the Jaded Lovers Process Photos

I took all these process photos of the "Jaded Lovers" and thought ya'll might like to see them. This is one of the first outdoor sculptures I've made using ceramics instead of cast metal for the figurative portion. I decided to go with two busts of a couple in an effort to keep it simple while trying something new. The "hipster couple" (as I called them while in progress) were coil-built in a cone 6 groggy brown sculpture body. They were began in April of 2015 while working on several other sculptures and pottery. 

Speight Rhue was used as a model for the dude. I wanted to sculpt someone with one of those hip hair-dos where the hair is longer on top and close-cropped around the sides. Speight already had this cut and I have used him before as a model (way back in 2000).  If I don't use a model, it will end up looking like myself or my brothers. But, HEY, it doesn't look like him anyway. 

After they were bisque-fired I took a long time trying to come up with a glaze that wouldn't ruin the sculpture. 

 As you can see it doesn't look exactly like Speight, but who cares? Its not a commission for his portrait. I don't remember where I got the lady's reference photos, but I think I may have used several different ladies I found online to hobble her image together.

The hipster couple were printed out and pasted onto large sketching paper to brainstorm pedestal ideas. 

 

I recently acquired a chain-hoist and OH MY GOD I can't believe I haven't used one before in the Dirty LAM Studio. I was able to hover the tubing portion so that it could be connected to the sheet metal. I'm not sure how I would've been able to do this without the hoist. 

Flipped over correctly.

The ceramic pieces were glazed. I hated the glaze at first, but after showing it to a couple of folks, I started to believe in it again. The glaze is called Old Copper and I wanted it to look sorta like patina-ed copper.

Seeing the hipster couple on top of the base for the first time was quite a feeling. This is about the time the idea for JADED came up, because the glaze is green and the couple look less than pleased to be standing together. 

Welding my signature underneath the pedestal.

I built this trapdoor under the base to keep vandals from unscrewing the bolts that would hold the figures on the base. This trapdoor would be accessed through a pad lock. 

 

"Jaded Lovers" completed and photographed. At 7ft 5in tall, it is too large for my photo backdrop.

 This is my studio in Greenville as I was photographing. The pedestal's top and bottom are a skewed octagon. I wanted to jive with all those hipster line drawings of triangles that are all over Instagram and such these days, but as I look it here in this photo on my computer, it reminds of a lotus flower.

In the end I'm super happy with how it turned out. I'm not the best figure-modeler out there. Going into the sculpture, almost a year ago, I didn't know where it was headed. Originally, I wanted two naked folks having an intimate moment even if that would be a little cheesy. What emerged at the end is like a monument to being burned out, to reluctance, to indifference, to coldness...and that makes it a little more real to me. At least right now in my life.