University of Arkansas at Little Rock

It was a productive day.  The stone cutting assistant is doing well ruffing out the first granite piece.  I’ve enjoyed watching his approach to removing stone from the form.

The clay work is almost done.  We continue to tweek elements of the face, brow and cheeks.  I spent most of the day working the surface and cleaning up edges to a semi-finished state over most of the face.  I worked through most of the lunch hour to get further on the piece.  I’m hungry to be finished with the clay work.  Maybe in a few days we’ll wrap it up.

The Changchun Mayor passed through the studio in the late afternoon with TV crews and reporters.  I was fortunate to be the first one he talked to.  My interpreter Angela was not ready for the statement that I had planned.  She did well and said she was glad I didn’t tell her what I had planned ahead of time.

Afterwards the artists went back to the hotel, cleaned up and went for “Hot Pot” at a local restaurant with the studio assistants and the staff. “Hot pot” is where you have a small pot over a burner and you place a variety of shaved or ball meats, mushrooms or noodles into your boiling pot.  Then you cook it and enjoy the mixing of flavored foods in a variety of sauces. There were piles of great food, lots of laughter, much singing and a few hundred photographs.

Today we spent a fair amount of time adding on to both sides of the zygomatic arch. This is the bone that starts at your cheek and goes back to just above your ear canal.  We also added to the left temporal bone area which where your temples are.  Then we moved onto finishing the lips, mouth and eyes.  When sculpting the eyes on the model back in the spring I referred to a favorite book on “Portrait Sculpting” by Phillipe Faraut.  In his book he illustrates various methods to sculpting the eyes both open and closed.  I learned to sculpt the eyes closed and open three years ago in a Lawrence Kansas workshop taught by Phillipe.  So, this spring I went back to his method of sculpting the eyes in such a way that you can see the cornea below the upper eyelid even though the eyes are slightly open.  When someone is sleeping the eyelid completely covers the eyeball and the cornea is at the bottom edge of the upper lid.  This approach to sculpting the eyes closed is a fundamental indicator that the “Visionary” is in meditation or prayer.

I stayed at the studio for lunch again.  It’s been a great break in the routine and it allowed me time with three of the artists and to take a short nap on an elegant four-part granite bench. The rest of the lunch hour time was spent on my clay work.  It is so nice during this quite time as there are no grinders running and very few people around.

My new studio assistant for carving stone arrived during the mid-morning.
My interpreter and I walked him through what he needed to do.  By the end of the day he had the base of one stone leveled, a large corner cut off and was diamond drilling and feather wedging chunks of the upper surface. I need to decide what size pedestal I want for this two-part piece by Wednesday.

On Wednesday the Mayor of Changchun comes through the studio again.

I spent a few hours this morning marking out my stone sculpture.  I was told today that my stone assistant would be in on Tuesday afternoon.

Part of the day I spent trimming the left side of the cranium and the back of the cranium.  I was able to see the problems of imbalance in the shape from the balcony above. The rest of the day I worked on balancing out the cranium and then moved to working on the face.  I stayed at the studio today for lunch with the interpreters, the studio assistants, the staff and a few artists.  After lunch I had an hour and a half of quiet time modeling the face.  It was just what I needed to concentrate.  Pong left at 3p.m. and spent the rest of the day with his father who is an art teacher in Changchun.

Studio work was canceled this morning.  I took this chance to try and organize exhibition information for a solo show in September at the University of Louisiana at Monroe, the 2nd Annual Sculptural Show and Sale at the River Market in Little Rock in October and a three person show at the Historical Art Museum in November.  I only got one show organized.
�
Lunch was interesting as usual with so many different foods to choose from and a variety of languages such as French, Chinese, Russian and English.  It’s interesting to depend on each other and our language skills to have a conversation. On occasions such as today the topics included the Olympics and exploring the city shops and restaurants in pairs with only minimal information for cab drivers written in Chinese by the interpreters.  We are like kids exploring new territory.
�
Back at the studio there was another minor failure of clay adhesion to the lower left part of the cranium.  We created about thirty wood/wire crosses, connected them to the armature and put the clay back on the form.  It was repaired in about an hour and a half.  I’m still learning about the softness of clay and the strength and movement of armatures. .  After all the clay repairs were done I refined one of my rough paddles into a soft curved paddle so I could lightly pack the clay to a smooth surface.  Parts of the piece are getting close to finish.  I’ve had many positive comments from passing artists about “Visionary.”
�
Three artists have had plaster molds made of their clay works.  I continue to document this next stage in the process on a number of artists.  I’m not sure I can keep up with everyone that I’ve started documenting.  Theodor from St. Martin has made a plaster positive from his mold already and had spent the day refining the surface and form.  I’m not sure what his next step is.  But, I do know that parts of the figure will be cast in bronze and other parts will be carved in stone.
�
David from the Norfolk Island had a major problem with his clay falling.  He had similar problems as mine except that his was a quarter of the piece that fell off.  He was not at the studio all day so his assistant and a few others did all the repairs.  They made more wood/wire crosses of various sizes and lengths and connected them to the armature and all the clay was applied back onto the piece.
�
I was asked yesterday what kind of pedestal I wanted for my “Visionary” piece to be mounted on.  I took measurements considered the height, width and depth of the work, made sketches and finally talked to four or five different artists about what kind of options I should consider.  I decided to mount it flush to the ground on a small concrete pad that comes out from the work about 15-20 centimeters.  I feel this is consistent with the idea of mediation, prayer and a visionary.  Close to the earth and in a sea of grass felt right from almost everyone’s perspective.
�
Ryan’s assistant told me that I was on a local TV channel at 8:30 last night.  During the opening ceremony of the Olympics  a few TV crews interviewed three of the artists in our hotel lobby and asked our perspective on the Olympic opening ceremony, what advise we had for our home teams and how we felt about Changchun.
�
Monday I start marking out what will be cut from the granite with a new studio assistant and deciding how I want to mount or present the pieces.  Should the granite pieces be close to the ground or should they be on a low pedestal?  What will enhance the natural direction of the piece?

Repair work again.  I ripped out the meter square section of faltering clay, made thirty new wood/wire crosses and attached them.  Then we got a fan and slowly began to lay in the first layer of clay behind the wire crosses.  After that we worked on flattening out the clay on the cranium with wooden paddles and finished adding to the lower left side of the head.  Yet to do is a few large clay tools that are similar to a hard rake and finish the jaw form on both sides.  After that we finish the repair work on the right lower side of the cranium.  Then it’s on to finishing the face.�
�
Crickets, Mayflies, Dragonflies and Ladybugs are part of Viktor’s (from Georgia) studio assistant daily distraction.  He brings them by to show me almost every day.  I imagine we share the same child-like fascination with small things in nature.

We worked all day on finishing the back half of the cranium.  It’s starting to take shape.
Around four-thirty we discovered that since I was packing on the clay on the left side of the head it was rocking the whole head and clay started to work its way off the lower right half of the head.  Again the clay was too wet and the motion of the armature helped to weaken the clays adhesive quality.  We braced it, covered the front half of the head with plastic and walked away till Saturday hoping it will dry some.  Part of the problem is that the lower part of the head is round and cantilevered.  So, the clay naturally wants to fall.�
�
I made the rounds and photographed artists’ work in progress and talked to folks about the development of their ideas and any problems they were having with their work.
�
 At 8:08 p.m. the artists, symposium staff and many of the interpreters watched the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics in the lobby of our conference hotel.  The one-hour opening ceremony was quite the spectacular cultural and technological event seen through the eyes of an artist.  Beer and peanuts were served.  Watching the different countries march out onto the outer ring of the “Nest” revealed a rich a diverse history in costume.  We cheered each other’s countries on when the athletes walked into the arena.

It was a different day.  I brought in my small 1′ square by 2″ pedestal with paper on top and two clay forms that resembled stones that I had picked from the two piles of two hundred feet long granite and marble.  Lou a college teacher and studio assistant manager asked me what my model was about.  I briefly explained it to her.  A moment later one of the committee members came by and inquired about what it was and she explained it to him.  It was rejected within a few moments.
�
Later after gathering my thoughts I asked for an audience with the full committee to explain the concept behind my working model.  I was told many reasons why they could not accept the work.  I respectfully disagreed and explained my position and requested an audience with the full committee to debate the merits of my idea.  After an hour of waiting I was allowed the opportunity to present my piece to two committee members.  I had decided that if they did not like my idea that I would let it go.  After presenting my ideas through an interpreter and Lou we agreed that the work should be all granite as their marble was not suitable.  In the past years the sculpture park has had numerous problems with cracks in many of their marble blocks.  They asked if I would like it to rest close to the grass and I thought this approach would be consistent with the idea.  They also said I would have one assistant who would carve the stone with me and later I would have two assistants available.  I was content with this new possibility for a second large composition in black granite and gray/green granite. In the next few days we should get started on this new quiet compositional piece titled “Conversation”
�
The next week will be focused primarily on finishing the clay work on “Visionary.”  Teams of mold makers will be at the studio soon to start making multi piece plaster molds of all the clay works.
�
This afternoon all the interpreters, the artists and the staff took two full large buses and two small 15-person vans to a tour of Moon Lake, which is about 20 miles away from Changchun.  At the top of the mountain we enjoyed the tremendous view and all took turns ringing a 2-meter tall cast bronze dragon bell.  At one time this bell was used to alert the farming communities that there was a forest fire.  After that we had a walk in the woods and went off to dinner at a remote countryside-dining hall.  Many of the artists and staff took turns entertaining us all.  Barry’s interpreter let out the secret that he was turning 50 on this day.  We sang or were sang to all the way back to the hotel.  Today was the Chinese Valentine day.

We finished two layers of the chicken wire and a hundred or wood/wire crosses to hold the clay on the new metal armature addition this morning.  It’ll take a few days to get back on track with the back and sides of the cranium.

This morning and this afternoon I looked at stone and considered proposing a two part stone piece for my next four and a half weeks.  Part of what I was looking for was a stone or stones that I find aesthetically interesting in their own right.  I wandered around the large stone yard and began picking up small pieces of stone and setting them on a level surface.  After a while I began to look around to see what types of shapes of stones there were available in marble and granite.  I found one 2.5 x 1 x 3/4 meter planar white marble and one 1.5 high pyramidal gray/green granite form.  Neither piece has enough mass to carry off a monumental concept but together they could create an interesting relationship in stone.  Tonight I’ll write my proposal and develop a model.  If I get something done that I’m happy with I’ll submit my proposal to the committee and see how they respond.

I didn’t write a proposal.  Instead I created a clay model and asked Barry for some feedback on the composition, idea and materials.  We went back and forth on what I could do to improve the piece and came up with a solution that I think is interesting and can be done primarily with an angle grinder and a hammer in less than a month.

Four TV crews and the Mayor of Changchun came through the studio today to check up on the progress of the artists work.

We added more clay to the back of the cranium this morning.  If the clay does not dry soon I may need to rip off most of the clay in the back and revise the armature to better support the cantilevered lower part of the cranium.

Marko from Serbia came into the conference today.  His wife attempted to teach me Chinese Chess during our lunch break.

After lunch we took a cab to an art supply store and bought a few small clay tools.  On the way back we stopped at a Mc D’s for a large order of fries.

I came back from my tool and fries sojourn to a failure on the sculpture.  A massive section of the back of the cranium fell off the back of the head.  Not enough armature.  Clay too wet.  We stacked all the clay off to the side, ripped out more clay and got a welder to help us rig up a better armature.  I went out and celebrated my terrific failure.  Tomorrow we rebuild again.  I’m still a student of large-scale sculpture armatures.

Four UALR students recently returned from Washington, D.C ., after completing internships at Amnesty International, the Department of Defense, the Interfaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington, and the Council of State Governments through The Washington Center for Internships and Academic Seminars (TWC).

This fall, a fifth student, anthropology student Valerie Carpenter of Osceola, will complete an internship with the Naval Criminal Investigative Service (NCIS).

“I’ll be accompanying NCIS forensic agents on cases.” Carpenter said. “I’m looking forward to figuring out what the life of a forensic agent is all about.”

Students returning from the TWC benefited from a variety of experiences from organizations and agencies all over the nation’s capitol.

Amnesty International was only one of the worldwide organizations where philosophy student Stephanie Hinojosa of Little Rock spent her summer. “I worked with the Foundation for Democracy in Africa,” said Hinojosa, “which is a non-profit organization that interacts with African communities to promote governmental stability and economic vitality.”

Engineering major, Justin Lieber of Sherwood completed his internship at the Department of Defense by contributing to the white paper policy on how best to track carbon emissions and to implement new “green” technology for the Pentagon Reservation. “The Pentagon Reservation currently has no policy concerning this,” Lieber said. “White papers are supposed to be extremely technical, but what I wrote will been seen by directors and deputy directors. They will, hopefully, use this paper to make adjustments to the reservation.”

Antonio Carroll of Smackover worked at the Council of State Governments and attended hearings and briefings on a variety of issues from homeland security to the credit crisis. “It gave me an opportunity to get an insider’s view into what and how national laws are made and how public policy is shaped,” said Carroll, a political science major.

Another philosophy major, Michael Blake Frisby of North Little Rock completed his internship at the Interfaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington. “This organization is devoted to promoting unity and understanding across various faith traditions,” said Frisby. “The internship really complemented philosophy well and provided great insight in the beliefs and customs of other cultures.

According to the TWC’s website (www.wtc.edu), the educational nonprofit organization serves hundreds of colleges and universities in the U.S. and other countries by providing selected students challenging opportunities to work and learn in Washington, D.C. for academic credit. The largest such program, The Washington Center has over 35,000 alumni, many of whom are leaders in numerous professions and nations around the world.
To learn more about UALR’s participation with the TWC, contact Lisa Sherwin, associate professor of psychology, at (501) 569-3171 or at ebsherwin@ualr.edu.