“A Creation Myth ”

This sculpture just sort of happened without prior though or intent.  It is surprising me. I had this block of stone on the bench, a block altogether too soft for my taste and the initial thought was that maybe i could use it for a sculpture i had been commissioned to do, it did not feel right.  The softness of the stone seemed to preclude any design of much detail but i had been experimenting with finishes that firmed the stone.  The block was also too thick for the job at hand. Then it was show pony time in that i sort of needed to be looking like i was sculpting........ i decided to thin the stone block, an easy enough job as the stone was relatively soft, so i started looking busy....... hmmmm nice fine grain, tough to remove larger lumps but easy to move/shave off smaller amounts and it looked like it might hold some fine detail.... i started in on two sides, got called away, and when i came back i saw that it looked quite nice in an undefined sort of way..... different layers...... multiple levels and a hole through it might look all right....... nahhh it’s needs to be more an egg shape and thus an egg shape was drawn. i was then suddenly back in the spotlight, (part of the local sculptural ambiance one might say) and thus i attacked, with controlled gusto and newly sharpened chisel, the block at hand to hollow the egg form.  As it happened i was asked what i was sculpting and thus it also afforded myself the luxury of replying “i haven’t a clue.....” Two rough rectangles and an egg form was at least a little inspiring towards progress as it was obvious the outer top and right-hand edge would require detail to define something i had no idea what it was going to be, let alone what detail would be appropriate........ but at least it felt like progress. The egg form was pleasing to the eye and the pondering’s were “what if something hatched?” and so i drew a broken end which could allow the contents to flow out and maybe(?) into the afore mention design along the two edges....... No, it meant losing the unbroken egg form, could i do it by implication(?) always a winner with this sort of thing. In the end i settled on a hole..... a breakout, imply what you may. Well of course an empty shell is all well and good but if the chicken flown the coop it is not likely to be all that meaningful now is it?  So i drew a circle formation in the fat end, sort of to imply a quality of(?) a Yin and Yang symbol maybe(?) but as we are dealing with a specific of creation it needed to have something woven into rather than the generic formula, i use a three strand plait form for that sort of thing and that’s where i had got to when it occurred to me to pick up the camera and maybe document something as i was getting quite interested in this sculpture. Click images for larger versions.

Some reasonable progress today along with degrees of oddness where the design is concerned. After the last photo i got a bit more done on the circular form, to the point of being fairly formed but not refined, as usual the process is get it near enough in the earlier stages, refine in the last. This morning the first job was to draw in the feature creature with it’s tail circling the Yin Yang department, it was to be a Skink, (type of small native lizard), with the focus on making it part of the whole rather than an object in itself.  It did not look or feel right although the body worked as intended. i redrew the head in a “Mania” form, a traditional Maori form/decoration and that is the drawing seen below, i started sculpting. ..............eehhh that head does not feel right, better but not “correct”.  Instinct said you know which one, (i had earlier decided no), so i redrew it again, as a Taniwha form.  In my opinion the form i used, and have used before, actually pre-dates the Maori here in NZ but i never said that........ it’s somewhat controversial i suspect.

The photo below gives a good indication of how it will look when finished.  At the moment i am drying the stone out thoroughly prior to putting an experimental sealing/hardner coat into it.  The plan is to saturate the soft stone with product so as to fill any minute voids and when sanded give a smooth finish.  This piece is to reside in the new Dragon Gallery.