The Making of My "David"

I acquired this piece of marble from Mt. Calder on Prince of Wales island in S. E. Alaska, working together with Gary Williams. I have two others left after I sold 4 or 5 to Don Wilson, a Portland based sculptor. I knew it would be the finest white marble I would ever have to work with. I did not know about its integrity since all this stone was blasted 75 years ago. So I began by hand pitching the edges, inspecting for seams and letting water dry on the surface looking for future trouble. I inspected for variations in color or mottling spots. I still had no specific idea in mind.

Back right view

It was quite flawed and pointed on top and looked narrow on back right side to do much with. I could see a seam on this side as well – that bothered me. So I cut the top, losing as little stone as possible, and removed stone to check out seam.

Front and back

I decided on David mainly because it would probably be a once-in-a-lifetime chance for me even though the right-hand side of the stone looked skimpy. I then made three sketches front left and right to help me envision the general shape and proportions. I conceived of throwing the right leg out, steeping into combat and allowing development of leg muscles, and the right arm cocked with a sling since I had enough mass there . The natural sway of the back would work to my benefit. Notice the center line front and back. It's so easy to lose your proportions in figurative art, that’s what makes it so hard to do.

At this point I decided to make a drawing of what I thought the stone could be.

I knew material was lacking and wanted as much body as the stone would give, at a decent scale that pleased me. By tilting the head up, all proportions coming from the head, allowed me maximum body size, and of course David should be looking up at the giant.

Head materializing

                       

I use proportions that use head size to determine all critical locations on the human form – a proven system that works. The widest point at David's strong shoulders was determined to be 13 inches. His face was to be a young strong man almost still a boy. Note direct sketch on side showing back shape. I wanted a twisted or curling shape suggesting body torque, ready to unravel. Right shoulder lowers, body cocked for action.

With there not being much stock on the right-hand side and a menacing seam staring at me I knew this was not going to be easy. Not many sculptors are wealthy enough to have lots of stone. Even Michelangelo's David's form was altered by lack of material. Stone sculpture is not like modeling where you just add more clay to add material. The stone sculpture is in a constant dialog with his material. Often fearful of failure, unless he is a fool.

By tilting the head I could get a six-and-one-half inch head and with cleaning up front and back of the stone I was able to lay out theoretical chin normal location giving me the breast plate at six-and-one-half inches and waist at thirteen inches . That would leave a good amount of stone for leg development. I wanted more but this would have to do in order for me to get a scale that pleased me.

Lacking confidence in my ability to carve a head made me want to do it first. If I failed at this end ever all else would be a wasted effort. I managed to get a boyish head but kept the hair long in back for strength to be removed later.

Being satisfied with the head, I undercut the neck and defined his shoulders. (Note lack of stone on the right hand side.) This dilemma made me put the lower half of right hand lower body back allowing left hand side of sculptor to charge forward providing body torque the David needed to have. It all worked out for the best as often happens with problems.

This photo shows finished sculptor body torque  

I decided to work on the right hand arm first since the seam was there, I could see how to deal with it. Getting a good sized arm here may be a challenge. I knew there was plenty of stock on the opposite side and that I would have many choices on arm and hand shape. I located the arm by pushing it back, which allowed me to cut in the back enough to get sufficient stone to cut in generous buttocks. Now for the first time, I could see that the sculpture was going to work if I continued to keep proper proportions. The left hand side could push forward leaving room for bent right arm holding a sling, ready for action.

                  

Finding arms, chest, and waist all by measurement.

Further defining back, arms, and legs.

Defining right hand arm, hand, and waist location.

Same with left arm.

It's beginning to look like art.

The basic form is completed.

It is much too heavy for me to handle, so I used our shop forklift on a Saturday, to lift with ropes, and put in a horizontal position on my work bench to carve details, hands chest, and stomach. This is a somewhat scary thing to handle. So I always do this sort of work with no one around to get hurt, trying to help. Didn’t think David would go into combat nude, so I decided to put a loin cloth attached with a line tie. This could all be textured to add interest to my David.

I wanted big hands somewhat larger than his penis, only suggested under the loin cover. I once had a art conjurer customer tell me a fireplace design I proposed to him seemed to contrived. Yes, art isn’t fluff falling from the sky, it's very contrived, thank you. I could now cut in his front legs from frontal position, pushing left hand leg forward as planned.

                                  

I carefully tipped him on his side not really knowing its balance points yet, and cut in left hand arm and sling resting on his leg.

For the first time I could stand my David up on my work bench, by leaving sufficient stone mass on bottom. This allowed me to work all around the stone at a comfortable height and align critical measurements up by measurement from work table. Both front and back could now be aligned for the first time with ease.

Refining details, opening arm cavities etc.

               

I put sculpture back down to further detail back muscles and form strong legs, then drill hole for pinning.

After weeks of sanding and detailing mostly up to 220 and sealing, since it was to stay outside, I bought the strongest line I could find and rigged it for lifting, a tricky job . It seemed to lift quite straight which sort of surprised me. I am often surprised at artists' paranoia at this point as if their sculpture was a gift to mankind. I always tell people it's only stone let it fall if necessary -- just stay out of the way.

I am glad I pinned him for he falls backward quite easy . I set him on a block of limestone I had, not a perfect perch but about the right height I think. This is something I am not very good at. I have entered my David in several public art-on-the-street proposals but it was never accepted. Figurative art is not much appreciated in this country. It has been sitting in my stone yard, remnant slab yard now for two years, has probably been seen by 500 or more Oregonians of all types. There has never been one comment since I placed it there. I think that says something, I don’t know what. I am quite sure if I put a wooden totem pole out there, crowds would gather and rave. But I am not going to.    

Addendum:
I worked on this sculpture mostly during the cold season in Portland, Oregon, outside on an average of 3 hours a day for about 2 1/2 months. The weather didn't bother me because I was excited about doing the project!

The State of the Arts

He was a beautiful man

Hungarian cab driver in Vienna,

locally referred to as Wien.

Throwing his great 60 year old arms up

declared in a rich baritone voice

Wien, a city filled with art,

over two hundred museums,

Franz Joseph the Hapsburgs were collectors.

Western, Eastern, Asian, African, Persian, Polonaise, Egyptian, Turkish, Greek, Roman,

Ancient, Renaissance, Baroque, Modern

all the masters kept

here in Wien

A city of musical genius

Haydn, Brahms, Mozart, Schumann, Strauss

all kept

here in Wien.

Sculpture along the Danube

and at every turn, beauty,

here in Wren

Architecture, and Gardens equal to any in the world kept,

here in Wien.

BUT

someday I hope to go to your country

to see your great art,

in MEMPHIS

home of

JERRY LEE LEWIS AND ELVIS PRESLEY

Things are different in Mexico

Elizabeth's compound

Elizabeth's home

My home in Mexico

My friend Elizabeth told me told me of a method of well drilling she had done on her compound in Zirahuan , colonial Mexico, pronounced cita win, which is a fine example of of things that interest me in travel. She needed a well drilled to service homes she was building on her beautiful lake view property. When the man and two children arrived from the village and witched a good spot. She assumed work would begin and left to do errands, upon returning she went over to look and found that the well digger, was a digger. She assumed he was digging a hole to line the top five or so feet with bricks. The next day the children arrived with ropes and buckets ,and the father with the same shovel. Latter she was surprised to find the children lifting the dirt out as there father dug down. She asked her friend bob to get a ladder so the well digger could climb out that evening ,when he finished the days digging. Turned out, it was not needed ,he had cut foot holds in the side to climb out himself. He ended up going 40 feet with no luck, I believe oxygen runs short at about that point, pumping air down would be hard. They gave up on that spot, but she was not going to see that process again, and told the well digger to drill the next effort. He started the next day, with a hand turned drill with his children helping. And they eventually found water. Some years latter,she wrote me a note ,inviting me to visit with only her only promise being a hot shower and good cup of coffee if I came. How could I say no. I asked a friend how do I get to a place like Morellea Mexico. I had no idea where it was. I am glad I went. I have many fond memories of Mexico. Latter a friend of mine from Iran told me that wells were dug the same way in remote parts of his country, makes sense when you think about it but shocks one at first.

In Zirahuan a small village on a pristine lake 7200 ft sort of half way between Mexico city and Guadalajara, meat is cured and sold in a fashion similar to my friend bobs method I talked about in Theresa is marble in them there islands. Seems to work fine.

Same is sort of true in Urappen, a city of 300,000. Forty miles away.

But I draw the line on fish from the local fisherman’s wife, what I call suckers, that are laid out for sale all day uncleaned on a table , as they are presented on the road a couple of blocks down from the home I stayed at in Zirahuan. However I certainly admired the persistence and ingenuity of the fisherman who stayed out all frigid night at 7200 feet elevation, and netted these fish, in their dugout logs at this elevation. These log boats are fiberglassed tree trunks. I asked my daughter to bring my binnacles on a visit so I could watch these hard working men. The harbor masters attending to this protected lake offered me fish stew they cooked on the floor of their building in a crock pot. My daughter who knows about food, told me she thinks the fish offered on the table are used to make fish stock. We did have some fine fish served at a lakeside raft restaurant though a treat my grand baby declined.

Local laundromat and fish sales table (in background)

Hand-carved log boats

Fisherman's family helping harvest

I never thought that Mexico had and used so much timber in its historic construction. I think I had seen to many Roy Rogers, Gene Autrey, Tom Mix, and Cisco Kid movies in my youth. At this elevation hard wood and pine forests dominate the land scape. Traditionally homes were built by stacking heavy timbers in construction of fine sturdy warm homes. These old structures are sought after to build beautiful decks these days. I have read that stone buildings in Mexico City built on a lake were lined with aromatic woods. 

Hardwood forest

Indigenous home

My friend Carlos left this part of Mexico as a truck driver for 30 years. He returned as a successful stone business man to attend graduate school in Morellea and take care of his avocado orchard and family. He told me that he noticed a reduction in the amount of streams and available water in those 30 years. Too many trees had been replaced with crops and the planting of the wrong kind of trees. As a student of ecology I appreciated his observations. As he showed me his avocado orchard and gave me insights to this type of agriculture. There are more then 100000 acres of avocado orchards in this region.

Huge forests of avocado trees, mostly all beautifully fenced and guarded, they are valuable. I have been lucky in travel.

Carlos

The village I lived in was surrounded by hardwood and long pine needle trees. These trees are woodlots set aside for locals to use to cook with. These forests are well cared for by the villagers, because they are needed by them daily, and in the future. I saw one chainsaw in 4 months, interestingly it was carried by a women whose husband road the mule she walked in front of... All the other wood cutters seemed to only use machetes to cut wood. One limb at a time. Most carry their firewood on their back carefully bundled like a large backpack, from my simple observations a human seems to able to carry about one-half what is carried on a mule. Some villagers have mules, a noisy animal, but most do not. I once saw a hand truck entirely made of wood including axle and wheels. Sadly I can't pull up pictures of it. It was a wonderful sight up in the wood lot. There were two grandpas with oxcarts . What a sight, grandpa leading two oxen, pulling a cart up to the wood lot, with grandbabies riding along as helpers. The best oxcart story happened on the road to Santa Clara the copper city. We were traveling through the forest on this road made of hand-laid tiles when we came across an oxcart with a man sitting on top of a 4-foot diameter log. She wouldn’t stop for me to photograph, later I realized she knew the log was illegally harvested. I wondered how he cut and loaded this huge log and what he was going to do with it.

Cutting trees in the forest

Man carrying load of wood

Ox cart

My firewood delivery - $35 for 3 donkey loads of wood

I have a lot of Mexican logging stories, but I will let the picture I took some years later in Santa Clara, were the man is shaping a 60-foot rafter cut from the local forest in remodeling a old church. Later he was directing the heisting of the of the timbers up inside the church through an opening in the wooden barrel road.

Shaping 60 foot long log with an axe

Moving wood beam inside church

Santa Clara copper city