift. 
Picture
0 Comments

September 07th, 2012

9/7/2012

0 Comments

 
If the skeleton was going to reach into the box, his body had to be in relief on the door.  I suppose he could have been three dimensional and completely separate from the box, but somehow integrating the skeleton and the box was really appealing and I wanted to continue the relief that had already begun on the back of the box.  The difficulty came in protecting the flower and leaf imagery while adding the bones to the surface.  Sculpt a little...fix a little...sculpt a little...fix a little.  Not so much fun. 
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
0 Comments

September 01st, 2012

9/1/2012

1 Comment

 
Picture
After drawing the hand on the top of the box, I started sculpting the relief.  As I worked on the fingers, I started realizing that they were just too flat and needed more movement. 

Picture
Picture
By the time I was finished with the hand, I knew it was too flat.  Off it came and I tried it again.  
It was becoming more and more clear that this sculpture was not going to 'go gently.'  But I wasn't about to admit to myself that it might be one of those pieces that would be difficult each and every step of the way.   

Picture

1 Comment

August 27th, 2012

8/27/2012

0 Comments

 
Picture
With the doors in good shape, I turned to the skeleton on the box.  I wanted it to straddle the box with the left arm and leg on the back and the hand resting on the top of the box. It started with a drawing on the clay and then I started sculpting in low relief.  

Picture
It didn't take long to finish the legs.  But I soon realized that the the forearm was in the wrong place.  I wouldn't be able to position the hand on the top of box where I wanted it, so I repositioned the forearm.  Not too much work.

Picture
That done, it would seem that it was in pretty good shape. Not quite.  If the elbow was on the back of the box, the upper arm would have to bend (or as bones do...break) to get around the corner of the box.  Ah well.  I'd missed that one too.

Picture
I skinned off the entire arm, sculpted the forearm in a good position for the hand and with the elbow at the corner of the box...better.  You just can't cover all your bases.  I added the foot and called it a day, relatively happy with the finished relief on the back of the box. I usually don't deal with this level of trial and error and I was a little afraid that it didn't bode well for the course that this piece might take.  Some sculptures just fall into place easily, others are worked and reworked and make your life miserable....not a good sign for the finished product.  I was still unsure how this piece would go.  But at this point, it wasn't looking promising. 

0 Comments

August 24th, 2012

8/24/2012

2 Comments

 
Picture
Typically, retablos have doors that can be opened and closed - usually attached to the box by small pieces of leather.  I rolled out and cut two small slabs for the       
                                              doors to this retablo. 
Each is 12 1/2" x 5" x 3/8" thick. 

Picture
Picture

Traditionally, the doors are painted in bright colors with flower and leaf forms.  For the outside surface of the doors I repeated the flowers on the top of the box but chose a different flower for the inside.  I drew the images on the slabs and carved out the clay around the design, leaving a small edge around the door (this border will be red when the retablo is done).  When they're painted and finished, the doors will be three dimensional versions of the traditional painted doors.  Keeping the carving in very low relief will help them feel more like the classic retablo doors. 

This process took about six days to get nice clean reliefs on both sides of the doors.  

Click on the pictures if you want to see a larger version.

2 Comments

August 22nd, 2012

8/22/2012

0 Comments

 
Picture
It started with the box, made in porcelain.  "Porcelain" is just what we call a particular type of clay.  It's white and smooth and sometimes a little bit difficult to work with but the end product is beautiful.  It's what "the good dishes" that most of us grew up with are made of.  

I rolled out a large slab of clay, about 3/8" thick and let it dry for a day.  From that I cut the pieces for the box and the curved top piece.  

The box is 13 1/2" tall, 10" wide and 3 1/2" deep.


Picture
The piece for the top of the retablo is about 3 1/2" tall.  When it had dried a little, I drew the flowers and carved around them to create a low relief which I attached to the top of the box.  

Clay is an amazing material.  it has phenomenal elasticity but with the introduction of heat it will become permanent, lasting thousands of years.  Scientists have tried to reproduce clay...recreating it on the molecular level.  They can make a similar elastic material but have never been able to reproduce the permanence.  I like the fact that the only way to get clay is to dig it out of the ground; a gift of the earth.  It's also a material that allows you to make mistakes and fix them with very little difficulty.  

0 Comments

August 17th, 2012

8/17/2012

0 Comments

 
Picture


The sculpture started with a doodle based on the tradition of the Peruvian retablo.
Retablos are decorative boxes with doors that open and close.  They are painted with flowers and leaf forms and house scenes of daily life or religious events.  The
Mexican retablo is likely to depict the skeletons from Day of the Dead.  

I knew I wanted to talk about death and I chose to speak in the format of the retablo.  
There is en element of joy about them that can't be denied.  I wanted the skeleton (death) outside the box, watching or reaching in.  But I had no idea what he was watching or reaching for.  I knew that if I started to build, eventually that part would come to me. 

Picture


The hat 
store.


The fruit
stand.

Picture










Day of the Dead Skeletons
(Calaveras)

0 Comments

Really the First Entry

8/16/2012

1 Comment

 
Thank you for visiting F.E. Young Sculpture.  I'm very excited to have it up and running and look forward to your comments and questions (if you have any).  www.feyoungsculpture.com.   Email to f.e.youngsculpture@gmail.com.
Picture
As I built this sculpture (one of the Latin American pieces) I photographed it day by day to post on the blog and talk about the process of producing such a work.  I wanted to blog about it in real time but was concerned about the problems that might arise...and they certainly did.  So we'll be back tracking to the beginning in my next post.  I hope you find it interesting.  

1 Comment

First Post!

10/21/2011

0 Comments

 
Start blogging by creating a new post. You can edit or delete me by clicking under the comments. You can also customize your sidebar by dragging in elements from the top bar.
0 Comments

    Author

    My name is F.E. Young.  The initials are in no way an attempt to desguise the fact that I am female.  In fact, I'm happy and proud to be female...it suits me.  My problem is with my name.  In 1951 my mother named me Frances.  This was timed perfectly for my eighth year to coincide with appearence of 'Frances the Talking Mule' movies on television.  I became "Francie" just in time for the Gidget movies.  For those of you who remember - Gidget's name was Francie.  I suddenly found myself called "Fidget."  But as an artist I signed F.E. Young.  the initials spelled Fey, my grandmother's name and it stuck.

    Archives

    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    October 2011

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed


Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.