Revealing Vladimir

Several years ago, the Irish National Theatre company presented Waiting for Godot at the Moore Theatre. Its tall, lanky Vladimir has haunted me ever since. As night falls, Estragon gets cold; Vladimir wraps his suit coat around his chum. Now Vladimir is chilled. He paces back and forth, wrapping his arms about his body, hunched up against the night air, often with his back to the audience.

Finally, after struggling for a couple of years to figure out what has turned into "Chrysalis"

Chrysalis

(I am a slow worker,) I have embarked on sculpting Vladimir Against the Night.

First step: see if Vladimir can be fit into a 4' column of Indiana limestone I bought in 2006. A builder had donated four surplus blocks to Pratt Fine Arts Institute. They offered them at around $1/lb; my block weighs out at just under 300 pounds. A friend took photos of me in a poor simulation of a chilly Vladimir (perhaps it would have been better naked -- on second thought....)

Second: transpose the image to the block. That alone took about three hours.

Now to begin removing rock. I choose to work with hand tools, as in the 15th century, hammers and chisels. It would sound a bit arch to say Michealangelo's tools -- but in truth, they are. The option is power, which is less tiring. Here is a fellow student using an electric saw to cut grids in marble, which he will next hammer out. But power can get away from you -- and it is so damn noisy! When you learn how, you can remove rock just as fast with hammer and chisel, and you have control of where the tool is going.

I am using a 2.2 lb hammer, a pitching tool to knock off big chunks from the corners, a single point to take out large pieces, and a six-toothed claw that carves out small pieces.

Eventually, I will be using small claws, flat chisels, rasps, files, and so on.

So, slowly I hammer away to reveal Vladimir.

This is how far he's come after about 33 hours of work. Such a long way to go. I will probably remove about 40% of the block. Consider: Bernini removed nearly 70% of a 10'x10'x8' cube of marble to reveal Daphne and Apollo and all with hammer and chisel.

I'm not going for a fully detailed Vladimir. He will be rough, still emerging from the rock. The goal, of course, is to invest him with life, with feeling. The trick will be in the nuances of the neck bow, the hunch of the shoulders, the burial of chin in chest, the hands clasping at shoulders, the bend and tension of knees.... Not easy, but with my coach/mentor/friend Sabah al Dhaher looking over my shoulder, I have a fair chance of achieving those.

I'll keep you informed....