Brandon's friend, coworker, and fellow artist, gave us one of his ceramic sculptures. Brandon brought the sculpture home un-assembled last winter, and it's been patiently waiting behind the barn for the time when we would assemble it in it's new home.
When the artist came for a visit last weekend, we took advantage of his kindness, and put him to work helping assemble the sculpture. Brandon had bags of sand at the ready, and with Jamie's help, they made quick work of carrying the sand, the sculpture pieces, and the concrete paving stone to the spot we selected.
They put some sand on the ground, to made the paving stone site level and firm.
The bottom piece of the sculpture, which is hollow, was filled with sand with the hope that this will anchor it in place, and we won't have to worry about it falling over.
The sculpture pieces stack together, and make a tall totem shape. This sculpture was never intended to be displayed outside, exposed to the elements. It's made of clay, but the surface is coated with colored wax. Already some of the wax is blistering, running, and changing color. In a few places the wax coating has chipped away, and the white clay underneath has a green tint from algae. It's going to be interesting to watch this piece evolve over time.
I got distracted by cooking and missed most of the action as they assembled the pieces, but I did catch them in the act of placing the very top piece in place. It's so tall! I didn't realize it was, since this is the first time I've seen it completely assembled. I really like the location we selected. The sculpture is visible from the kitchen window, the campfire, and the front yard, without being so close that it might get bumped or dominate the scene.
Ta-da! Hmm.., it kind of looks like a .... well, I'll let you finish that sentence on your own! Once we had it all together, we stood around sipping our tasty beverages and admiring the color, texture, and placement. We were all quite pleased, even Hunter, the artist. If you would like to see some good pictures of Hunter at work in his ceramic studio, check out his webpage, here, and click on "Studio Images" on the left side of the page. There's also some good photos of giant ceramic kilns he built in Alaska and other places on the links to the left on his website. I've dabbled in ceramics myself, so I'm really appreciative and impressed with the strength and skill it takes to work with clay pieces at this large scale.
I think it looks really nice with my chickens!
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