Us Irish are well known for their storytelling and eloquence. The amount of great authors and songwriters we have produced is great evidence of that. It is like the fertile soil has soaked right up into our gobs making us a very chatty bunch. I would really wish my posts could be shorter but once I started there is no stopping me. The flood gates open and I go on and on and on and on... So, you will have to forgive me. It's beyond my control. Now, whereas I may talk a lot of nonsense, in general, the Irish are known for their Gift of the Gab or 'solabharthact' as we say in Irish. Our storytelling tradition dates back to long before paper or even blogging was invented.
Always look on the bright side of life
After finishing my Character Building sculpture for the 2013 Dublin sand sculpture exhibition there was still some gas left in the tank and one other block to carve. So, Niall Magee and myself decided to take one side each and make another set of sculptures. I decided I wanted to do something very different and in some way, celebrate our jiber jabber.
After the major recession, Ireland and the rest of the world had after 2008 we felt that we had lost part of our identity and were moping around with no pride in ourselves. Each sculpture in this exhibition was a reflection of what we were proud of about being Irish. Hence the theme ' The bright side'. We didn't want to approach it in a nationalist way. Just a personal expression of what each of the carvers thought was a good aspect of Irish culture and society.
I had just seen a video of Samuel Becketts 'Not I' Performed by Lisa Dwan and thought this is so Us. It was mesmerizing to see and hear all the different sounds and mouth movements that were possible. My idea was to create a simple Iconic image and in a way, let it speak for itself.
Samuel Beckett's Not I Performed by Lisa Dwan (excerpt)
Each of the mouths I made was a great carving lesson in and of itself I had a little makeup mirror on hand and held each expression while carving. I think the audience thought there was something wrong with me.
I wanted each one to be of a different personality and in a frozen moment of a conversation so they were all changed to make them look like different people and not just me pulling faces.
When all joined together they created a wall of sound that was a bit freaky. The sand was wonderfully well behaved for doing the details.
I had good feedback from the public about the sculpture and even had an Italian Linguist who was on holidays in Dublin contact me about using it as an image for a book he was writing.
Looking at the main image from this post now I was thinking that maybe it could be a good starting point for my foray into NFTs. What do you guys think? Is this something I should look into?
Irony of ironies
This is one of my shortest posts in a long time and it is the one about talking! I suppose the sculpture really does speak for itself.
Ps
Thanks for reading. I use PeakD to document my work as an ephemeral Sculptor of sand, snow and ice, amongst other things. This will hopefully give it a new life on the Hive Blockchain. Below you will find some of my recent posts.
Character building - sand sculpture
The gift - sand sculpture
Ride of the Valkyries - sand sculpture
I hope you'll join me again soon
@ammonite
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Your sculptures are always so awesome.
Thank you @derangedvisions, as is your photography, I hope your daughter is doing well,
!ENGAGE15
ENGAGEtokens.This is really fascinating, the details of each mouth are incredibly realistic, wonderful.
Thank you so much. It was a lot of fun to make.
!ENGAGE15
ENGAGEtokens.That must have been some amazing sand to work with. So much detail! What's behind, supporting the wall? Is it a bank of sand or something the sand is on?
The sand was amazing. Nice and fine and strong. Everything was solid sand, on the other side my friend Niall made a different relief so we kept the whole thing as a square for composition reasons.
Thanks @minismallholding
!ENGAGE15
ENGAGEtokens.You're absolutely good enough to make nfts and ask for good prices for them. Whether you think your work is the "right fit" for nfts is entirely up to you :D
I love the phoneme wall! I have made a number of these before as shape keys before I had rigify's lovely face rig to work with (which is much more preferable XD). Yay for cooperative sand, you managed to get some incredible detail in there :O
It is something I have been meaning to try for some time, I have actually only ever sold two pieces of my work an etching and a culture. I may do some jiggery-pokery with photoshop to create something different.
It will be a new experience for me and I like the way it could possibly make the works live on in a new life.
!ENGAGE15
ENGAGEtokens.Love this Surreal work! At the risk of repeating what is commented here before, I am also sharing it on my twitter for the Visionary Art Gallery:
The twitter feed is embedded on my Visionary Art Gallery site - check it out, I share quite a few HIVE posts of art that I find fitting.
Thank you so much for these shares. It really means a lot.
!ENGAGE15
ENGAGEtokens.OMG, I absolutely love this sculpture! Really interesting work you do and I really like the details you give about the piece. I'm imagining you holding each expression while you create. I think you must have had sore mouth muscles afterwards! 😆
Yes, my face was pretty sore after this. The most difficult part was trying to hide it from the audience. I probably looked mad. Thanks for your comment and nice words and sorry for the delay in my response.
!ENGAGE15
Trying to hide it from the audience! LOL! I'm picturing that. How many were observing and how long did it take to complete the piece?
Btw, I think these would be wonderful NFT's. I'd be interested in them!
No worries on the delay in response, happy to hear from you.
Sorry for delay, yet again. I believe this piece took me 4 days. The location is a very popular tourist location in Dublin and sometimes there would be over 4000 people a day coming to see the castle and our work.
I am still thinking about the NFT route for my work and have been given clearance from NFTshowroom to try and sell my wares. I've very busy lately but when I get a moment I will hopefully start minting some editions.
!ENGAGE15
Four days is fast. I'm now thinking about how you protect the piece and moisture release from the sand. Quite a few people every day. There's a performance element as well as sculpture. Interesting. I'll look for your NFT's. All the best and hope you get a break in between being busy.
Things have been very busy but unfortunately no sculpture work at the moment.
When I finish a sand sculpture I usually spray a very dilute coat of PVA on the surface. This stops the detail from drying out and blowing away. Although they are temporary they can last for a few years.
I am still looking into NFT. Not really sure what the long term value of them will be but it is crazy the amount of money being pumped into it.
Thanks @nineclaw and hope you are getting on well
ENGAGEtokens.ENGAGEtokens.You did a great job on the lip details and texture
xxx Thanks
!ENGAGE10
ENGAGEtokens.Congratulations, your post has been added to Pinmapple! 🎉🥳🍍
Did you know you have your own profile map?
And every post has their own map too!
Want to have your post on the map too?
So genial!!!😍