Drove about 25 hours “one way” for delivery. As my Uncle Grant would say, “Go easy like a frog a walk’in.” I wanted no problemo’s, so I took the long way through Utah….Logan to Lehi to St George…….then through Las Vegas, Nev and on to Tempe, Tucson, spent night in Willcox, Az….on to El Paso, Van Horn, south to Marfa….arrived at Cibolo Creek Ranch.
Happy to have the first casting of this sculpture completed.
After one year of work….this bad boy is finally ready for patina. He weighs in at 1700 #’s. 6′ 9″ high.
I call him, “American Bison”.
Grateful for a great team of men who make the molds, pour the waxes, pour the bronze, chase the metal.
“American Bison”
Notice the stainless steel supports underneath. They go up inside the buffalo to minimize lateral movement.
When the tail is being attached….you know it’s getting close to being finished.
For those following the progress of the monumental buffalo, here is an update.
Photos of:
Clay buffalo with seven coats of silicon rubber. Sprayed with a dense foam mother mold.
The mold is cut off the clay and cleaned up in preparation for the wax coating.
Next, a wax coat is applied to the mold sections.
Here’s where it gets interesting. The wax is cut into small sections and has sprues attached. These are the coated with a silica sand. It is into the silica sand investment shells that the bronze is poured.
Once the bronze is poured into the ceramic shell…it is chiseled off and ready for welding together. This photo shows hoof, beard, etc.
The mold has been started on the buffalo monument. I thought it be fun to show on my blog the step-by-step process.
The sculpture has been divided into sections with shims. Many coats of latex rubber (usually six) are then added.
It’s an amazing experience to finish a piece and then be alone with it. Its often numbing. There comes a quiet that is beyond words. A feeling of expansion takes over….a humility.
Finished.
AMERICAN BISON
It’s amazing for me to follow / witness what my father called, “The daisy chain”. I think that phrase comes from kids making a chain out of the stems of daisies.
HERE GOES:
I deliver a monument to Texas. After the delivery, the ranch foreman tells me the owner of the place is looking for a monumental buffalo. I make a phone call to the owner about the possibility of creating a monumental buffalo for him. We agree on a price. I’m sculpting the thing.
It begs the question:
How many opportunities have I taken advantage of OR passed by because I did or didn’t listen?
Two months of sculpting / Two more months to go on the clay work.
Just completed this maquette of a buffalo that will now be enlarged into a 7 ft monument. We all know what I’ll be doing for the next five months. “Buried up to my neck in clay”.
If anyone has a suggestion for a title….please pass it on.
Title suggestions:
American Bison
Thunder Rolls
I was driving in north Logan, Utah this morning, and saw this image. It’s become a passion of mine to see beauty wherever I go.
The upper photo was cropped out of the below photo.
This is what painters and sculptors do….they take a larger whole and pull from it what makes them go “wow”.
I spent sometime at the foundry today, “chasing wax”. When the wax pieces come out of the rubber molds….they often need touching up. This is a sculpture called Trail Boss (the head).
Hit the road to Marfa, Texas, to drop off these bad boys. After 3200 road miles, in six days, my hiney’s starting to wonder if my legs forgot how to walk.
After a 900 mile ride through the desert, stopped to get the trail dust off this cowboy. We installed this one at a home in Tucson.
“There is a guy in the back of a truck with a rifle on the 101!”
Gary Seivert, one of the owners at Sage Creek Gallery in Santa Fe, was delivering Scott’s “The Trooper” Monument to a client in Arizona and got pulled over, not once! but twice! for having a guy with a weapon in the back of his truck…
Scott Rogers 