Progress

To say that raising a child is time consuming is understating the matter. Progress is still being made in the studio, however. In fact, I have two pieces underway at the moment, unusual for me. The vast majority of the time I begin and complete a single sculpture before starting another one. But I was carried along a wave of energy after getting the basic framework for the one finished and so I moved on to the next, smaller piece right away. Below is the larger of the two.

When talking about starting a piece, painters often complain about the difficulty of making a mark on a clean, white canvas. As soon as you begin, the multitude of options available begin to diminish. Each mark limits the next, and these limitations build on each other as the work progresses. It can be incredibly difficult to make those first few marks in the void.

Making a sculpture is no different, except that you are dealing with three dimensions, not two, and the resulting void of space is that much larger and intimidating. While later stages of a sculpture may be more physically tiring, there is nothing more psychologically draining than the beginning.