A year in the making…

I’m working on something big now, and it has taken me what feels like at least a year to put this all together. I needed a model and at first, I thought I would try and just ask some of my bolder female friends if they would do it. But, that is an awkward conversation and it was really important to me that I come across respectfully and not as a creep looking to catch a peek. So, I found myself greatly overexploiting myself to a couple of people. I received one “ I’ll think about it” with no further response and one “ I would but I don’t think my boyfriend would appreciate it”. Both answers fair enough, it became evident that I was going to need to hire a model and so I began reaching out. It took a while, several non responses and a little bit of a back and forth but finally I got what I needed. Now that that is all out of the way this piece I have been wanting to create is finally in motion and I couldn’t be more excited about it.

I am waiting until Saturday when I do a live stream on instagram to reveal any looks at it but I can tell you about it now in hopes that maybe you will see this and feel all the more compelled to tune in on Saturday.

The concept itself is based on my long standing desire to create a marble sculpture in the vein of Michelangelo. The chances of me ever being able to afford a 2 thousand pound block of marble are about the same as the chances of me going to mars, so it always seemed out of reach. But I have always wanted that experience, chipping away with hammer and chisel, viscerally shaping rock into the softness of a human form, I just don’t see it happening. But I can draw, and I know how to paint to replicate marble texture, so this concept was born. Slowly I have been scouring over the small details in my models anatomy, making sure it is as accurate as possible. For me so much of realism depends on getting the structure correct first and indeed that seemed to be the linchpin of the old sculptures as well, their attention to anatomical detail. The addition of value and shadow afterwards is more simple and much like a coloring book. I want this to be a statement piece so it has to be killer or it’s just going to get swallowed up in the sea of perfect realism that exists all over the internet. I think my ace in the hole is the plans I have to add the marble texture as well as my own geometric patterning to the piece. I think that is what is going to allow me to stand out. The one thing I have learned from instagram is there are plenty of artists out there who’s skill is of a paramount level and they can all create realism, many well beyond my abilities. But in spite of their shiny, shimmering perfection, I find them boring and uninspired. If everyone can do a thing, why is your ability to do that thing any different or special? My goal is always to make something that is interesting as well as “good” and while I may never completely reinvent the wheel, I can at least put some spinners on it and that would be good enough for me. This piece is going to be rather large when complete, so hopefully it fits into a scanner in order for me to replicate it but if not, I don’t truthfully know if it’ll be for sale. I may love it too much to part with. After all, not everything can be about the Almighty Dollar, right? Perhaps I will make the original for sale and just price it such that if someone does want it, I won’t feel too bad about parting with it. Time will tell.

Thanks for stopping by and reading all this, if you want to pop in on Saturday and watch me work on this piece and hear some live music as provided by one of my best friends and one a hell of a musician Mike Estabrook then we’d both love to have you and my insta handle is brush_and_blade_artistic I am fairly certain a link can be found on my site. Thanks again everyone!

Frank