Wolf Chase Sculpture- animal portraiture
Wolf Chase Sculpture- Animal Portraiture
COMPLETE!
This piece was made as a suggestion for a life-scale version, intended as the beginning of a series of animal sculptures depicting the hunt. Through the gesture of his body and his strained expression, the wolf is captured mid-suprise. Pushing off one foot indicates his body’s momentum is still being carried forward while his head remains tracking the rabbit. Maybe he will tumble forward into the snow or instinctively dive to the left to gain the fatal ground that will secure his meal.
After this sculpture, it became evident we needed to broaden our patina potential. Through a little waxccident 😉 we discovered that a white coloration gives the heat-shaped metal base a softened look, and emphasizes the scattered animal prints around the figures, as though they had been chasing each other around in all different directions, which gives the narrative its own shape in time. Accidents, although at times $$costly$$ become valuable tools to the artist, opening unforeseen ways to elaborate an idea.
Here is the piece all crisp looking in its unpatina’d phase, newly mounted on it’s base. This photo was taken pre-photobooth.
It took a few trials to get the texture of the base just right. Initially the idea was to have the pair running across some raggy tundra steppes. Here some texturizing action was tried out on a steel cube, and the effect is interesting! As folded molten sheets.
Before the bronze casting phase is the wax sculpt. According to individual preferences different sculptors will work the majority of the sculpt in either clay or wax. This piece was finished in clay then cast in wax and sent to the foundry. Here is a wax that was left in the fridge overnight to cool in its mold and popped out in the morning. Although the wolf was made with the body compressed mid-stride, it was fun to handle the piece and see it belly side up, angles impossible to examine of an actual running wolf. Looks oddly vulnerable.
Respect Mama Mould.
As of October 2, 2015, the mother mold is still intact and ready to churn out clones, so this piece can be commissioned.
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