Bernini - The Movie

Why hasn't anyone done a movie on Bernini? Or have they? Let me know if there's something besides a documentary. He was a rock star in Italy in the 1600's. Child prodigy artist. Sculptor. Carved masterpieces in marble as a teenager. He was good, and he knew it. He was charming, and he knew it, knew how to use it. Became a close friend of the Pope. Also did architecture. A bit of a narcissist. Fame went to his head.

He fell in love . . . with a married woman. She cheated on him with his brother. He found out and almost killed his own brother, breaking a couple of his brother's ribs. He sent his servant to his lover's house, to slash her face and disfigure her, which he did.

Constanza, or Constance, Bernini's lover.

His brother went to jail for fighting, his lover went to jail for adultery, his servant went to jail. Bernini got a warning. Things never change. Celebrities get away with everything. And he was made to marry a beautiful woman in hopes of keeping him in line. I bet she loved that arrangement. I wonder what she did to deserve Bernini.

Along comes a rival, somewhere in this timeline, I'm not sure exactly when, but a reserved and talented architect arises, Borromini. He is building buildings in ways no one had thought of before, beautiful buildings. Buildings Bernini could only dream of building.

That's ok, Bernini is friends with the Pope. The Pope assigns Bernini to build onto the Church Michelangelo designed. Here's Bernini's chance to outdo Michelangelo. Over the top, so to speak, by building towers higher than Michelangelo's original dome. Bernini has already pissed off Borromini by consulting him on other jobs and then not giving him any credit. A habit he has with his assistants too. He does not consult Borromini on this one, to his detriment.

Bernini, outdoing Michelangelo with his own version of David.

His high and heavy towers begin to crack, and not just crack ,but crack down into the rest of the church. The foundation cannot hold the weight. The church consults Borromini, he tells them the problem and the Pope orders the towers torn down. Bernini also, finally is torn down, well maybe not torn down, just feeling sorry for himself. He becomes depressed and becomes sick from lying around not eating. He recovers, he still gets commissions. And finally he gets commissioned by the church to build a chapel, or shrine, whatever they call it, to Saint Teresa. He borrows design ideas from Borromini and uses his own flare for the theatrical and of course his world class sculpting skills to produce this:

This is only part of it, look it up, the Ecstasy of St. Teresa. 

The story has everything, and it's true. Why hasn't anyone made a movie of this?  It can even be twisted to be anti-Christian, which Hollywood loves to do. One more pic:

See those leaves. Those were sculpted by an assistant, Giuliano Finelli. Hats off to you Giuliano!

Russian Sculpture Artist and Russia and Stuff

I got bored with seeing the same ol' photos on Google every time I searched for photos of marble sculpture. I get quite a few readers from Russia so I thought I would see what's going on over there. I found this guy:
http://www.sculptureinrussia.com/en/painters/13.htm
He did this sculpture and relates to my last post on modern art. (this photo is also on the page linked above)

Here's a good example of a simple form done right. It's supposed to look primitive. The lines all go where they should. This does not look like somebody was trying to do a realistic torso and failed. No part jumps out at me screaming "I'm in the wrong place!" or "I shouldn't even be here!" This is one of those simple forms you can look at and feel all is well.

Hats off to all you Russian artists. Always wanted to go there, even during the 80's when we were supposed to hate each other. I remember high school classmates whose number one fear was that the USSR was going to nuke us. I was like, "No way, people over there don't want to nuke us anymore than we want to nuke them." I was right. Ha. And Russian women are the most beautiful in the world, except for maybe Montana.

I met a Russian in the late 80's in Reno, Nevada at a live show. He was sitting next to me at anther table. He introduced himself and asked what we did for a living. I told him we worked in a lumber mill. He asked what we did there and something about a high position because I said, "No, we're just workers, lowly workers." He said no one would believe him that a couple of mill workers could afford to go to a such an opulent place to see a show. I said I'd have to come over and see him then. Still haven't gotten over there.  Now meeting Russians is common. There are quite a few here in Missoula. Russian immigrants here have a bad reputation. Every one of them I have met and have been very nice. I think the bad reputation is a hold over from when we were supposed to hate Russians, so now people still make up reasons why they were supposed to hate. As far as I'm concerned you're welcome here, and I still hope to get over there someday.

Modern Art Bullshit

I can't stand it anymore. I gotta say it. Most modern art, or a lot of it, is crap. There. Yeah, yeah, yeah, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. But grammar is grammar, and logic is logic. And what those soulless, talentless hacks write about their work makes no sense. Oh, your sculpture looks like a rock you picked up out of a river so it must mean you have deep thoughts that are impossible to put into words? Bullshit. Or it looks like some caveman drawing (which were better than modern art) or because it's a simple form with no features, it says something a real piece of art wouldn't have? Bullshit.

I won't be surprised by insulting, angry comments on this article or of my own work, but believe me, I'm a much worse critic of my own work than anyone else. I like some abstract or simple forms. Some of them mesmerize me and I can't help but stare at them. Some of them, on the other hand, make me want to say what I said above. This just may be a "beauty in the eye of the beholder" thing and nothing more. Maybe other people, maybe even most people (and not surprising that I'm not like most people) like the art that doesn't look like art. But if you told me you would rather have a sculpture of a rock that looks like it was just found that way over a Michelangelo or a Bernini, I would say, "Bullshit."

Getting back to the bullshit they say about their own work or their experience; I don't care. You shouldn't have to explain your work. I don't even like giving a title to mine. But sometimes a title brings it all together, and I like that. What inspired this article (or venting) was an artist who sculpts stone, but you can hardly tell they are sculpted, or they look like beginner stuff. He studied in Italy. And he creates crap. I guess people are fooled by, "I studied in Italy under a master." I don't get it. If you study under a master, it better damn well look like it. You shouldn't have to tell me.

I love writing, I hate writing about art. Art should speak for itself. I remember writing a paper in college on the Laocoon. I had to just fill it with filler. Just look at the sculpture.

Or go look for a better picture of it and look at it. That is an awesome sculpture. You can see the snakes winning. You can see them constricting and the struggle of the man and his boys, and the look on his face, knowing he's in trouble and he would do anything to save his sons. But you want a sculpture of a rock that looks like you just found it? Bullshit. I guarantee you the unknown sculptor of this didn't write a page of bullshit explaining his sculpture.

I know people make the illogical jump to thinking I must think my art work is the best out there. No, I don't. But it looks like something and it takes some skill to do it. It takes very little skill to take a rock and make a smaller rock. I think those people should talk more about marketing, because that's what they are really good at. They are the type of people that could sell a snowball to an Eskimo.

I'll end with this: Arggghh. Be a pirate.

Marble Sculpture

Here is my first marble sculpture. I did not make a clay model because I could just use my own hand as a model. I like sculpting marble, it is now my first choice for sculpting. I found sculpting down to where I want is kinda nice, instead of building up, and constantly fixing everything as ya go. There is not much info on sculpting marble, a few videos of people sculpting, but they don't give away any secrets. One day I'll have to go to Italy and take a vacation/sculpting class.

I got a commission for a marble sculpture before I even finished this one, two actually. The first one (black and white dog) is going to be difficult because I said I could splice two different color stones together . At first I thought I was only doing a black patch on his face and one ear. Then I saw other pics of him and his body is at least half black. So this sculpture is going to be a real challenge, but well worth it. The other is a black horse head with a white star. Not so bad, I'm sure I can inlay the white star on black marble.

I also went searching for local stone. I knew from building a rock wall on my house (sold that house) that there is some sedimentary rocks up the Blackfoot River Canyon which are colored red, purplish, and green. I tested their sculpt-ability and it looks like they might work. I've been putting off starting one, but will start shortly, as soon as I'm done procrastinating. Or I should say letting my creativity ferment till it explodes, that sounds more artsy. Coffee helps too. One more cup? Yeah. 

A little about sculpting this: I started to make a woman turning her head with her chin against her shoulder, looking kinda sly, or shy. It was coming along and then the nose just popped right off. So I turned it into a fist. I knew it wasn't quite wide enough for a full sized fist, but to make it smaller so that it would be to scale meant removing a whole lot more rock, so I just went with it. Also not enough stone where the thumb would be, went with that too. I think it looks pretty good, a little narrow and the thumb isn't quite what I wanted but It was a good experiment in "making it work."

About the nose popping off: I noticed upon finishing that a crack runs across the thumb and into the first finger. I suppose that crack probably ran where the nose used to be because it took very little to pop it off. I was using my point chisel pointed away from the nose and barely tapping and it took off the whole nose. To pop off such a large piece isn't that easy even when trying.

If you're interested in commissioning any of my past sculptures into marble, or your own ideas, contact me. I would love to do a large monument sized sculpture.You can see my other sculptures at http://clay-tablet.wix.com/clayworkman if the link doesn't work, copy and paste, that will.

Sculpting Marble for the First Time.

For some reason I got it in my head to sculpt marble. Never thought I would want to sculpt stone. Wood was bad enough. Wood though has grain, and knots, and splits when you don't expect it to, due to cross grain and knots. Marble on the other hand is uniform in texture. I bought a small piece and a starter set of tools (I see I need more) and away I went, after watching youtube videos, which weren't all that helpful. Except for what basic tools do, and I only have basic tools.

I took on too much. I thought I would sculpt a woman's face turned into her shoulder. I was doing it, but when I got to chopping out the waste between her nose and her shoulder, her nose popped right off. So now it's going to be a fist. I can use my own fist as a model, so that's a plus. It's working out so far.

You can see where I drew her shoulder. I might not have enough to do the thumb properly. It will be close.

I love sculpting the stone. If I can get this down, this will be my new medium of choice. But I will still sculpt in clay, I need to be able to look at a figure while sculpting in stone. I'm already looking into trips to Italy. Not going to happen anytime soon. There is a marble quarry in Colorado I might visit, it's a lot closer to Montana than Italy. Funny thing, that quarry in Colorado is owned by the company that owns the Carrera quarry in Italy, and most of that stone from Colorado goes to Italy. It must be pretty good stuff. This stone I'm using is Carrera marble. Known for being the best due to it's whiteness and fine crystals. That's what I gather anyway, I'm no expert. So that's what's new. Later.

New Marblex Sculptures and info.

I opened a studio. So nice to not work in cat hair. And paying rent makes make me sculpt more. Now that I'm away from my cat, I don't have dirt and hair in my sculptures. But Marblex does have little sand-size bits of stone in it. I thought before my cat had knocked dirt down from a book shelf that was over my work area. Nope, there is actual little stones in it. I can't feel them when sculpting. I only notice them when I get to the end of my sculpture and it is drying a bit. When I scape an area or smooth an area, I'll uncover a stone. I guess they are in there for strength? I don't know. I called Amaco and asked them, the person I talked to wasn't very helpful, sounded like she was making it up as she went along. No answer as to why it's called self-hardening and not air-dry either. So don't count on smoothing or carving this stuff once it's dry. It is so hard it doesn't carve and smoothing with a wet sponge uncovers stones. Here's my latest.

Fast, his hair is being blown behind him. Going to sculpt his hands on a steering wheel.

Pirate woman, she's sad, not mad. She's an introspective pirate.

He's mad, and charging.

Amaco Marblex - Finished Sculpture

Angelina Jolie

The photo above is a little overexposed to get rid of shadows. Marblex doesn't come out quite that white, but it does look nice.

 I like Marblex. Now that I'm done with a sculpture and it's completely dry, I know how hard this stuff is: pretty darn hard. I don't have anything to test breaking points of different materials but I'll tell you what I know. Check out my other article on Marlbex for how it sculpts.

Somebody asked if you could add new clay to dry Marblex. Yes, and it works well. Wet the dry stuff and it gets soft, add the new stuff. It shrinks very little is one reason it works, it doesn't pull away from the layer beneath. I thought this stuff would be easy to sand like paper clay. It's not. With 400 and 600 grit sandpaper I can sand paper clay quickly. Marblex doesn't sand, it burnishes, which is nice; a polished stone-looking texture emerges. It's so hard that the sculpture sanded the sandpaper and tore the grit off. I had better luck with 1500 grit. Seems the smaller grit is just right to burnish the piece without the grit coming off on the sculpture.

Because I thought it would sand easily I didn't worry about getting every blemish and bump out before drying. I used the wet scrubby pad side of a cleaning sponge to smooth out the surface. Problem with that was little bits of the scrubby stuff would come off and get stuck in the wet clay. Gotta find something better and smooth the piece before it dries, save some trouble.