The Sculpture Gallery

Have any of you ever visited the Wilhelm-Hack-Museum in Ludwigshafen an Rhein? The museum is a cornerstone in German art history and houses many of the great masters of the country's various art movements. Near to this esteemed institution, there is a sculpture called the Endlose Treppe. The English translation of the title is the Endless Steps. It's a tall solid structure made of North American Granite and was created by the popular sculptor; Max Bill, for the philosopher Ernst Bloch in 1991. The sculpture's cubist orientation is actually a deep representation of Bloch's ideals called the "Principles of Hope". The vertically endowed sculpture is composed of 19 steps, which stand nearly 10 meters high.

A prime subject for German-inspired philosophical art; Endlose Treppe, is a modern emblem of visual and metaphysical ideals. Its rigid and robust form was done in coherence with its ascending nature, so as not to disturb the natural pattern. Max Bill is a fascinating creator of strong symbolism and aesthetic thought. His wonderful creation stands as an enduring mark in German history.

A cum laude graduate from the Technical University Delft, Lars Spuybroek is a multi-awarded organic artist that produces works of architectural monuments in clearly modern deviance. Spuybroek started his career in the international architecture community when he unveiled his creation; "water pavilion" on the island of Neeltje Jans. The building was built using two halves as the main composition and made use of silvery material to simulate a sense of a freshwater element in the design. The artistic building was the first of many of Spuybroek's renowned creations, allowing visitors to interact with the interior using transformable lights and sounds. Spuybroek took pride in the structure's fluid and continuous geometrical elements, making sure that the floors, walls and ceilings would meld into a whole body instead of being rigidly joint like normal rooms often are.

His work in the Netherlands, the "D-tower" is a bright red interactive structure symbolizing the dominant placement of love in our psychological set of emotions. Despite many of his out-of-this-world designs, Spuybroek consistently rejects a connection to futurism. He prides himself on the delicate bodily forms of every creation in their own unique style, and also hopes that the ability of mass customization will be available to many societies. This concept entails the majority-spreading of unique designs into our population instead of the current mass-produced routine designs that come from standard factories.

Spuybroek was a recipient of the Archiprix award and the Iakov Chernikov Award for his outstanding understanding of both art and architecture. He was also a well-known teacher at established institutions like the University of Kassel in Germany and the Columbia University in New York City.

Have you ever wanted to walk across the solar system and still have both feet flat on the ground? The Somerset Space Walk allows visitors to do something kind of like that. This large sculpture trail is a proportionate model of our entire solar system from the planet sizes to the distances in between them. It makes use of a 22kilometer Bridgwater and Taunton Canal to fully showcase its purpose. The Spacewalk was designed by Philip Robert Vassar Youngman for people to experience how truly large and extraordinary our solar system is. He challenges the flat perceptions of pictures and charts often seen today, because they do now show the full impact of the space we live in.

This bold model is built on a small scale of 1 is to 530,000,000. Such a scale is needed because of it optimal comparison to the actual solar system and heavenly bodies. one milimeter on the scaled replica is equal to the measurement of 530 kilometers. The project itself was a joint venture by Taunton Solar Model Group and British Waterways. The planets each have a description under them and are held up by stone blocks for a strong durability. It was very difficult to consider adding anything aside from the sun and planets because of the distance factor. Including the nearest star for example would entail placing it over 70,000 kilometers away. The entire trail can be walked from the Brewhouse Theatre in Taunton or from theBridgwaters Morrison's Supermarket. Such a powerful display of the space outside of what we know, can be our own link into experiencing the feeling of a larger-than-life ambiance.

Every sculptor and collector already knows who Dale Chihully is. The master of glass himself made an appearance at the famous TED Talks last 2010. His works are indeed an inspiration to the younger and aspiring generations of glass artists. Most of the big countries around the globe carry monumental floating or free standing glass pieces by Chihully, but even the smaller nations already have a following of the artist's strong stylistic designs in glass. Despite this, I do believe that he intends to do more. Aside from establishing the Pilchuck Glass School near Stanwood, Wahington, Chihully also set up his largest permanent exhibition at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.

Photography by Andrew Dunn (2004) from Andrew Dunn Photos

His story is one of triumph, because although not many know this, Chihully had a lot against him in his life as an artist. Did you know for example, that the trademark eyepatch he wears was due to a car accident? His face was severely cut by glass and he was blinded in that one eye. Despite this, he continued his glassblowing work and amazingly still grew as an artist and a designer. Later on he dislocated his shoulder and wasn't able to hold the glass-blowing pipe any longer, but after that he still desired to continue the craft. With the help of his own studio people, he continues to design and create supreme masterpieces of highly visual creative works. Chihully's accidents did not change his mind at all in its intention to become number one in the glass industry. After all that, he still made it.

With computer-aided design and actual prototyping printers already available to the public, sculptors often wonder if the trend of technological manufacturing will catch up to them. Machines and programs are getting more and more accurate, reaching well over 480 dpi on three dimensional printing. Leading companies like Diamond and Zcorp are finding more and more ways to create better 3D printers to sculpt for people.

 What is the future for artists and sculptors in this field if all this personal manufacturing is going to come next? We've been thinking about it and there were a lot of things brought up to the table. First off, we believe that sculpting as an artform is the creative talent that allows a person to conceive a design in free space. Whether in tangible form or in computer cyberspace, a sculptor will still remain a sculptor. Pixar's animators for us are also considered as some of the best sculptors because although they do not use concrete media, their capability for sculptural design well exceeds the par standards. Sculptors do not need to worry about their craft being stolen by machines or computer engineers, because talent is talent and it doesn't matter what media people will use to create. What we believe sculptors must do, is learn. The artists of today need to learn and adapt to the recent public technology thats becoming more and more available to the market. the days of stubborn traditions are over, we have to move with the tides of technology.

Aside from this bit, we believe that just like the Jewelry industry, the sculpture world will still have a direct need for hand-made artwork. Why? Mainly because it appeals to people. Hand-made sculptures are different from 3D modeled print-outs, just like hand-cast jewelry is a novelty that hasn't been replaced even after the invention of the wax printer (Computer-Aided Manufacturing) and the Rhino Program (Computer Aided Design for Jewelry.) Technology may be getting more accurate, but who ever said that beauty was all bout accuracy? For the most part, sculptural trends are actually deviating away from accuracy. With the emergence of modern and contemporary sculptures, as well as the diversity in sculpting media today, I seriously doubt that there will be printers that can catch up to these movements any time soon.

In Makati City, the M.West Rotary Club has been doing this annual project of hosting an art exhibition to help raise funds for different charities. Entitled the "Alay Sining" (Filipino), the exhibit brings together many of the country's nationally and internationally acclaimed artists. Pieces by Renowned sculptors Imao and Pilapil are among the works that belonged to the Alay Sining 4 exhibition that was held a few months ago at the Mandarin Oriental. Being the fourth exhibition in a row, art patrons and enthusiasts alike attended this ground-breaking event which featured sculpture as the main artistic media, as well as some pieces of art-based jewelry done by the sculptors. Life-size pieces were also on display. Mixed media pieces made creative use of bullets, copper wire, cast marble and bronze. Father and Son pairings Fred and William Baldemor and Seb and Kylo Chua were among the 20+ attending sculptors that were invited to the notable art endeavor. Other personalities included ceramic sculptor Maria Magdamit, who also took the time to create tiara-like sculptures for the jewelry part of the exhibition.

The one-day exhibit was curated in a way that allowed guests and patrons to move around with ease and view each of the artworks to their heart's content. The ground layout for the show was done in a circular spiral fashion that gave each artist a display table to showcase at least 3 of his fine sculptures. The life-size sculptures were placed in the middle of the showroom to add aesthetic ambiance to the entire exhibition. I hope that next year, Alay Sining will continue, as the Philippines is currently a great spot to find groundbreaking contemporary art and sculpture.

20th anniversary applications are now ongoing for the sculpture show on August 12, 13 and 14. All of you are invited to attend the Loveland Sculpture Invitational show and art sale. Located at a wonderful landscape setting at the foot of the pristine Rocky Mountains, art enthusiasts, collectors and hobbyists from all over the nation will congregate together to have a good time and patron the work of some of the top premier artists in the largest gathering of sculptors in the country.

Over two hundred and fifty of the country's most impressive sculptors will be present, each showcasing his or her own set of magnificent artworks. Choose from thousands of creatively done masterpieces ranging from small miniatures to larger than life monuments. Media choices include metals, stone and glass, as well as mixed materials that go together in artistic fashions.

Come and Join them for a once in a lifetime experience at one of the largest sculpture shows in America. To find out more details, please visit them here

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The lost wax process is probably one of the most famous casting processes that has circulated throughout the modern art community. Aside from bronze usage it can also be used with other metals (for jewelry sculpture) or with some non-metal materials like powdered marble. The first step of the sculpting process is to fashion a 3D design out of wax. Sculptors may also mix the wax with paraffin in different amounts to adjust the hardness of the wax. This is very important because the wax needs to stay directly in place while the artist is carving it. Always keep in mind that the balance and position of every element within the sculpture could play a vital or fatal role in the durability of the finished bronze piece.

Carving sculptures in wax can be relatively easy due to the material traits of normal wax. Practice can be done in blocks or candlesticks before the actual design process takes place. This may give the artist a good feel of the material before proceeding any further.

Once the carved studies are finished in wax, a sculptor then needs to attach them to wax funnels by welding sprues (sticks also made of wax). Melting and fusing wax is easy when you have a heated metal material to join the two parts. A heated rod (with a non-heated handle) might be a good choice for doing this. Afterwards, the sculptures are always places near to the bottom of the funnel. Thick sticks of wax are joined using the heated metal rod onto the sculpture where the molten bronze will enter. Thinner sticks of wax can also be joined nearer to the top of the sculpture to form vents. An artist must take into consideration the fact of air entrapment in the negative mold to come. The reason vents are placed properly is so that the pockets of air can escape in order for the molten bronze to fill the cavity of the negative mold.

This mold that we've been talking about must be a negative side of the positive design of the wax sculpture. The wax sculpture must eventually be melted out of the mold before proceeding with the casting. Remember also that before pouring any amount of molten bronze into the mold, the mold must be heated to a suitable degree (it must never ever be cold). The artist then sets the mold onto a vertically stable position and can then proceed with pouring his molten bronze into the cavity of the mold.

Once the bronze has been allowed to cool off, the mold material can be scratched away to reveal the solid bronze interior of the sculpture. Remember the wax sticks that were used as vents? Well, in the final sculpture they are still present, now as solid bronze. The sculptor would need to clear them out with power tools and then simply finish the piece with sandblasting equipment and metal polish or an applicable patina.