I think anyone who puts blood and sweat into making something can empathize with simultaneously loving and hating what you're creating. There are so many parts of the process of making something new that I love, and yet what I end up with is never what I see in my head. There are always compromises, my skills aren't what I'd like them to be, and I always have to work just with what I have on hand (or wait and see what I'll have tomorrow). The trick for me is finding some way to stop at a point that I like. And then I move on and try again. Or try something else.
I've put about 20-25 hours of fairly strenuous labor into this triceratops head. I wasn't sure where I was on the love/hate continuum with it yesterday: something about it just bugged me and I couldn't let it go. I figured out what I wanted to do overnight and was fortunate to be able to put in another hour today making it happen. It's still not what I see in my head, but I'm more securely on the "love" side of the see-saw now, so I'm going to call it good and move on.
I've put about 20-25 hours of fairly strenuous labor into this triceratops head. I wasn't sure where I was on the love/hate continuum with it yesterday: something about it just bugged me and I couldn't let it go. I figured out what I wanted to do overnight and was fortunate to be able to put in another hour today making it happen. It's still not what I see in my head, but I'm more securely on the "love" side of the see-saw now, so I'm going to call it good and move on.
This sculpture is mostly made of things I've picked up over the last couple of months. The frill and a lot of the frame for the head are made from a discarded chair I picked out of someone's garbage during my trip to Topsail Island. The nasal horn is from a pickax head I bought for a few bucks when I visited the Museum of Appalachia, as is a plate on the forehead. The sheet metal pieces on the far corners of the fill come from an old seed spreader I bought at an antique store in Charlotte. The cores of the brow horns are legs from a chair I pulled out of a trash pile at my kid's school. The spiral pieces come from some kind of old light fixture that my mom gave me, Some of the brake pads are old (from a previous sculpture I tore apart) and some are "new," donated from the Midas shop in Cayce where we recently spent a small fortune getting our truck fixed. The brake rotor and bearing on the stand as well as some of the sheet metal pieces on the horns are also from that Midas shop. Parts of the mandible, head, and frill were made from parts of an lawnmower that my ever-vigilant neighbor snatched from the curb for me (thanks Chris!). I used burner pans and heating elements scavenged from a couple of electric ranges discarded by an apartment complex I walk by on my way to work.
This triceratops head is obviously far more elaborate than the first one I constructed. I've taught myself some tricks as I've built things over the years (in fits and starts), and I've become more confident in my ability to create shapes from scratch. But this still isn't the triceratops head I want to make: it's closer, but it's not there yet.
This triceratops head is obviously far more elaborate than the first one I constructed. I've taught myself some tricks as I've built things over the years (in fits and starts), and I've become more confident in my ability to create shapes from scratch. But this still isn't the triceratops head I want to make: it's closer, but it's not there yet.
I haven't weighed it, but I'm guessing it's in the neighborhood of 70-80 pounds. This photo was taken a few days ago, when I still wasn't sure if I loved it or hated it.
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