Reach! (02F-21)

Upward!

The bottom will have to come off first. From where I stand in the borrow pit the form's top is well over my head as I reach for the top latch on the form. Stand back. The whole thing could end up on top of me. Never have I made a column of sand this tall and this thin.

It was an accident. George said he might be able to come down but holiday events could very well intrude. I planned for anything, and assumed I'd be making, if not a standard Latchform monolith, a two-unit multiple.

"Hi, George. I wasn't expecting you this early."
"Things worked out. We're having dinner later so this was the best time. What's the plan?"
"Well, now that you're here, we could extend this with the Short Form."
"That's what you mentioned last night."
Yah, in between dropouts in the cellular link.

At least the sand is good. I rode the skateboard down to the beach near sunset yesterday and found an expanse of fine sand. Given that last Saturday there was no fine sand anywhere this is quite a gift. I make a small free-pile sculpture with help of three kids, one of whom makes the tallest skinniest free-pile tower I've ever seen. Too young to know better, and unfettered from the demands of carving, he simply moves the tower around when it starts to lean. It's an amazing performance. I ride home along the Boardwalk, flashing LEDs in my ears and bright red star on my bright yellow jacket. It's the first time in my life I've ever upstaged anyone in Venice.

Build number: 02F-21 (lifetime start #260) Monolith, two stage, filtered imported sand, on riser base
Title: "Who Let Giacometti Into the Taffy Shop?"
Date: December 25 (Wednesday)
Location: Venice Breakwater, on the flat
Start: 0715; construction time approx 8 hours
Height: 5 feet (Latchform with Short Form on top); riser height about 8 inches
Base: 1.75 feet nominal diameter
Assistant: George Ollen
Photo digital: 56 images, Canon Powershot G2
Photo 35mm: none
Photo 6X7: none
Photo volunteer: A few images by passerby, with G2
Video motion: none (camcorder not brought)
Video still: none
Video volunteer: none
New Equipment: none
Note: First use of Short Form as extension in several years

1. Design Dilution

One night George and I were sitting on my front porch, watching the stars and drinking beer. Chimay, I believe, or Full Sail amber.
"When are you going to make another single sculpture? You've been concentrating on multiples, and those don't interest me as much."
"I don't know." Truly, I haven't thought about it very much. Something about the multiple appeals to me strongly, and every sculpture I've done since August has been either a multiple or a single that was a test for some aspect of a multiple. The evening passes and the conversation moves on but the idea stays.

One aspect of the multiple sculpture is that it prevents fussiness. Squeezing three sculptures into the time normally given to one means each one must be done quickly. The multiple becomes a group of sketches, more or less related, in some sort of unifying milieu. There's a lot to think about, a lot to do, a lot of pressure to finish.

I keep thinking about what George has said and gradually realize that he has a point. The difference is subtle, but looking at pictures of monoliths and multiples reveals it. Concentration is impossible on a multiple, other than a general frantic intensity. A monolithic sculpture is one composition, single concentration on one project.

It being winter, anything could happen. I pack the trailer accordingly: sand cart, two forms, the box filter and its newer companion, the Quick Filter.
"Don't you know it's cold out here?"
"Hi." It's the man with his two small dogs, on their morning rounds. "Yes. It encourages fast work."
"Here I'm in a jacket and pants. You have nothing on your legs. You'll catch pneumonia."
"It'll have to catch up with me first."
"Well, merry Christmas. Have fun!"
"You too." He's right, however. The concrete burns my bare feet. Until they lose feeling. I need some of Mirjam's wooden shoes.

2. Construction Crew

I still lean toward making a multiple for today's project and choose the sculpture's location with that in mind, on the south edge of the isthmus. The first sculpture's base is a broad dome beside the long slanting borrow pit; if I'm lucky, I'll get some water in there to smooth it out.

Sand is a minor struggle. The tide isn't as low as it was last night and I have to snatch each shovelful from King Neptune's reaching wet fingers. I stockpile enough to fill the form and use the box filter as I fill the form. Coarse sand included in the fine plugs the filter's openings, making the process more work than normal, but it's a short sculpture so there's plenty of time.

George's arrival, chair and tripod and pack in hand, changes everything. We go for height using a sand-filled bucket as a stepstool. The Short Form fits nicely inside the Latchform, but filtering is a problem. I have to reach up and over the top of the form, and don't have enough strength in my arms to fight with its weight as the fine sand slowly makes its way past the coarse. It's time for the new tool.

The Quick Filter has already proven itself. I have George load it up.
"Yeow. Too much!"
"You told me four scoops."
"Use smaller scoops. Or three." I drop the heavy filter into the form and in a few seconds it releases its load of sand. "That's more like it." Whew. I'm glad I brought that little thing.

We make steady progress, although I do have to remind George of his duties. He's thinking about another idea we came up with: go to South Padre Island in the spring and see if we can talk Sandy Feet into working on a multiple together. George is always getting ideas for what I should do, but this idea I like. This came up one night when he suggested that I find someone to join me in making a multiple. His daydreaming has a benefit this morning.
"Dolphins! They're just milling around out there."
"Fishing. Look! There's a pelican diving on the same group." We watch for a time and then go back to work.

"Are you trying to tell me something?"
I'm on the ground, filling the screen. "Well, it is a hint. To keep your mind on what you're doing, but then it is a holiday."

"One more load."
"OK." He hands it up.

"While I'm waiting for the excess water to drain, I'm going on trash patrol. Mainly for photography."
We walk around with the cart and get it pretty well loaded with trash. Then it's time to find out how well we did our work.

3. Getting People's Attention

One after the other the latches pop free. The ends of the form come loose and peel away from the cylinder of sand, and it stands. The Short Form comes off normally and there it is, nearly three times as tall as it is wide. I've made taller sculptures but they've always been nearly half again greater in diameter. This one looks like the start of the totem pole the little girl suggested I make last night.

I trim it to a slight taper to help its stability. After that I'm faced with a problem of tall proportions.

4. It Really, Truly, Isn't a Penis

What do I do with this? Nothing in recent experience has prepared me for this kind of sculpture, and it brings back the Monolithic Imperative: don't mess it up because you get only one chance. If an idea doesn't work with a multiple, well, no problem. There's another pile or two. Today, however, two people have made quite an investment in this block of sand and I'm intimidated.

Ralph is, however, even more imperative: the day is not getting any longer. Start digging.

The original idea for an extended Latchform piece was to use a smaller extension and have that part spread above a domed top of the main part. This extension is too big for that. I want to fill the space. Spreading pieces, however, place greater engineering demands on the lower parts because the top has to be counterpoised, and that makes it heavy. A dome top is lighter. A domed top also becomes very suggestive. Wait a few minutes, folks. It won't stay like this.

I like the dome idea and have used it in several recent sculptures. Make the dome, then cut holes in it. I've left the dome surface smooth, but in the most recent of these I decorated it more and made it look as if it had been woven together around the holes. I cut several entries on the east side of this piece, and then a set of nearly horizontal slots on the south side. The west side will be entirely open so as to gather light at sunset, and to allow access to the inside of the dome.

This all goes pretty well according to normal practice, with some subtle changes that come from learning. The inside of the sculpture develops very nice structure that matches the outer fluid lines. It's good sand and a delight to carve.

I do most of the interior carving with the Steel Finger and the Steel Thumb, Mk 1. These don't remove sand as quickly as the Loop Tool does but they do it with more control and a delicate touch. Delicacy is important when you're carving an unsupported rib over two feet long.

The cold morning has grown into a fairly warm afternoon. This brings out the Christmas crowd, and the rising tide forces them into a shrinking area. At times there's a semicircle of watchers. Tim walks up as I'm explaining something to another bystander, but he's the only regular I see. Polyglot conversation floats on the desultory breeze.

5. The Second Half

It's nice to act as if there's unlimited daylight, but this is late December. Ralph is getting closer to his curtain call, announced by a pronounced drop in temperature and a change in the breeze from dry to damp.

"It's like a football game, George. We've had a good first half, but what happens in the second?" Liking football just about as much as I, he doesn't respond to this.

It's still true. Right now we have a lot of nice carving on top of a solid plug of sand. The task now is to make that solid plug look better without carving away too much.

Take any of my sculptures from about 1998 and stretch it about 30%, as if Giacometti got an idea and raided a taffy shop. I've gotten used to shorter sculptures. Less top means less bottom is required to hold it up there. What's daring with a 40-inch sculpture is impossible with a 60-inch one.

The only answer is to make what's there as graceful as possible. I try to finish off the various upper elements in ways that make the plug less obvious. Everything is long. Give me a few more tries with a pile of this scale and I might come up with better answers. I settle for one reasonably large hole through the middle with various other elements shaped around it, and a third entry from the south that helps accentuate the hard parts around it.

A man asks if he can take a picture. At least that's what it sounds like. I acquiesce and go back to work. He taps me on the shoulder, wanting me to smile for the camera. I return to work. Mister, you get what you get and I have a sculpture to finish. See the sun? He never slows down; that 'ol Ralph has a very stiff contract.

6. Wrapping It Up

That's about it for carving. Now I just have to clean it up without breaking anything. Yes, it's good sand and I've been able to keep it wet, but I still remember the complete failure of one unit of a multiple when I brushed it.

This one needs lots of detail work. I work my way around and down with a very delicate touch. The result is gratifying.

Low-angle light glows inside the sculpture. Through the vertical slots on the north the horizontal ones on the south are visible, bars of sun-warmed sand with the ocean visible beyond.

I smooth out the domed base and then sign it. After pressing my hands into the pad of sand I simply roll over and groan. Scattered applause breaks out, whether for the sculpture or for my performance I don't know.

The crowd has thickened. One of them stumbles across the sculpture's soft base. Can't you at least wait for me to get a few pictures? While keeping an eye out for dangers like that I clean up the area and remove my equipment.

One man has been here for a couple of hours, taking pictures.
"I'm August. I take pictures for my portfolio. Three-way partnership here: your sculpture, my camera, the prints."
"Sounds good."
"Will you take pictures?"
"Yes. As soon as I can get this place cleaned up, but I have to watch for kids." This makes me wish for Rich to be here, but he's at a friend's for Christmas. Finally the crowd thins and I get a chance to take some photos.

Where do ideas come from? I can trace some of what showed up in this sculpture to their sources. The major one is 96F-3, with its thin legs curving around spaces. That was the first time I tried something like that. I tried again later in the year with a bigger sculpture and got it well started when the rain came in. I was kind of glad because finishing it was going to be a lot of work in hollowing the sculpture with not much room for design.

What a difference a few years of experience makes. Now, instead of thinking of the sculpture as a lot of legs, I think of it as a hollow shape with holes cut in the shell. 02F-18 was the apotheosis of this idea. Since then I've wanted to do more than cut holes in a curving surface, so I've subtly curved the various dividers and shaped their ends to make them look woven. 02M-8 was the strongest outworking of this idea, on a smaller scale. Today's effort is at eye level and more spectacular for that.

That the inner structure worked so well this time is due to practice. Keep trying, keep messing it up, keep trying and eventually the fingers learn what they need to know. The main principle is to leave enough sand in there to allow later shaping. Work both sides. I like this, even if no one else sees it and it doesn't show up well in photographs.

I walk around, looking. It's a wonder it's still standing.

7. Light

There's always a shadow when the light comes from one direction. In past years this was a problem but now I use it for contrast. Bring light through the sculpture to define the elements on the shadowed side.

I walk around the sculpture shooting details and the whole piece. It's much easier than shooting a multiple. This is good because I'm not that mindful right now. Automatic cameras were made for this.

The temperature keeps dropping. I hang on for sunset light, but then notice that this won't happen because of a cloud that's reaching up from the horizon. As the sun goes behind its fringes the cold intensifies.

"That's enough for me."
"Thank you for making this."
"You're welcome." I pack up and pull the kit off the beach. This at least warms me. I get even warmer when I realize that most of my bungee cords, casually placed on top of the load, have fallen off. The round trip to the work site seems long, but I finally get the load assembled.

A few streamers of color light up the west over the disappeared sun. It's cold. Keep the pedals going. Dinner awaits.

Written December 26