sculptural preferences

["Clive Murray-White" <clivemw@zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz>]

Dear All again,

This topic stands the chance of triggering so many issues that it make just
keep going and going.

Two things, 1 Henry Moore a week or so ago I wrote, "Moore would make the
small sketches and hand them over to an assistant to turn into the next size
up, almost all of his assistants would do their best to put things into the
sculpture based on their own values as opposed to Moore's, sometimes Henry
would notice what they had done but other times he would not. As things got
busier the ethics got worse. Bad ethics are often justified by the artist
saying, "well everybody has always done it".

The real problem is that the magic of Moore often got lost in direct
proportion to the size of the sculptures. Let's hope he is remembered for
his best work and not his biggest ones.

2. Norman said: "-I noticed that no one said anything about enjoying (or
not) the actual technique and engineering of working large. In a way this is
probably the absolute key to the whole issue. Each of us will know what size
comes naturally to them for me its what we've settled on as the middle or
human scaled object. The reason for this is ultimately incredibly simple:
I'm much happier when I can lean into a bodily sized lump of marble with a
sharp point in my Bon Accord and power through it as I draw out my idea. The
size of the lump means that I never have to worry about it running away -
its all a bit like the memories of life drawing classes where the instructor
badgered up to draw big, use our arms not our wrists. I don't wait to have
commissions I just make them this size as normal, in fact sometimes when I'm
on the shortlist for a project I make the big sculpture first and then make
a scale model of it for the maquette.

Engineering + technique:- The nicest thing about this is that unlike almost
any other kind of artist this involves a real world component, the kind of
stuff that any tradesman, engineer etc deals with, to me sculpture is ideal
work, the perfect balance between brain and hand (maybe body too).

It means also that when I finish up for the day and feel like a hard earned
beer at my local pub (bar) I'm essentially the same as all the other blokes,
mainly tradesmen. We all swap technical information. Lifting, tools, moving,
new products and services, other trades-people etc.

The other day I noticed the publican's wife trying to break up a bit of
masonry with a normal hammer and old carpenter's chisel!!! so I went home,
2mins away, collected up the right tools for the job and showed her how to
go about it. Next time I visited I'm greeted by a very happy person, these
things may not be huge in the real scale of things but believe me it is a
very rewarding feeling knowing that I am part of an actual community, far
better than knowing that they all think of you as that weirdo artist that
lives down the road.

Regards to all Clive Murray-White
Web: www.cowwarr.com