“Pluto Catching Neptune”
inspiration
Sometimes, well often really, opportunities arise by serendipity. It just so happened that Turner Wyatt, a local social entrepreneur, saw one of my sculptures on display at the Rodeo Odyssey Space Pop Up, a fun event featuring lots of local artists and performers. Turner got in touch and asked if I would be interested in participating in his dream of a Solar Installation along Durango’s River Trail, which courses through our town along the Animas River. The Installation consists of the Sun and its eight planets. Each is crafted by a different local artist, resulting in a collection of amazing interpretations. Each planet is sized in proportion to the sun and placed along the trail in proportion to its distance from the Sun.
My planet Neptune, the farthest planet from the Sun, is composed of gases and liquids and is blue in color. I was happy to get to create a sculpture of Neptune, since it is 2.2 inches in the proportional scheme, just the right size for a dog’s ball. The sculpture will be installed on the trail just south of the La Plata County Humane Society, where a wonderful dog Gunner was waiting for his forever home. His picture by Dave Tee on the Humane Society website was my reference for the sculpture of the dog I call Pluto catching Neptune.
technique
Using Gunner as a reference, I built an armature of wire and attached it to a rod to give it support. I covered the wire armature with oil based clay, building layer on layer from the bottom up. When I got to Pluto’s head, the whole sculpture started to lean and I realized the rod I used initially wasn’t enough to support the 30+ pounds of clay needed to finish the sculpture. So my good friend Tom used his engineering skills to insert a stronger rod and capped it off for a secure fit through a large hole we dug out of Pluto’s chest. I was then able to finish Pluto with ears flying in the solar wind. We took the clay sculpture to Land’s End Foundry in Paonia, Colorado, where the masters using the lost wax technique cast her in bronze. With the use of fire and chemicals, the patina artist gave her a lustrous coat and I painted the ball Neptune a blue tint.
materials
Wire armature, Chavant oil based clay, bronze, patina, acrylic and a final coat of wax.
24”H 18”W 18”D
