Posts Tagged ‘sculpture’

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Uncle Jeff

June 23, 2011

My uncle Jeff was killed in a motorcycle accident on September 11, 2000. He was a prominent doctor in my hometown of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, and a few years ago they commissioned an artist to sculpt a life size statue of him. The statue now sits in front of the hospital where he worked.

I thought the sculptor did a pretty good job of capturing his likeness, considering that they only had photographs to go by. Sadly I did not do as good a job of capturing the likeness of the statue, even though I was sitting right in front of it.

The task of making a statue look like a statue (as opposed to a real person) has been an ongoing struggle for me.

I did this drawing in 2008, the last time I went back to Sioux Falls. It is my plan to draw this statue next time (and every time) I go back, and someday, I will do it justice.

Posted in Objects, People & Places, Travels | Tagged , , , , | Leave a Comment »

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Chinese Statues

May 27, 2011

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My library recently had a fantastic exhibit of works from two Chinese artists. One was a painter and the other a sculptor. Both were excellent, but I was particularly drawn to the sculptures. For the duration of the exhibit I spent most of my breaks in the gallery sketching.

One day there was a young Chinese man taking pictures of the sculptures. After a few minutes another guy, who was with the Chinese guy, noticed me sketching and said, “That’s him. That’s the artist.” I was like, “What, no way!”

Then the Chinese guy/artist (who’s name is Chen Xuebo) came over to me and excitedly gestured toward my sketches. He didn’t speak much English but he was obviously very flattered to find someone doing sketches of his work. I tried in my (own awkward way) to tell him how much I admired his sculptures, and he enthusiastically smiled and nodded, and took a couple pictures of me sketching his sculpture. Although we didn’t speak the same language, we shared a nice moment of artist love.

Posted in Museums and Exhibits | Tagged , , , | Leave a Comment »

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Art History Showdown: Venus vs. Venus

April 20, 2011

I think it’s finally time we address the question we’ve been asking ourselves ever since that first semester of Art History: Who would win in a fight between the Venus of Willendorf and the Venus di Milo?

At first glance it seems like the Venus of Willendorf would be the obvious winner, being that she has the build of a sumo wrestler and the Venus di Milo doesn’t have any arms.

But wait! The Venus of Willendorf doesn’t appear to have any arms either. Or any eyes for that matter. And she’s only 4 inches tall!

My money is on the Venus di Milo.

Posted in Anatomy, Art History, Objects | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a Comment »