Clay to Stone

I designed a clay model of just the torso that I could take with me to Indiana. I carved the clay from a square cube so it would simulate the same process I needed to undertake at the symposium. I changed the design so that the book rests on the student’s knees. I arrived on June 20th in Bloomington and it took the first two days to carve out the unwanted stone between the boy’s chest and the book. By the fifth day I had finished the ‘roughing out’ of the torso and it was ready for transportation to Virginia.

Notice that the torso is more monumental than a life-sized middle school aged student. When it came time to actually carve this torso, I needed some way to check scale and proportions frequently so I used myself to measure the body. Although this was not the originally agreed scale, this adaptation gave me the confidence I needed to aggressively shape the stone.