Mary
 

Not exactly a portrait (imaginary), but appropriate for the season.
FortonMG with a bronze facing, 22 inches tall high relief.

Hope you all have the best Holiday season ever and are surrounded by dear friends and family.

Infusing Humanity into Tradition
 

Heidi -

I love the combination of a traditional format with the untraditional facial expression - puts so much humanity into it..

You do such wonderful work! Thanks for sharing this.

Oh, Heidi, I agree so much with Julie.....this has such a refreshing "new" look of an age-old depiction. A serious but calm resolve of the lady who bore the One who would bring hope and peace. It looks as thought she is pondering, "What is to become of my son?"

You continue to just blow me away! :o


Merry Christmas to you and yours...... :santa:

~Geary

Just wonderful Heidi.

Awesome....just awesome.

Wow, that is awesome! This invokes childhood memories. Growing up, prints and statues of the Virgin Mary were prominent in our home (typical of many Hispanic households). This is a wonderful rendition of a time honored subject.

Merry Christmas,

It's hard to take my eyes away from her face. Thanks for posting this beautiful work, Heidi.

She is beautiful Heidi, congratulations and Merry Christmas.

Very beautiful Heidi. I like the way you have the bronze selectively highlighting the ridges of hair around her face. Reminds me of lost and found edges. Thanks for posting this.

Gosh, thank you all so much for your incredibly nice responses! You made my day.

A masterpiece, Heidi.

I have absolutely no comprehension of how someone can work in three dimensions. It seems like a quantum leap in difficulty over painting.

Beautiful, Heidi.

Beautiful. Was Linda Brandon your model?

Thank you Michele, Patricia, and Marvin -
No model used, but now that you mention it, I do see a slight resemblance. Maybe all true Saints look alike?

:D :exclamati

Mary, Mary, quite contrary!

Very nice, she seems very alive.

VERY nice, Heidi...wouldn't mind having this displayed in my home. Wouldn't mind at all.

Carlos

Thanks Jimmie and Carlos,
Did I mention this is an open edition and castings are available? ;) :exclamati

too many choices
 

Just for fun, thought I'd post the second casting with a completely different finish. I have such a hard time deciding - I actually changed the color of this 4 times (went from brown to white to yellow to rust)before settling with the rust, and now I am thinking it is a bit much.
It drives me nuts - color is so complicated. I don't know how you guys use it so successfully!

Heidi,

What a beautiful, strong piece. Notwthstanding the excellence of the work itself, the fact that you have chosen to depict a religious image as a real, substantial, and believable individual makes your interpretation unique and powerful.

Interesting comment about the color you chose - I tend to think of sculpture as sort of achromatic, but that is so very wrong. Do you consider the color of the light that the sculpture will be viewed under? Especially since the relief would be mounted on the wall, rather than (I would think) on a stand?

Chris,
Thank you for your kind and thoughtful comments.
You bet the direction, intensity, and type of light has a huge impact on the color. Some finishes look very nice in indoor light, but take them outside and they are ghastly, and vice-versa. This is an indoor wall hanging, but it will also be displayed outside for the Carefree show coming up, so I need to find finishes that look OK under both lightings. Not an easy task.

I would have gone with a bone white. I don't think it needs color. The met sells a reproduction of the pieta head by Michaelangelo that's bone white and it's very elegant. As a painter that deals with color I use color where it's needed and never for it's own sake. I think you don't need it. Just my two cents worth.

Right you are Marvin,
But here, I am not starting with a white canvas, I am starting with a bronze one and making it white is just another color option for me. I had it white at one point, but did not like it with the bronze highlights. I am planning on casting the third one so that it comes out of the mold white, and I will just add a bone white wax to give it luster. I agree that white would be the most elegant finish here, so thanks for reinforcing that notion.

Dear Heidi,

Once again you have an exquisite sculpture just resonating with humanity, and brimming with appeal. I think this is a winner. Here is a Mary who seems to be pondering the implications and challenges she is to face in life. What can I say; I'm a Presbyterian (no focus upon Mary, or saints intervening in our liturgy) and I am moved! I love the first version's patina.

Just beautiful, poetic, and universally appealing (in any season)!

Garth

Heidi

You have done it again. Simply, a very stunning piece!

Garth, thanks again for such eloquent words - and Ngaire, thank you too and especially for your comments on the Feat piece. You both leave me speachless.
I also grew up Presbyterian Garth, so I suppose this is just my interpretation as an outsider of what she might have been like.

Well, this will be the third and final casting for the show. It is ivory, but hard to get the color right in this photo.

Heidi,

I too kind of grew up this way, but I think she must look like all us moms, including Linda!

I really love this, but just to upset you :sunnysmil I liked the patina you posted first the best! It just feels right and not "commercially casted" which the ivory can look like sometimes. But then it could be the JPEG image.

You are so talented, have we told you that yet?

Beth

Heidi,

I'm glad you took my suggestion because this is my favorite finish by far. It is much more elegant than the others.

I would equate the finish on a sculpture with the frame on a canvas. Sometimes a painting needs a complex frame to help "dress" it up and complete it in order to give it a certain presence. However at other times, the simplest of frames is all that's needed to set a painting off and let it shine on it's own merit.

The ivory finish is your simple frame. It allows the viewer the opportunity to be one with a beautiful and emotional piece of art. Less, in my experience, very often turns out to be much more.

Thanks Beth - and you're probably right. I would bet that this is the expression I wear on my face when I think about my kids. Since they no longer live with me, I can't help but worry and wonder about them all the time.

Glad you like the ivory Marvin and that's true what you say. Sometimes I complicate things more than is neccessary. On the other hand, what appeals to one person may or may not appeal to another, so it's good that I am offering a variety of finishes on this piece.