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.  

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. 

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. 

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.   

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.  

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.

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.

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. 

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. 

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.

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.

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.  

The hat 
store.


The fruit
stand.

Day of the Dead Skeletons
(Calaveras)