May 29, 2001 Wild Island Studios, Chilmark, Martha's Vineyard
It's feels like a long time since I have written up any News from Wild Island
. Coming home to New England was quite a shock. T. S. Elliot didn't call April
the cruelest month without reason. In New England a frown seems more socially
acceptable than a smile. Very few of the problems that I walked away from back
in January had left on their own and quite a few new problems had found my home
to be their home. The pool had sprung a major leak and just had a few inches
of green water on the bottom. This was a bit of a problem for someone who had
become addicted to swimming and viewed that addition as the key having a healthy
pain free back. After I fixed it and cleaned it and started filling it the pump
down in the well house decided it was too much work to pump all that water,
it turned out a motor bearing froze up. So I had to deal with that, etc., etc.
and it sure is not nice and warm in April on Martha's Vineyard. The oak leaves
don't bother to come out until the middle of May.
I
did finally get back to working in my studio, however, and finished a large
version of my Tree Form in time to put it in the Friends of Family
Planning Art Show over Memorial day weekend. It was down to the wire to get
everything ready for the show. On Tuesday I drove down to The Paul King Foundry
in Rhode Island to pick up Standing Nude. I had created her during
a week long workshop at the Johnson Atelier in New Jersey. It is not my style
to make very realistic sculpture, but it was an interesting challenge and nice
to know that I can do it if I want to.
On Wednesday, with a little help from my former assistant Graeme Bradlee (check
out his website http://mvsculpture.com/)
I was able to deliver the large Tree Form along with four heavy brick bases
that Graeme and I had built years ago.
The Tree Form has beach stones from Menemsha growing up it like a vine. I like
the way the rocks are all discrete pieces yet by their placement they become
a line.
At the last minute the two bronze versions of The Dance arrived
from Thailand. It was very exciting for me to see them in bronze. I never was
able to see The Dance III standing alone without supports since
the wax, in the warmth of Thailand, was not strong enough to support itself.
The Dance II signed and numbered #1 sold at the Family Planning
Art Show.
The next big challange is to build a larger than life size version of
The Dance for the front yard of the hot new Ice House Restaurant
in West Tisbury on Martha's Vineyard. Part of the problem is how to make it
strong enough to support the girl jumping up in the air.
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