tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-77353505424604570872024-03-12T18:48:06.442-07:00MARK RICHARDS FRBS Sculptor. PietrasantaIn 2012, I was fortunate to receive the Mercer Award. This offers a 3 month residency at Studio Sem in Pietrasanta, Italy. The Award is designed to provide established sculptors, working in materials other than stone, the opportunity to discover the expressive possibilities of marble. This blog is a record of my time in Pietrasanta.Mark Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09127105382141562804noreply@blogger.comBlogger70125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7735350542460457087.post-75837746330623707262013-12-15T10:25:00.002-08:002014-06-05T01:03:18.345-07:00Exhibition.Almost a year after the residency, I assembled my ideas into an installation at the <a href="http://www.rbs.org.uk/" target="_blank">Royal British Society of Sculptors</a><br />
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In designing the show, I conveyed something of the excitement and energy I felt while working in Pietrasanta. The starting-points of the pieces can be found in various posts in the blog.<br />
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<i>These photographs, taken by <a href="http://www.simphotography.com/" target="_blank">Sim Canetty-Clarke</a>, capture the essence of the show.</i><br />
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Some kind words</div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Clare Burnett <a href="https://twitter.com/clareburnett" target="_blank">@clareburnett</a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><a href="https://twitter.com/markxrichards" target="_blank">@markrichards</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/RBS_Sculptors" target="_blank">@RBS_Sculptors</a> show set up as studio full of marble experiments is the most interesting thing I've see this year - December</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span>Julian Wild <a href="https://twitter.com/jrewild" target="_blank">@jrewild</a></div>
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Fantastic stone laboratory by <a href="https://twitter.com/markxrichards" target="_blank">@markxrichards</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/RBS_Sculptors" target="_blank">@RBS_Sculptors</a> from his pietra Santa residency in Italy. Go and see it!</div>
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Lisa Snook <a href="https://twitter.com/LisaSnook1" target="_blank">@LisaSnook1</a></div>
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Lov'in your work for the Brian Mercer Residency <a href="https://twitter.com/markxrichards" target="_blank">@markxrichards</a> at <a href="https://twitter.com/RBS_Sculptors" target="_blank">@RBS_Sculptor</a>s beautiful, eclectic & intriguing.</div>
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Thank you to the exhibition organiser, <a href="mailto:FIRSTat108@rbs.org.uk" target="_blank">Julie Beech</a>, all the staff at RBS, Keara McMartin at <a href="http://www.studiosem.net/" target="_blank">Studio Sem</a> and <a href="mailto:paul.dodwell1@btinternet.com" target="_blank">Paul Dodwell</a> for technical wizzardry on the internal film projection for the Il Galeone piece.</div>
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Mark Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09127105382141562804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7735350542460457087.post-50989361432710510912013-02-20T15:39:00.000-08:002014-01-05T09:28:30.058-08:00Portrait sculpture at PeraltaIn the December post, <a href="http://markpietrasanta.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/peralta.html" target="_blank">Peralta</a>, I mention that I will be teaching a portrait sculpture course in that beautiful and inspiring place. I am happy to say that we will be running a course from 25th April - 4th May 2014. For details, please visit <a href="http://www.portraitsculptureatperalta.com/">www.portraitsculptureatperalta.com</a><br />
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During the course you will learn the essentials of portrait sculpture...how to look at a head, how to set a clay head up on an armature, observe and model the structure of a head and work detail into the overall form. And all in the relaxed and unique surroundings of Peralta. What could be better?<br />
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Mark Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09127105382141562804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7735350542460457087.post-58135759040817606752012-12-31T13:25:00.000-08:002014-01-05T09:30:58.408-08:00Eurotunnel and the waters of forgetfulnessThe title refers to a book by<a href="http://www.quartetbooks.co.uk/bookpages/thewatersofforgetfulness.html" target="_blank"> Yorick Blumenfeld</a>. I especially like the bit about underground ancestral scams.<br />
<i><br /></i>Reluctantly I leave Pietrasanta and Studio Sem and drive home.<br />
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I stop for the night near Milan with my friends Alessandro and Gaia. They pity my language skills and dress my toe. I set off in the snow.<br />
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Rain everywhere and the car is burning oil. The Swiss border guard looks like a cross between Raquel Welch and Michael Schumacher and wants 35 Euros to use the roads. When I finally agree to pay, a more benign guard appears to take the cash. Raquel is just there to intimidate. <br />
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The route turns westerly towards France and I consider heading further up through Switzerland to get the most out of my 35 Euros. But not for long. The only map I have is the sat nav. So, after stocking up on chocolate, I head into France.<br />
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Think about doing the trip in one day, but it is raining again - heavier now, as though it means it. So I slow to a crawl and watch the eta on the sat nav crank up the minutes. Then an hour.<br />
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I stop in Laon and guided by my wife on the phone and online, head for the Hotel des Arts. Well there is a misnomer if ever there was one. Hotel des Burgers and Frites might have been more apt. But it is clean and the proprietor congratulates me on my French which makes me like him instantly.<br />
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Downtown Laon looks like a pit;<br />
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but, like Peterborough, there is a cathedral.</div>
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I head up there and find the tiny streets cloaked in the mist left by the rain. </div>
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Damp air soaks up the light from the kettledrum floods that circle the cathedral. Apart from the obligatory small dog and lady, there is only one other person around. An amateur photographer with five lenses and a tripod. My phone camera looks ludicrous. But the lo-fi look in these captures the mood perfectly.</div>
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I eat in the cool and empty pizza restaurant...the one right next door to the fully booked family bistro. Vive la France.</div>
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As it turned out, I slept particularly well at Chez Burger.</div>
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I set off for the channel tunnel up through the flat lands made famous by World War I. There is little in this landscape to distract you from thoughts of those poor buggers shovelled, by the thousand, into sprays of machine gun fire. I tootle along counting my blessings at never having been to war.</div>
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If you haven't driven under the channel you have to give it a try. After the considerate and not at all vulgar funneling through duty free, the adventure begins. You drive into one end of a long railway train and carry on through until parked by a steward. Once stationary, each four cars or so are separated into carriages by automatic doors. All manoeuvres are directed by ladies in giant reflective jackets. You then slither under the sea for 30 minutes, emerge on the other side and, once the doors slide back, drive off. Magic. However, I have half an hour to ask myself ..why are the stewards all female and is there some mystical parity between them and the 'come hither'maidens at <a href="http://markpietrasanta.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/beauty-death-and-berlusconi.html" target="_blank">Staglieno</a>? And how would I do it differently if I were running this? </div>
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Well in the first place,I would dress the stewards in togas and rags and have them <i>beckon </i>rather than <i>direct </i>passengers into the carriages. Inside the train, I would replace all signage and windows with images and memorabilia of French and British ancestors. No one in particular. </div>
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Flexiplus is Chunnel business class and, apart from the temporary boost to self-esteem, it confers certain privileges: flexible turning-up times, a parking spot at duty free and a special, slightly wider, lane for boarding. In the new world, Flexiplus passengers might expect to have their own ancestors displayed in the carriages. </div>
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And then the train arrives in the UK. I break open a bar of the Swiss chocolate for comfort. It is still sticky from being too close to the heater on the drive up. The cars in front of me suddenly move. As I hurry to start up and jerk forward, a square of chocolate falls into the footwell...moving gingerly, I feel around for it, fish it out and, as the car emerges into the light, see that it is caked in marble dust.</div>
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Mark Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09127105382141562804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7735350542460457087.post-42638521662829605012012-12-31T13:19:00.001-08:002013-01-07T13:26:57.068-08:00Nuns and conjugationOne of the highlights of my time here is the twice-weekly Italian class I have been attending at <a href="http://www.croceverdepietrasanta.it/" target="_blank">The Croce Verde</a>. The class is aimed at visiting workers and so many of the pupils have been and gone. We have had kind and hilarious Senegalese, warmth from the Cote d'Ivoire, French, Mexicans, an Ecuadorian nun named Carmen (could not help but picture her conjugating with a rose between her teeth), a fluent Italian speaker (?) from Libya , glamorous Dutch and even someone from the North of England. <br />
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My enduring loves are a clutch of Romanian girls who took me under their collective wing and marvelled at my inability to grasp even the simplest of phrases. One of them has a market stall and if trade was slow on the day of the class we would each get a chicken.<br />
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This is our farewell Christmas lesson..</div>
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A big thank you to our instructor,Theresa, for being so patient with me.</div>
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Mark Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09127105382141562804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7735350542460457087.post-23493919076936385752012-12-31T13:19:00.000-08:002013-01-07T13:27:36.634-08:00Walt Whitman<br />
In a house in the hills by Montegiori, some local people gather every Thursday night to eat, drink, chat and perform something. The house belongs to Mariano (<i>arrowed by boat in picture</i>) and he and his friends made me feel very welcome....in effect, I wandered in off the road and sat down. Such is the hospitality around here. For me it was a great opportunity to meet people outside the sculpture circle and to practice my fledgling Italian.<br />
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Here is the great Oswaldo in full swing...</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgefbLTEYKTH4sG3Ncf11V2dNAF1HJGBc0BAAFnlbFFsxNe_V0ioF6u47NmjO4j_sS8o9-pA_I6goMCzPeA0h0f2D-1JlclUyAojR6CtiFtQbWtZxk9Y7-QYfOOCVx1aEH4WjFHi6ACJlo/s1600/oswaldo+read.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgefbLTEYKTH4sG3Ncf11V2dNAF1HJGBc0BAAFnlbFFsxNe_V0ioF6u47NmjO4j_sS8o9-pA_I6goMCzPeA0h0f2D-1JlclUyAojR6CtiFtQbWtZxk9Y7-QYfOOCVx1aEH4WjFHi6ACJlo/s320/oswaldo+read.jpg" width="235" /></a></div>
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...and the not quite as great Mark reading Walt Whitman's <i>Facing West from California's Shores</i> in Italian and English</div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">Facing west from California's shores,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">Inquiring, tireless, seeking what is yet unfound,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">I, a child, very old, over waves, towards the house of maternity,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">the land of migrations, look afar,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">Look off the shores of my Western sea, the circle almost circled;</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">For starting westward from Hindustan, from the vales of Kashmere,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">From Asia, from the north, from the God, the sage, and the hero,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">From the south, from the flowery peninsulas and the spice islands,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">Long having wander'd since, round the earth having wander'd,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">Now I face home again, very pleas'd and joyous,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">(But where is what I started for so long ago?</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;">And why is it yet unfound?)</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; line-height: 19px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Thank you Mariano and Oswaldo, and all your friends.</span></span></div>
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Mark Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09127105382141562804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7735350542460457087.post-78868640846191021012012-12-31T13:16:00.000-08:002013-02-19T00:25:31.138-08:00Peralta<i>Post dated: 15th December 2012</i><br />
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Neil and Kathy Ferber kindly introduced me to Dinah Voisin (pictured) who owns and runs Peralta.</div>
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Peralta is a hamlet in Tuscany that was bought and restored in the 1960s by famed hermaphrodite sculptor <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2004/jun/17/guardianobituaries.italy" target="_blank">Fiore de Henriquez</a>...that's her in the photograph behind us.</div>
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Here is the view from one of the terraces at Peralta...</div>
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...it is a breathtaking place. Fiore's studio is still intact and there are buildings dotted around the main house. It is truly idyllic. In October 2013, I will be teaching portrait sculpture here...see</div>
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<a href="http://www.portraitsculptureatperalta.com/">www.portraitsculptureatperalta.com</a></div>
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Neil Ferber has a studio in the complex full of his compelling forms. Although he acknowledges a debt to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eduardo_Chillida" target="_blank">Chillida</a>, Neil's work has its own language which seems very personal. </div>
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Thank you Dinah for your hospitality and enthusiasm</div>
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Mark Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09127105382141562804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7735350542460457087.post-25944438721203625552012-12-31T13:15:00.000-08:002018-11-11T22:43:35.230-08:00Tara tour and coffin candy<i>Post dated: 9th December 2012</i><br />
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If you want to know, ask Tara. Tara knows.<br />
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I have two weeks to go and feel that I have not seen enough treasures. So I ask French Reunion artist Tara from Studio Sem where to find something unusual. Before I know it, I am being whisked off to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucca" target="_blank">Lucca</a> which is about 25 minutes from Pietrasanta. Tara is not one to hang about. I did not even have time to get the camera so if the following pictures do not look as if they were taken on an ipad, then I have lifted them from the web.<br />
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In order she shows me:<br />
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The stunning Duomo di San Martino..</div>
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..and, inside, the fabulous Volto Santo (<i>Holy Face)..pictured here robed for the festival</i></div>
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The <span style="font-family: inherit;">stor</span>y has it that<i> "the </i><span style="font-style: italic; line-height: 16px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">large wooden crucifix is said to have been carved by Nicodemus, the biblical figure who helped Joseph of Arimathea remove Christ's body from the cross in John 19.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>According to mediaeval legend, Nicodemus did all the carving work except the face, which he hesitated to complete for fear of not doing it justice. He fell asleep, and upon waking, found the face beautifully carved - the miraculous work of an angel. The Crucifix of the Holy Face was buried in a cave for safekeeping, where it remained for centuries.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>It was rediscovered by Bishop Gualfredo, who was on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land when its location was revealed to him in a dream. To allow God to decide where the Crucifix should be kept, the bishop set it adrift on an unmanned boat in the Mediterranean Sea. The Volto Santo arrived on the shores of northern Italy, where the Bishop of Lucca, also prompted by a dream, put it into a wagon with no driver to determine its final location.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i> The two oxen pulling the wagon stopped of their own accord at Lucca in 782.</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><i>The Volto Santo was placed in the Church of San Frediano, but the next morning, it was found to have been miraculously transferred to San Martino. For this reason, the legend explains, San Martino was designated the cathedral of Lucca (an honour previously held by Santi Giovanni e Reparata)."</i></span></div>
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(The only credible part of this story is, to me, the bit about going to sleep and finding the work finished in the morning;) </div>
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It is also known as the black Christ. The work is probably a copy from a Syrian effigy, hence the dark wood and Levantine complexion. </div>
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As Christianity expanded into Europe, depicting him as a local made a lot of sense...he would be easier to relate to and so the message would be all the simpler to deliver. Christ became pinky-beige.</div>
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As a piece of sculpture, Volto Santo is arresting. It is a beautiful blend of naturalism and stylised form. The geometric sweeps of drapery suggest Byzantine sculpture.</div>
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As if that were not enough...just around the corner is one of the best coffin sculptures I have ever seen. It dates around 1407, is by <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacopo_della_Quercia" target="_blank">Jacopo della Quercia</a>, is in marble and is of <a href="http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monumento_funebre_a_Ilaria_del_Carretto" target="_blank">Ilaria del Carretto</a><br />
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Regardless of when it was made, a major part of what makes sculpture work is its abstract qualities; the volumes beneath the detail..the emotional core at the heart of form.</div>
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In the detail pictured below there are flourishes, tassels and hair; but take those away and you are left with a pile of perfectly balanced forms. </div>
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Her head is placed so as to make an offering of her face (she was a renowned beauty and it was wished to preserve the memory of that in the commission). The simplified form of the neck and shoulders enhance the presentation of the face.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPJs_55c4Aq0I8vq6bQOp1J7jqPk8hxVSjWOloKXo1JQs6GVSHSJ37phODKgS5laGsGKpklKR5lJAQD7xah735BoZBbMrbzxKx_p9IqUN0Ej3RH78CWZ3hZlmMu0jUdSYH-qbx-9Nk528/s1600/IMG_1223.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPJs_55c4Aq0I8vq6bQOp1J7jqPk8hxVSjWOloKXo1JQs6GVSHSJ37phODKgS5laGsGKpklKR5lJAQD7xah735BoZBbMrbzxKx_p9IqUN0Ej3RH78CWZ3hZlmMu0jUdSYH-qbx-9Nk528/s320/IMG_1223.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>
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On a more prosaic level, this also shows how important it is to choose your marble carefully...the only deterioration on the sculpture is where her nose has been chipped.</div>
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I want to expand the underlying abstract form matter for a minute with some examples. Take two well-known sculptures in the figurative tradition....Michelangelo's young slave</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQhLEO8KhyqxhHIS-d0HUBsCiMkhyphenhyphen834QBca8qYKleA1gxbww-8y_vlevPzm0rnsJOf2F2qPZffsftW5jDwrHxfb6FQKbbUqNiwqhaCZwndQvsgfKE8_8MuWM3_f_hldHp90nQBDz0DyE/s1600/young_slave_c1520-23_marble_hi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQhLEO8KhyqxhHIS-d0HUBsCiMkhyphenhyphen834QBca8qYKleA1gxbww-8y_vlevPzm0rnsJOf2F2qPZffsftW5jDwrHxfb6FQKbbUqNiwqhaCZwndQvsgfKE8_8MuWM3_f_hldHp90nQBDz0DyE/s320/young_slave_c1520-23_marble_hi.jpg" width="210" /></a></div>
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and Rodin's The Thinker</div>
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To me, Michelangelo's work exudes grandeur, beauty and a profound sense of self. He invented anatomical forms on the body to enhance expression, but they came from within..as if the surface landscape of the muscles and bones was born deep within the person. </div>
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Rodin's The Thinker is, by comparison, superficial and crude. The muscles and bone exaggerations look as if they have been applied as mosaic. It is histrionic nonsense: an over-egged pudding of a sculpture.</div>
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Rodin was one of the greatest life modellers and portrait sculptors of the 19th century...probably of all time...but he lost the plot when he started trying to make his work more interesting by playing with the surfaces. The Burghers of Calais had far more to them before he draped them with plaster impregnated blankets for example. Once he had seen Michelangelo's slaves, he was understandably entranced and proceeded to give the public his own watered down versions.</div>
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My final stop on the tour of Lucca was the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filippo_Lippi" target="_blank">Filippo Lippi</a> in San Michele in Foro</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBiKJ-aN3mv_m9GDL2AGS8mFPUaXJUohBHKwNGWRdx4WGif0B6B2B_e_3TUrjdD-ZGj8ojvs-F98k8edERJilX751eyQCGswvrv0bn1DT2gTNPdi5jH_aoEiZRunLdAlzSyGuJfbpC5GU/s1600/IMG_1264.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgBiKJ-aN3mv_m9GDL2AGS8mFPUaXJUohBHKwNGWRdx4WGif0B6B2B_e_3TUrjdD-ZGj8ojvs-F98k8edERJilX751eyQCGswvrv0bn1DT2gTNPdi5jH_aoEiZRunLdAlzSyGuJfbpC5GU/s320/IMG_1264.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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This is just hanging on the wall and is still used as an object of prayer. It depicts the Saints Helen, Jerome, Sebastian and Roch and was painted in 1483.</div>
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Unrelated to the beautiful colours in this picture, a story goes that while working for Massacio, Lippi snaffled some pigment to use for a painting he was doing on the wall of a brothel in Florence. Colours were precious and closely guarded, and artists had their own blends. Some months later, Massacio nipped into the brothel for some afternoon tea, looked up and exlcaimed, "Hang on, that's my red!"</div>
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Thank you, Tara, for a wonderful day in Lucca.</div>
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Mark Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09127105382141562804noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7735350542460457087.post-71289922830014016042012-12-30T03:46:00.001-08:002013-01-07T13:32:45.628-08:00'I don't remember eating that...'Best not to comment on other sculptors' work. <br />
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For a number of reasons.<br />
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<li>You never know the circumstances under which a work has been made or the pressures of the commission. (I have made some absolute howlers when compelled to complete under duress and would certainly not wish to be judged on those alone).</li>
<li>You never know; you may, one day, meet the sculptor over dinner or with a big hammer in her hand.</li>
<li>Sometimes people just have a bad day, or week, or year or decade and that is fine and needs to be tolerated because the path to a oneness with creative output is different for everyone.</li>
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And who is to judge? Encouraged by our impartial and thought-provoking media, we all love to be outraged by art. Goodness knows why. Artists are rarely malevolent and even those who are driven by diabolic intent are fairly harmless in the wider scheme of things. Most artists I know just want to do their thing, give that thing to the world and, with any luck, get paid something in return so that they can carry on doing their thing. And they want to be loved. <br />
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Perhaps we get outraged by art because we simply cannot get our heads around the things we are impotent to affect. Things like wars, traffic jams, and the terrifying level of consumption and pollution in developed countries. And, on a personal note, the blatant disregard for the English language on supermarket signage: "10 items or less" springs to mind. To think that children may every once in a while glance up from the cake-trough and see such a sign. Just as well that the effects of the cuts might mean that fewer and fewer of them will be able to read.<br />
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That said....<br />
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...some <i>will</i> be able to pass this shining example of mythologocial/classical/sexually charged/onanistic symbolism on their way to and from school each day. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE_F9uvpNAUIvcbYnSE8WYRnceUH9iFt_vkBJjYGc-mDcQCvYUg4PwQiDEvIU1hdrQRGT8rR4uR_IzYAe9yw3Mwxo4wLfzrmDnlEKYoX_HMFuHTc2PzEkB0l3bK0n93-xcqg917V2iLkY/s1600/arse.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="268" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjE_F9uvpNAUIvcbYnSE8WYRnceUH9iFt_vkBJjYGc-mDcQCvYUg4PwQiDEvIU1hdrQRGT8rR4uR_IzYAe9yw3Mwxo4wLfzrmDnlEKYoX_HMFuHTc2PzEkB0l3bK0n93-xcqg917V2iLkY/s400/arse.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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For the record, I am not at all outraged by this...merely very amused for, probably, all the wrong reasons.</div>
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I could not find a title or attribution of any kind on the sculpture or plinth. It does look as if it may have been conceived out of a game of sculpture C<i>onsequences,</i> so perhaps there was more than one perpetrator.<br />
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I felt at liberty to come up with my own title (see title) and wonder whether you can too...suggestions in the comment box please and don't forget to keep it clean....children may be reading this.<br />
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<br />Mark Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09127105382141562804noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7735350542460457087.post-26346674795182061022012-12-29T04:04:00.004-08:002013-01-07T13:15:14.430-08:00Quarries and Mick Jagger<i>Post dated week 3rd December 2012</i><br />
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This was a week marked by quarry visits in the Alpi Apuane<br />
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Keara McMartin, co-director at Studio Sem, has been for some weeks in the exacting and laborious process of sourcing a particular block of marble for the German sculptor <a href="http://www.sinnbild.net/" target="_blank">Dirk Wilhelm</a> (<i>pictured below)</i>.</div>
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The sculpture will be a large piece for a public area and, as it is going to be worked, cut into sections and re-aligned, it must be made from one block so that the grain and veining are consistent in the final work.</div>
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The November floods had made transporting blocks from the mountains down to Carrara and on very nearly impossible. And the main business of the quarries, selling blocks for cladding, flooring etc to the construction industry, meant that orders were backing up. Marble for sculpture is only one part of the quarry's income so it is, understandably, somewhere on a list of priorities rather than, as we would all like to think, at the top. </div>
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As the roads are cleared and the <i>cavatori </i>(quarry workers) get back to work, Dirk is doing what sculptors do when they might otherwise be kicking their heels...making something else.</div>
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Into all this step Keara</div>
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She has to ensure that Dirk gets the perfect block and is realistic about what the quarry, given the pressures, can provide, and when. She also has to get a guarantee from the quarry that, should the block be faulty, they will replace it. I start to realise just how key Keara is to all this...the behind the scenes stuff.... and so when she asked whether I would like to accompany her and Dirk on a visit to Franco Petacchi's quarry for a marble inspection, I jumped at the chance.</div>
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Franco Petacchi features earlier in the blog, or at least his studio does (he has both studio and quarry just up from Carrara). Ekkehard Altenburger carved his <i>House of the Gordian Knot </i>there....and Ekkehard was full of praise for how much care Franco had taken in selecting his block. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhALi-3iGt2QRfPB_5xx0zBX8EI0ftSZY1tIL7in4G5er5_mlymDO0m7H06rc0Yh6odp9ULdKu23sGiJqdjGTLtOszWpNxyIWaFcJnq_JLc4sZdLyhdC3V_QJ78ZP21u8DIgU8YczUhRnc/s1600/DSC_0209+a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhALi-3iGt2QRfPB_5xx0zBX8EI0ftSZY1tIL7in4G5er5_mlymDO0m7H06rc0Yh6odp9ULdKu23sGiJqdjGTLtOszWpNxyIWaFcJnq_JLc4sZdLyhdC3V_QJ78ZP21u8DIgU8YczUhRnc/s320/DSC_0209+a.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Keara and Franco</div>
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Cavatori are notoriously tough people. The work has mostly been in families for generations and they are fiercely independent. Franco is wearing dark glasses because a steel pressure cushion (used as support spacers while extracting the blocks from the hill) burst in his face a few weeks ago.</div>
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Although I had intended this photograph to be an admittedly rather cruel contemporary pop portrait of Mick Jagger, it is one of the discarded cushions....it is made of sheet steel so you can imagine the kind of pressure needed to inflate it...and the kind of damage it might do if it explodes. </div>
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So faced with a partially cut out mountain like this</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrynBqqPYWSNLhHh96CK9xu5Ht2UyD-3fFBgry8P7KuobaKIO87IEqV1dcPJc4MilGhv_89nxOjWdG09jJO1a4ZZz87Xzemxl8GtlILq75QFqA7XljLl2RJMkLyUkgNPaCBDIxPT0lRfw/s1600/DSC_0181+a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrynBqqPYWSNLhHh96CK9xu5Ht2UyD-3fFBgry8P7KuobaKIO87IEqV1dcPJc4MilGhv_89nxOjWdG09jJO1a4ZZz87Xzemxl8GtlILq75QFqA7XljLl2RJMkLyUkgNPaCBDIxPT0lRfw/s320/DSC_0181+a.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
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(<i>one day all this will be bathrooms)</i></div>
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how do you get at the blocks?</div>
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Well this is how.</div>
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You chainsaw in parallel to the floor at about skirting board level. Then you drill holes at each far corner from the top. Feed a flexible saw-blade down one of the holes, then out to the front face through the chainsawed gap. Join the saw blade up and feed it through a drive (not unlike the method used by brain surgeons to make access panels in the skull). This makes the side cut. Repeat on the other side and then the same with the back. Pull it out and cut it to size using the same flexible saw method illustrated below. The saw blades (cooled by jets of water) are just below the red lines and the drive is the box on the right. Notice that the drive engine is on rails to maintain the saw tension.</div>
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And then comes the lifting and transport. This clip gives you an idea of the weights involved..</div>
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<object class="BLOGGER-youtube-video" classid="clsid:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000" codebase="http://download.macromedia.com/pub/shockwave/cabs/flash/swflash.cab#version=6,0,40,0" data-thumbnail-src="http://i.ytimg.com/vi/tgjs8U15_Js/0.jpg" height="266" width="320"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/tgjs8U15_Js?version=3&f=user_uploads&c=google-webdrive-0&app=youtube_gdata" /><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF" /><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /><embed width="320" height="266" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/tgjs8U15_Js?version=3&f=user_uploads&c=google-webdrive-0&app=youtube_gdata" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true"></embed></object><br />
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In front of the stubborn block. I like this picture because I don't think I look like the softy I felt I was among the cavatori</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgut19p6sVg_2xy0i0Nl_jB-sgvD2sgaxf1E2SGb95DyEdFuNHtVdaVdSPVYHKSK2cNlJP_ws6XVprlAR8-h2d2qjub6Zh0VzTND5WXElTCj81SKkWwIDTh54DETeoCE9xzWPkkY_bBkSo/s1600/IMG_0898+a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgut19p6sVg_2xy0i0Nl_jB-sgvD2sgaxf1E2SGb95DyEdFuNHtVdaVdSPVYHKSK2cNlJP_ws6XVprlAR8-h2d2qjub6Zh0VzTND5WXElTCj81SKkWwIDTh54DETeoCE9xzWPkkY_bBkSo/s320/IMG_0898+a.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
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Keara and Franco explaining quarrying to me...</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbj380JPh5rws9nQozoHZd8YrUFkhzzCav4U5oskV4wGnBm_k0X9fEaSvCs4Bn4Rm4t2hZMOw14G7vkP0sBAvAyls6-__UjWGeqkc1kazktw_ludHrxrEEcO6YiVEx6Ki_EiPZYUo1QOs/s1600/IMG_0891+a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbj380JPh5rws9nQozoHZd8YrUFkhzzCav4U5oskV4wGnBm_k0X9fEaSvCs4Bn4Rm4t2hZMOw14G7vkP0sBAvAyls6-__UjWGeqkc1kazktw_ludHrxrEEcO6YiVEx6Ki_EiPZYUo1QOs/s320/IMG_0891+a.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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.....and cavatori preparing for the next phase of cutting</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxQ3BIENSe3bDCAOemHFYwxVFExDkkmH6w-LFiGlvLnmCxzojQ0wlJ4DFHL29jvAGg7ryx8t7B1Kr87-NKNSCgoN6U-drim4GOjiuoz3XfaB2_-mcM_JE12w-QgToL3e0nqjl0k7T1gOc/s1600/IMG_0908+a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="273" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxQ3BIENSe3bDCAOemHFYwxVFExDkkmH6w-LFiGlvLnmCxzojQ0wlJ4DFHL29jvAGg7ryx8t7B1Kr87-NKNSCgoN6U-drim4GOjiuoz3XfaB2_-mcM_JE12w-QgToL3e0nqjl0k7T1gOc/s320/IMG_0908+a.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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With Keara and Franco..I love this picture. It is a thank you picture.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9ArlV8kIVR1YUvLes8Wx9hMw2IdsMbsws0ojxiDrQcsHnAnmTJvXrfHMcCjzcllxTkK8GgVNdlrmAoK6zFFxvXkwK-vDEm4z-S6JxmBJMZygClyzscRSrF0m50JAYDACa7MHa1OjqSDE/s1600/DSC_0214+a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9ArlV8kIVR1YUvLes8Wx9hMw2IdsMbsws0ojxiDrQcsHnAnmTJvXrfHMcCjzcllxTkK8GgVNdlrmAoK6zFFxvXkwK-vDEm4z-S6JxmBJMZygClyzscRSrF0m50JAYDACa7MHa1OjqSDE/s400/DSC_0214+a.jpg" width="357" /></a></div>
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I left in awe of the cavatori, the ability of Keara and Franco to <i>read </i>the marble in the mountain and the severed landscape which, at the risk of being environmentally unfashionable, I found beautiful. The geometric forms cut out of the jagged mountainside made, to me, a beautiful contrast. And without wishing to stray into the realms of aesthetic wankdom, the flayed rock created a kaleidoscope of visual effects which I found mesmerising.</div>
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That said, there are serious environmental issues afoot, of which I know little, that deserve a mention.</div>
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It is an ineluctable fact that if you keep taking 3 x 1.5 x 1.5 m blocks of rock out of a mountain, one day you will not have a mountain. And then what happens to all those patterns that nature has established over millions of years?</div>
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The best I can do is point you at studies, and both established and incipient campaigns.</div>
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You will find relevant links in <a href="http://artislimited.wordpress.com/2012/12/09/turning-art-history-into-toothpaste-the-issues-involving-the-ongoing-environmental-disaster-in-carraras-marble-region-are-beginning-to-be-noticed/" target="_blank">this post</a> at the ever-informative and up-to-the-minute local English language blog <a href="http://artislimited.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Art is Life</a></div>
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Later in the week I visited two quarries up from Serravezza. The marble up there is, I believe, called Cardoso. Remote and fantastical places these quarries</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTTzM_lukvAzFZML7H9fONVpkTdWG3MmKZbEVMLDaBjeIASqLscWoKBxuo80ZouBzQs9hjbifZKE8yr05W_UXOdqFVQm0ixOo5z6wXYqarhocLtXNK5r-u-X3BC1tuwC1smY0NspYBNPU/s1600/DSC_0029+a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTTzM_lukvAzFZML7H9fONVpkTdWG3MmKZbEVMLDaBjeIASqLscWoKBxuo80ZouBzQs9hjbifZKE8yr05W_UXOdqFVQm0ixOo5z6wXYqarhocLtXNK5r-u-X3BC1tuwC1smY0NspYBNPU/s400/DSC_0029+a.jpg" width="253" /></a></div>
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The ceiling of an access tunnel that once grounded where the faced rock gives way to crag in the picture.</div>
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View up one of the holes drilled to feed the saw blades through..dia approx 10 cm.</div>
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The stocking seam line is, I assume, from the first turn of the flexible blade before it tensed and bit into the upper part of the tunnel hole. However, I cannot explain the dog leg about 3/4 of the way up.</div>
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The area silhouetted by blue sky would once have been rock..</div>
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Mark Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09127105382141562804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7735350542460457087.post-70262456800063954692012-12-28T03:58:00.001-08:002013-01-07T13:17:12.409-08:00Buggered toe<i>Post dated: 12th December 2012</i><br />
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During the roughing out of the self-portrait, I decided to switch boots. <br />
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As a result of a football accident about 20 years ago, my right big toe joint is completely buggered: calcified, arthritic and, at times, agonising. The pain, when the joint flexes, is exacerbated by cold. Therefore, when the weather changed, I swapped my steel toeys, which are bendy, for walking boots, which have steel rods in the soles. These stop the joint from moving up and back and are, consequently, beautiful in comfort. But they do not have steel toecaps.<br />
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When, and this is when the barrel starts coming back down in the story, I loosed a ham sized piece of marble from the block with my pitcher, it fell right onto my left toe breaking not only the nail, but the bone beneath it.</div>
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This is a 12 certificate trailer to the snuff movie it later became.</div>
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I have, temporarily, a brace of buggered toes.</div>
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Mark Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09127105382141562804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7735350542460457087.post-90486650725298241672012-12-28T03:36:00.002-08:002013-01-07T13:24:53.628-08:00Self portrait<i>Post dated: 3rd December 2012</i><br />
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For the final three weeks of the residency, I am going to begin a self portrait. It is to be twice life size and in marble.<br />
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I want to do this for a number of reasons.<br />
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<a href="http://www.markrichards.eu/portrait-sculpture/" target="_blank">Portrait sculpture commissions</a> have made up a large part of my work and I have some facility with the genre. However, the form involves someone else and the emotional impact of work is, inevitably, tied up with the personality and reputation of the subject. Portraiture is, by dint of its commemorative function, limited to some degree in its creative and exploratory potential. At least mine is. (<a href="http://www.npg.org.uk/freudsite/" target="_blank">Lucien Freud</a> is a good example of someone who made portraits more about his own journey than the marking of a particular moment in another's. And he chose his subjects rather than being chosen by them.)<br />
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Self portraiture is more subjective and self-exploratory than portraits of others. I hope that mine will not become a vortex of either self-aggrandisement or self-flagellation of course. I hope, instead, that it will enrich the current journey. Applying for and following through this residency in Pietrasanta has been a significant step in this and to wrap up my time here with a new direction will be apt.<br />
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Moreover, I want to learn how to transfer and enlarge a plaster model into stone using the traditional techniques of marble carving. I do a lot of enlargement etc in my own work, but it is always in steel and clay which are infinitely modal materials. Although the principles are the same with carving, how you locate points (raised or flush nail heads that form the <i>base camp </i>from which the triangulation happens) in space varies due to the finite act of chipping away stone. And you have to take the grain direction (and any faults) of the stone into account.<br />
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I am doubling the size of my model. This is a fairly straightforward step up. For less complete ratios, they use a nifty piece of geometry; <a href="http://markpietrasanta.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/sunday-walk.html" target="_blank">of which more later</a>.<br />
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The first step is to rough out a life size self portrait in clay. The block is just behind the clay head.</div>
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I talk over the procedures with artisans and sculptors such as <a href="http://www.eppedehaan.com/ie/index.htm" target="_blank">Eppe de Haan</a> (below) who works at Studio Sem.</div>
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The finished clay</div>
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I then take a plaster mould from the clay</div>
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...cast a plaster positive from the mould and place my measuring points so that they coincide, proportionally, with the sides and top of the block.</div>
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I then find the corresponding points on and in the block...the relative position of the nose point, for example, is ringed in red....</div>
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...and start roughing out the form</div>
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This is as far as I got in the time. I will bring it to a conclusion once it is shipped to my studio in England. Working with this has opened up a fresh set of forms for me. The <i>language </i>that works for clay just does not work in stone. And how this language will feed into my portrait sculpture is filling me with anticipation. </div>
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Mark Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09127105382141562804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7735350542460457087.post-27411953802195915042012-12-25T14:01:00.001-08:002013-01-19T01:25:49.847-08:00Beauty, death and Berlusconi<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><i>Post dated: 2nd December 2012</i><br />
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</i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monumental_Cemetery_of_Staglieno" target="_blank">Genoa Cemetery</a> with artists Julia, Christian, Tara and Jochen.<br />
Generous and experienced marble carvers, <a href="http://www.juliavance.no/" target="_blank">Julia Vance</a> and <a href="http://www.marbleartwork.com/" target="_blank">Christian Lange</a> put this trip together.<br />
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What a place. I am writing this two weeks after the visit and I still struggle to take it all in. <br />
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Imagine an giant Christmas cake. The flour, sultanas, nuts etc are the dead decaying. And the lot is covered in exquisitely shaped royal icing. Tombs, graves and every conceivable commemorative form were carved in white marble. Now the works are greyed and dusty with pollution so you have to imagine the original impact. Mark Twain, who visited in 1869, wrote<i>,</i><br />
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</i>"<i>Our last sight was the cemetery (a burial place intended to accommodate 60,000 bodies,) and we shall continue to remember it after we shall have forgotten the palaces. It is a vast marble collonaded corridor extending around a great unoccupied square of ground; its broad floor is marble, and on every slab is an inscription - - for every slab covers a corpse.</i><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i>On either side, as one walks down the middle of the passage, are monuments, tombs, and sculptured figures that are exquisitely wrought and are full of grace and beauty.</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i>They are new and snowy; every outline is perfect, every feature guiltless of mutilation, flaw, or blemish."</i> The Innocents Abroad</div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz-Za9_VbXBQqzfCYQ31rFtb_S4l6VyVnof4kYPGrPKManzOCeJVaRg40tVV7hlelMCEDWGpJD7T6TgKOGj07McjpdsWuc9C0y1nY2uIVEy4Cl_kHe-ouYNTXiztqB-0rcXF9b00qP2H4/s1600/angels-detail.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="338" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgz-Za9_VbXBQqzfCYQ31rFtb_S4l6VyVnof4kYPGrPKManzOCeJVaRg40tVV7hlelMCEDWGpJD7T6TgKOGj07McjpdsWuc9C0y1nY2uIVEy4Cl_kHe-ouYNTXiztqB-0rcXF9b00qP2H4/s400/angels-detail.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div align="center" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"> Circa 1890. Graceful and composed, this is a good example of how a dead person might wish to have specific values reflected in symbols...here the cup, the serpent and the coins cascading from the bowl suggest resistance to temptation, generosity and the fleeting nature of acquisitiveness.</div><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmyh-W7YUC_vS2zA6hXCqyFtvUWezEE5IH-fAF_xuxfD3ss5fZBaB35694qV1H7YZHgiO4fbDD2gwvGevtqVW2oeBh3eloIJVTNW5FXdph4y5Yv5Y-JM1TgtBGQoQXfvPFKO9g-msLSs8/s1600/wing.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgmyh-W7YUC_vS2zA6hXCqyFtvUWezEE5IH-fAF_xuxfD3ss5fZBaB35694qV1H7YZHgiO4fbDD2gwvGevtqVW2oeBh3eloIJVTNW5FXdph4y5Yv5Y-JM1TgtBGQoQXfvPFKO9g-msLSs8/s320/wing.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div><div style="text-align: center;">The sculptors used goose as reference for the wings...look at the lustrous carving in this detail...confident, deft strokes of a chisel.</div></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnJd-eFTGd8TlCWxi8Uad4jceyIv30Uq7fOiyJLEw-cyPHjmgwHlajp-rKdndZJPQOM-e3H0PPv-3LMh_zLrvEk-gMOpSls6s7HJUSn9lnXlWNeGbDOANj2x1E8jV2Qc0JuXq6Jzn9Yzg/s1600/tits.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhnJd-eFTGd8TlCWxi8Uad4jceyIv30Uq7fOiyJLEw-cyPHjmgwHlajp-rKdndZJPQOM-e3H0PPv-3LMh_zLrvEk-gMOpSls6s7HJUSn9lnXlWNeGbDOANj2x1E8jV2Qc0JuXq6Jzn9Yzg/s320/tits.jpg" width="183" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">One of my first encounters. There are some tombs with statues demonstrating a 'come hither' approach to the grave...and this lady has most of the chaps, and some of the girls, yearning for a swift end. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC_YVRKfhQd4UVBWK5vTcSx9z-Vo__EQESe9r-Pjw8h3qjoVV0_IdGmpJZPYWS1u57Ao4wc7yc_CJGYR6KZyQpsVsuoTwvp_MLOYtavcwBTa27x5dGhgvMXaj_RAh31unui80RnCJCQIc/s1600/tits-detail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="202" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC_YVRKfhQd4UVBWK5vTcSx9z-Vo__EQESe9r-Pjw8h3qjoVV0_IdGmpJZPYWS1u57Ao4wc7yc_CJGYR6KZyQpsVsuoTwvp_MLOYtavcwBTa27x5dGhgvMXaj_RAh31unui80RnCJCQIc/s320/tits-detail.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Exploiting breasts to make even death seem enticing may go some way to explaining <a href="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1940229,00.html" target="_blank">Silvio Berlusconi's</a> continuing presence on the Italian political scene. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> Check this out:...one of his tasteful campaign videos..</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/xOJNjJjNP3c?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">The layout of the memorials reflect the social hierarchy of old Genoa...and probably of new Genoa for all I know. The graves get more elaborate the further up the ladder was the corpse. I want to know more about how income, at the lower end of the scale, determines the resting place. Are these drawers for the cremated poor? </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq08DNARMVJJn9MgnwGnle8ZBoECxn4KYO9YA0q0fdblIiG-_pA7JuYhgkfwEAYkT50i1ixhMfDuDh3AhWGgTZ9m6_RgX9SWlsANE5aCxCGbjNUQa4cN8DwsDRhyphenhyphendKW2u6gOjnsPou9U4/s1600/corridor-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgq08DNARMVJJn9MgnwGnle8ZBoECxn4KYO9YA0q0fdblIiG-_pA7JuYhgkfwEAYkT50i1ixhMfDuDh3AhWGgTZ9m6_RgX9SWlsANE5aCxCGbjNUQa4cN8DwsDRhyphenhyphendKW2u6gOjnsPou9U4/s400/corridor-2.jpg" width="266" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">And are these the suburbs?</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">At the upper end of things, the delineations seem conspicuous and rigid...the rich merchant families have statues carved and are situated in the main corridors (see above)....the super rich and powerful have mausolea. You go up the hill, into fresh, clear air and there is a kind of Beverly Hills of windowless mansions set among small gardens and leafy avenues. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">But there is always one who bucks the trend..this lady, by coincidence related to Christian (<i>left in picture) </i>by marriage. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">The beads she holds in her hands are hazelnuts. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">By making and selling necklaces, doughnuts and peanuts, Catherine Campodonico maintained a meagre but steady living throughout her life. And so assiduous was she, that by the end of her days, she had amassed a small fortune. Rather than pass this to her eager relatives, she spent the lot on a marble statue of herself. And she commissioned one of the finest sculptors of the day, Lorenzo Orengo, to make the work in 1881..you can almost feel the weight and texture of the fabric.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">And talking of texture....this life size 19th century piece is breathtaking. The Pienovi Tomb 1879 by Givanni Battista Villa.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">So super real, she seems to move...the work captures a moment after death. Perhaps she was at his side when he died and lightly covering his face with the sheet in farewell. Perhaps she is pulling the sheet back for a final look. This work exemplifies a trend towards a direct confrontation with death, unmediated by symbols or reference to mythology. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">This scene could be soppy. But it is not. The perfectly weighted and balanced forms lift it clear of sentimentality. It is a challenging image, and monumental...a moment in time elevated to legend by a master sculptor.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">This one IS a bit soppy. Soppy and wooden. But worth a mention for the remarkable carved curtain in the background. You can sense air behind it.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">The Appiani Tomb by Demetrio Paernio features on the front of Joy Division's 1980 album<i>, Closer</i></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><i><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Some tombs have gate keepers to welcome the very nearly dead....</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">And others, saucy maidens to entice you.....</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Tara, Julia, Christian, me and Jochen in front of the famous Oneto family monument by sculptor Giulio Monteverde, 1882. This was the best of days.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtlpHA4GCUCNXIjr4wEDevipje7Y2nEholIubt5HQq8RnnFxX_HemnVF5iAXMSVjCElQSAQ_C7fPCvPJb-b3s7cTEDLIS5UuyjQXJANsSyc-NuZJoEJm8BOGGOwrLxrHbRWTorZ-qvjGo/s1600/crew.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtlpHA4GCUCNXIjr4wEDevipje7Y2nEholIubt5HQq8RnnFxX_HemnVF5iAXMSVjCElQSAQ_C7fPCvPJb-b3s7cTEDLIS5UuyjQXJANsSyc-NuZJoEJm8BOGGOwrLxrHbRWTorZ-qvjGo/s320/crew.jpg" width="277" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Staglieno sculptors include:</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo_Bistolfi" target="_blank">Leonardo Bistolfi</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augusto_Rivalta" target="_blank">Augusto Rivalta</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giulio_Monteverde" target="_blank">Giulio Monteverde</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edoardo_Alfieri" target="_blank">Eduoardo Alfieri</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demetrio_Paernio" target="_blank">Demetrio Paernio</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lorenzo_Orengo" target="_blank">Lorenzo Orengo</a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Givanni Battista Villa</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div>Mark Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09127105382141562804noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7735350542460457087.post-57941945644128608822012-12-16T07:17:00.003-08:002012-12-27T03:37:25.499-08:00Daniel Couvreur<i>Post dated: 29th November 2012</i><br />
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Today, Tara, an artist<i> </i>from Studio Sem<i> </i>introduced me to <a href="http://www.daniel-sculpture.com/cv_daniel.html" target="_blank">Daniel Couvreur</a> in his studio at yard <a href="http://www.artigianart.org/aziende/scheda_azienda.php?cod_azienda=8" target="_blank">Giorgio Angeli</a>.<br />
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Daniel was feeling poorly, but this did nothing to diminish his big spirit and warm welcome.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5rpO8b5G2c1sHSv3jOQKxzxTTP1GdU9AQYmzDferVSBcGBGYn_Cc8ds5zpwjCA5KL6wzn171q8O_SiwZVDeA6TWp4m2F0RNY9beenaZRRH4yRYTV241szUpPTxKQUv7t0kz3GwmGtNd0/s1600/dan-5-web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5rpO8b5G2c1sHSv3jOQKxzxTTP1GdU9AQYmzDferVSBcGBGYn_Cc8ds5zpwjCA5KL6wzn171q8O_SiwZVDeA6TWp4m2F0RNY9beenaZRRH4yRYTV241szUpPTxKQUv7t0kz3GwmGtNd0/s320/dan-5-web.jpg" width="205" /></a></div>
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Most studios I visit have objects, ideas, drawings, work in progress etc each occupying a bit of the room, each having their own bit of space in which to breathe and be seen. By contrast, much of Daniel's work is contiguous. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJAWLpkDttn2GhrXP5MBImikzuopVCZAJqUeSqKwxxMxV_LuHGmvHbcGyMMb1j96N-TOSQJRZVrQy7LKwNQlOgiG37wXbYjxT-kTJZVGgu4Vt3A-c5foIYS59fc24Qhv9YohldqMv4K-E/s1600/Dan-1-web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJAWLpkDttn2GhrXP5MBImikzuopVCZAJqUeSqKwxxMxV_LuHGmvHbcGyMMb1j96N-TOSQJRZVrQy7LKwNQlOgiG37wXbYjxT-kTJZVGgu4Vt3A-c5foIYS59fc24Qhv9YohldqMv4K-E/s320/Dan-1-web.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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There are no obvious beginnings or ends. The work feels like one long journey of a sculpture interrupted every now and again by shelf ends, uprights and edges of tables. </div>
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The elements are mostly discards from the industries here that Daniel has scavenged from streams, fields and river beds.</div>
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Each piece is carefully and sensitively joined to the next. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGqhVAF4F5ojVSXalzeW3sRfSzL_ndkNj855_GDFvAad7AR2W2JSkXt9v4GHLDGC0WyrjnBouCntd88FXUESAJqpFGRSyuEIvSRlYlK78kdZyV5UQKF_JTuxGf-37xU7MHeSOLfyie8sw/s1600/dan-3-web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGqhVAF4F5ojVSXalzeW3sRfSzL_ndkNj855_GDFvAad7AR2W2JSkXt9v4GHLDGC0WyrjnBouCntd88FXUESAJqpFGRSyuEIvSRlYlK78kdZyV5UQKF_JTuxGf-37xU7MHeSOLfyie8sw/s320/dan-3-web.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
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And together they make what I feel is an epic of a personal story.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheGchnwobDWeFh0C2oX2gMJvx2UqXARz5uBGsq6oXQ3OI5Jl3a6q8_bAUFQ7-vkQvwVWc4jQj3g8gzIl0NxwjItpz3qiF8OPfI_Bn3Ez9rMF29aL21F-gA0Cpn7Z4f1KkSt4eJdfgPQHE/s1600/tara+and+daniel+1000p.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="269" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheGchnwobDWeFh0C2oX2gMJvx2UqXARz5uBGsq6oXQ3OI5Jl3a6q8_bAUFQ7-vkQvwVWc4jQj3g8gzIl0NxwjItpz3qiF8OPfI_Bn3Ez9rMF29aL21F-gA0Cpn7Z4f1KkSt4eJdfgPQHE/s320/tara+and+daniel+1000p.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Daniel and Tara</div>
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Mark Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09127105382141562804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7735350542460457087.post-81058275775673068942012-12-16T05:07:00.000-08:002013-01-01T05:10:35.072-08:00Review and white fingers<i>Post dated: 28th November 2012</i><br />
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I am at the end of my second month and have three weeks to go.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixDNcHdGZdexpPP4aTKyzlb8s7les0EU-wr4h5nhNtMPnUd3SDvBWwj3m3TlPTLW08CN_10YmKoDhTfI-eZcrbJHeBFEgzaAQ5FDx2UCZeQJQjjOE07pddMRcFnS0AxCgBxWe-yZd5PO0/s1600/gaia.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixDNcHdGZdexpPP4aTKyzlb8s7les0EU-wr4h5nhNtMPnUd3SDvBWwj3m3TlPTLW08CN_10YmKoDhTfI-eZcrbJHeBFEgzaAQ5FDx2UCZeQJQjjOE07pddMRcFnS0AxCgBxWe-yZd5PO0/s1600/gaia.jpg" /></a>Filmmaker and photographer Gaia Consuelo Giani told me, "<i>when you come to a new place, your eyes arrive on time, but your body takes a little longer</i>". I know what she means now. For the first weeks, I felt disconnected and all at sea..I was all eyes and no legs. Now firmly settled in, this is not a time for flying with new ideas. It is a time to get my head down and plough.<br />
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I have two free carved pieces, three reliefs at various stages, two small blocks waiting for ideas and a cupboard full of maquettes. For the final three weeks Keara, who has been enthusiastic and helpful in structuring my ideas, is supervising the cutting of a block of which more later. And I am going to finish up with a self portrait.<br />
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The Cold.<br />
I was told that about this time of year the number of transient sculptors in Pietrasanta halves. The days get shorter, the rain starts and the cold sets in. I am working outside with a lean-to roof to keep the worst of the rain off. And it gets very, very cold. <br />
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It is particularly hard for the artigiani. Years of working with air hammers inhibits circulation in the fingers and, in the cold, the ends go white. The pain is alleviated by warmth. You can plunge your hands into hot water or toast them on a brazier. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiScY52xVY34oFhmGQUlgRvufrRNeTKhmXl0JfPOQSdYBgWsuvj-mDEl2RqOyPNEgueIhZv5WGxFR7cUJwWUOkK2MN2_4gmDj8P5YO5pBJ1j637oTUi_7VTJR6p1Ul8TlBKhn1vBvAktQ/s1600/IMG_1271.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiScY52xVY34oFhmGQUlgRvufrRNeTKhmXl0JfPOQSdYBgWsuvj-mDEl2RqOyPNEgueIhZv5WGxFR7cUJwWUOkK2MN2_4gmDj8P5YO5pBJ1j637oTUi_7VTJR6p1Ul8TlBKhn1vBvAktQ/s320/IMG_1271.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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Here, artigiani Simone Fortini and Leonardo Buratti take a brazier break. The daily lighting of the brazier is a heartening moment.</div>
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One of the reasons I am making the self-portrait now rather than earlier in the residency is to make something large enough to keep me physically active. This staves off the cold.</div>
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Mark Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09127105382141562804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7735350542460457087.post-8781515025897962632012-12-16T04:33:00.001-08:002012-12-16T04:33:37.390-08:00Relief panel 1<i>Post dated: 28th November 2012</i><br />
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I am cutting the relief panel this week. Using the plaster cast as a guide, I work out the depths in the stone and begin cutting.<br />
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I refine the planes as the piece progresses</div>
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Mark Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09127105382141562804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7735350542460457087.post-46670902555936787802012-12-16T03:08:00.002-08:002013-01-01T03:34:56.315-08:00#8<i>Post dated: 27th November 2012</i><br />
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The relief is emerging. I will leave this alone shortly. My intention is to pierce the areas surrounding the central motif, but I am reluctant to do this before the relief is shipped back to my studio. I want to give the central part of the stone as much buttressed strength as possible for the journey.<br />
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Mark Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09127105382141562804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7735350542460457087.post-89431485200902814662012-12-15T13:47:00.000-08:002012-12-16T03:16:46.522-08:00Jeff Koons and La Cicciolina<i>Post dated: 27th November 2012</i><br />
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Next door to Studio Sem is the site of the original <a href="http://www.cervietti.com/" target="_blank">Cervietti</a> studio, now called La Polveriera <i>(The Powder Room)</i>....<br />
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Upstairs is the store of old plaster models....<br />
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...and downstairs is the<i> actual spot </i>where <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeff_Koons" target="_blank">Jeff Koons</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cicciolina" target="_blank">La Cicciolina</a> had their torsos cast into plaster as part of their 'Made in Heaven' series.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Made in Heaven (1990)</i></td></tr>
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The plasters were used as reference material for the marble sculpture below...</div>
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Here I am on the very same spot with my very own Cicciolina..</div>
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Mark Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09127105382141562804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7735350542460457087.post-58121571866106663232012-12-12T10:19:00.000-08:002012-12-12T10:22:41.907-08:00Helaine Blumenfeld<i>Post dated: </i>Monday 26th November<br />
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<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helaine_Blumenfeld" target="_blank">Helaine Blumenfeld</a> visited the studio today and chatted with me about the nearly completed #4<br />
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..always a pleasure to see and talk with Helaine</div>
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<br />Mark Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09127105382141562804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7735350542460457087.post-4992883995948954372012-12-12T10:01:00.001-08:002012-12-14T10:12:40.917-08:00San Galgano<i>Post dated: </i>Sunday 25th November<br />
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On the way back from Arezzo, I stopped off to look at San Galgano, a ruined <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cistercian_architecture" target="_blank">Cistercian</a> abbey near Siena<br />
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This picture has been lifted from the net...by the time I arrived, it was a beautiful but dark night sky.<br />
Seeing the sky from the nave, my head craning through security railings, was spectacular. The monastery became an observatory.<br />
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<br />Mark Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09127105382141562804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7735350542460457087.post-30754067596807865172012-12-09T03:39:00.000-08:002013-01-07T13:34:38.216-08:00 Arezzo<i>Post dated: </i>Sunday 25th November.<br />
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Today I saw frescoes depicting the legend of the true cross by Piero Della Francesca at the church of San Francesco in Arezzo<br />
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The church guards turn pretty nasty if they see anyone taking a picture. I saw a German clearly reduced after attempting a surreptitious snap. <i>I</i> had noted the cctv in the apse, but she had plainly missed it, entranced no doubt, as we all were, by the beautiful work on the walls. As my young son once said, 'I don't really agree with a lot of what the church does, but they have made some cool stuff.' Well it doesn't get much cooler than Piero Della Francesca<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piero_della_Francesca#Frescoes_in_San_Francesco_at_Arezzo" target="_blank"> in Arezzo</a>.</div>
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The narrative of the legend of the true cross jumps about around the walls and the Annunciation, which I was particularly keen to see, does not, as far as I can tell, fit the story. However, the design fits the walls....look at the strong vertical, for example just to the left of the hanging crucifix...the Annunciation is on the lower section.</div>
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I had only ever seen individual images of this fresco cycle and have always loved the balance of each picture...the abstract structure supporting the colours and breathtaking drawing in each one enthral me...but seeing them in context, every inch of wall used, I wondered at the workman-like nature of the painter....to achieve something like this, you would have to harness your talent and skill, draw, plan and plod on for months and months. Seeing them all together, they were like treasures spilling out of a box.</div>
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And then another church...a comparatively restrained interior, protestant even, but with this fantastic image of Christ</div>
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and the breast really <b>is</b> slightly swollen..it is not the light. Patterned wallpaper, trinkets, mad metal sunbeams, stigmata, man boob...</div>
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And when this kind of maximalist imagery lodges inside your head, you cannot help but see the world around you in an altered state....</div>
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Mark Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09127105382141562804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7735350542460457087.post-11531061773348381132012-11-25T00:19:00.001-08:002012-11-25T00:51:12.111-08:00Humping the light<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyI2emmx-JAKm0RpIQSIjjxBfSKEld7VNvScXutvDWWrYb8-0BFnh50NgREsti87aNq5pR4TFf3Xd5g8v4uXU7Vd5yoofrDmXIf79a7bkB_CVswo1uVkD6lS3_gWfPldHZ57TnSMWd6D8/s1600/glowworm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyI2emmx-JAKm0RpIQSIjjxBfSKEld7VNvScXutvDWWrYb8-0BFnh50NgREsti87aNq5pR4TFf3Xd5g8v4uXU7Vd5yoofrDmXIf79a7bkB_CVswo1uVkD6lS3_gWfPldHZ57TnSMWd6D8/s320/glowworm.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
Believe it or not, this is a picture of a glowworm trying hump, or whatever glowworms do to ensure they will glow in perpetuity, one of those low voltage mood lights in a driveway.<br />
Via Capezzano.Mark Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09127105382141562804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7735350542460457087.post-16402519177224755152012-11-20T12:51:00.000-08:002012-11-20T12:51:01.892-08:00Neil Ferber<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkBwOIANi9ff_73FbKOyM-QhW5I2-AmCnTbdZIa4umbmdytSvgs-ZaMjFJw9rj4ojgpRPT6dioUy8Z6oVQhUUHH7DEqj9WjFWYuC7-62OvkpMLcURMfCvksp92tB4vYhSHwBmD56vqLSo/s1600/neil+f.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="305" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkBwOIANi9ff_73FbKOyM-QhW5I2-AmCnTbdZIa4umbmdytSvgs-ZaMjFJw9rj4ojgpRPT6dioUy8Z6oVQhUUHH7DEqj9WjFWYuC7-62OvkpMLcURMfCvksp92tB4vYhSHwBmD56vqLSo/s320/neil+f.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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I was really struck by this sculpture today....apart from the intriguing composition and seemingly impossible geometry, the way the direct and reflected light mix on the planes is kaliedoscopic. I was entranced. </div>
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It is in white marble and by <a href="http://www.neilferber.co.uk/galleries/2000g3/index.html" target="_blank">Neil Ferber</a> 2012</div>
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<br />Mark Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09127105382141562804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7735350542460457087.post-12929617148370450212012-11-18T08:53:00.002-08:002013-01-01T10:54:42.230-08:00The barrow and Inger's skills of enlargement<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYavl1LcqTgHW5DnOdje8k8HJ-DxmtxlJJviQDa_FJMbFqVPhY0Z4a1mpPOh-XzvYK1i8r7my_tOE6dREEDyJK3bFJXTtkItLUMf0cfoiBOofUm_NLCZjqBbqSk5X7_t1zMmPWr2NXBI8/s1600/wheel-barrow.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYavl1LcqTgHW5DnOdje8k8HJ-DxmtxlJJviQDa_FJMbFqVPhY0Z4a1mpPOh-XzvYK1i8r7my_tOE6dREEDyJK3bFJXTtkItLUMf0cfoiBOofUm_NLCZjqBbqSk5X7_t1zMmPWr2NXBI8/s320/wheel-barrow.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Today I walked up through the olive groves and terraced allotments to Capezzano Monte. I had to look at this twice. Just a barrow.</div>
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I pass by <a href="http://www.skulptorforbundet.se/medlemmar/inger-sannes" target="_blank">Inger</a> (one of the sculptors at Studio Sem) and Magnus's house, drop in and feast on home made sourdough and local honey. It is a lovely house to chat things over in and the air seems full of nurturing energy. I do feel very good in this place, but can anyone explain why girls drink such obscure teas?</div>
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Later that week in the studio, Inger explains the geometric enlargement system to me. </div>
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Prepare your maquette (small scale model of the sculpture) and the block of stone into which you want to enlarge and carve it. The width, length and height of the block should be roughly proportionate to the maquette.</div>
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Draw a line on a board and mark one end with a cross (A).</div>
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Using a compass, measure the longest distance on the block and mark this (B) on the line (using A as your starting point). Then measure the longest distance on the maquette with the compass Place one end of the compass on point B and scribe an arc on one side of the line. Then draw a line from A so that it intersects the arc at the furthest distance from B (ie, if the arc is a hill on the A through B line, then the highest point of the hill).</div>
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You then have two lines, starting from A, making a V shape. </div>
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Take any measurement on the maquette and move the compass up or down the V until both ends meet the lines of the V. Mark where one of the compass ends touches, measure from there back to point A and you have the corresponding measurement for the enlargement.</div>
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Good luck. </div>
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<br />Mark Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09127105382141562804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7735350542460457087.post-23721414281314313202012-11-18T08:06:00.004-08:002012-11-20T12:54:20.388-08:00Pigeons<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Friday 16th Nov. On my way to work I spotted this. The bird on the right is dead and its entrails were spilling out onto the ground..it had plainly died horribly. I have heard that pigeons can mate for life and the sight of the live one on the left keeping vigil over a perished partner was so touching that I moved in to photograph the scene. I thought that it might make a good image for a St Valentine's Day card. The picture is from some distance. Encouraged by the apparent lack of concern at my presence, I moved in for a better shot.</div>
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As I got closer, the live bird tried to take flight. And so did the dead one. Some thin cord was entangled in the claw of the live pigeon and around the neck of the dead one...and so when the live one tried to take off, the weight of the dead one dragged it back down. And so it sat down again, dejected and exhausted. Its grim cargo had all but drained it of energy.</div>
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So they were not hard to catch. </div>
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With the help of a passer-by I managed to separate them and did what I could to untangle the cord from the live pigeon's foot. But it was so embedded in the flesh that I could do very little except shorten the strands so, at least, it would not snag any more partners.</div>
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When I let it go, I was hoping for a symbolic moment...the bird, free at last, soaring up into the azure. But it just fell back on the ground and sat there. Must have been so tired and has probably been eaten by a cat. Or perhaps not. </div>
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<br />Mark Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09127105382141562804noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7735350542460457087.post-7828976736426230792012-11-18T07:40:00.001-08:002012-12-16T03:58:43.467-08:00Relief mould<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVE7ixKRTr0oNp9akg7SiXgblKPUxjMq7BsjmEDHb-N2f-5Sq7Wd5ehOCqmN86qVjafMvmw55yxKt_cCO-extJluP-zBiRtOqaPrFgd7rN-ELA6GyKXaL_UpmlD7BznM7Q45SWJKF5Dxo/s1600/69.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVE7ixKRTr0oNp9akg7SiXgblKPUxjMq7BsjmEDHb-N2f-5Sq7Wd5ehOCqmN86qVjafMvmw55yxKt_cCO-extJluP-zBiRtOqaPrFgd7rN-ELA6GyKXaL_UpmlD7BznM7Q45SWJKF5Dxo/s320/69.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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Discussing the mould and how the work may best translate into marble with the one and only Keera McMartin. Keera has an unparalleled understanding of marble and I learn something new every time I discuss an idea with her.</div>
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Taking the plaster mould off the clay.</div>
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With Keera looking at the soon to be filled mould trying to decide whether to test out computer scanning and cutting with this piece or whether to cut it myself. Decided on the latter.</div>
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<br />Mark Richardshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09127105382141562804noreply@blogger.com0