Sculpture & Ross Brown's 120%/87% Theory

This is the completed sculpture I lovingly made (mostly) at school with tremendous help from my instructor Ross Brown. It's aluminum and stands well over 6' and turned out as I imagined it in the beginning, which is quite surprising, because most of my art does not turn out as I imagine it in the beginning. It also stands on it's own, which I actually did not expect.

It's 14 pieces in total, welded together (by Ross), and the petals are removable. I sculpted the body and base out of foam, and cast it in aluminum at the Bellevue Community College foundry. The petals were sculpted from wax and cast at a party at Ross and Sharman's house in his foundry.

About Ross and Sharman: Ross, my instructor, is a sculptor and his wife Sharman is a painter. They live on a huge piece of property that maintains multiple gardens, a studio, a foundry, and tons of art work (sculptures and whatnot). It's a magical place to visit--so much to look at; too much for me to list. They're website is worth looking into, because it too has much to look at: http://owingsbrownstudio.com/ (check out Sharman's painting a day blog).

A journey in sculpture: pictures of the cast party, the creation, and the result.

A view from the property.

The property has so many interesting hand created strutcures to see.

I think Sharman created these doll head sculptures.

This is some aluminum being poured for the foam sculpted part of my sculpture.

Hot.

This is a depiction of some of the hard work that took place on the day of our cast party. The entire class was invited to participate. We all pitched in, along with some friends of Ross and Sharman who were also there to bring sculpted pieces to life.

This is me, setting free out of its plaster casing, one of my four pieces cast that day.

And this is the fruit of my (and Ross) labor.

Ross has a 120%/87% theory, it goes like this (my interpretation):

1. you're really excited about your project (120%)

2. you start to sketch and toss around ideas and the excitement decreases a bit (100%)

3. you spend the funds it takes to create your project (decrease)

4. you start to work on the project and it may or may not go well (for me this is a daily evaluation, and the amount decreased depends on how well it goes that day)

5. at the completion of your project, if you find that you are at 87% pleased, then in 5 years when you revisit it, you will be 120% pleased with it again (or at least 100%).

*I love this theory, because I find it true. While you're in the passion of creation, emotions toward a piece can become exaggerated (especially negative emotion, and especially when money is involved). I like my work better when some time has been put between us.

(jen)