Strands of Insanity
Detail from "Turn Around"
Hair is impossible to sculpt. It’s not just difficult but also completely impossible. Anyone who tells you otherwise has simply never attempted it.
That said, here are the few things I have learned while attempting the impossible:
- Hair is both chaotic and logical. It must follow the laws of physics without appearing to to ever follow any rules of any kind. Just ask a hair dresser.
- Let random things happen. Too much order and it will not resemble hair.
- Look up chaos theory. It will not help you to render hair from clay but it will help you to understand why you are failing so miserably.
- Think about spaghetti and cupcakes. Think about words like “undulate”. Think about super string theory or the series of events that brought you to this place in your life but whatever you do, do not think about hair.
- Listen to Thelonious Monk. Mozart is another option but do not even think about Bach, for he is not your friend in this madness.
- Approach the rendering of hair from a place of deep meditative humility. Know that you are walking in the footsteps of some of the greatest artists in history and they struggled too. Look the work of Bernini for extra humility.
- If you want to see your work through the eyes of others, take a picture and look at that. I apologize in advance for the shock of it.
So, that’s all I know. That, and these words of my mentor Walter Erlebacher : “take courage, art is big”.
Laura Wiley
This is my favorite post so far. Comedy and art!!
Laura Wiley
Also…I’ve always wanted to see a series of artworks featuring bald women. There’s a very short poem by Samuel Menash that goes: “I used to think the beauty of the tree was in its leaves. And then I saw the bare tree.”
Georgianna
That is a beautiful poem.
Hair has so many implications. It tells it’s own story about the figure in terms of social and cultural identity as well as the time in which it was rendered.
I once had a student who sculpted all his female figures bald. When I asked him why, his answer was that he could not sculpt hair. I think it could be an interesting exploration of the feminine mystique around hair though.