Foamhenge

[abknight@zzzzzz]

There is no honesty in foam.  It requireth paint.
EVERYBODY knows you're lyin'.   Foam is a tall tale every
time.

In days gone by I carved foam(polystyrene bead board) for
parade floats, before that wall hangings built out of
foamcore(styrofoam sandwiched in between heavy glued
paper).  The veracity of presence emanated from hue and
simulated texture.  At first in my private foam core work
I would go to great trouble to make the polished colored
coating I applied to the foam core look substantial,
intrinsic, essential, as though it resided within the
form.  In parade work I quickly got more liberal with my
truth-stretching, using texture and happenstance of mark
to deliver a yield of authenticity.  Oh to lie.  I
revelled in the power of preverication.  But oh the
difficulties of lying.  How hard it was to cover up the
foam core with acrylic, which I would later sand and
polish, without it cracking or without sanding through it
to the paper below!  How delicate and inpermanent the
painted polystyrene of the float carving, and how
insubstantial the illusion under casual inspection.  Well,
that's not right.  The illusion of the parade float figure
required a willful act of the viewer to pretend along with
it, for it sat and comported all wrong, an overly stout
figure rigidly waving, or a cloud mounded in resemblence
to a travertine grotto, shiny with paint gloss.

True rock is a piece of cake in comparison.