17P-3, "Sensual Space" (October 4)

Perhaps differentiating "tail" from "dog" is an artificial concept. Certainly, if you asked the dog (the tail can't speak for itself), it would probably not get into a philosophical argument. "I," the dog says, "bark. The tail is along for the ride." Dogs do balance rather than talk about it.

I do sculpture. I do photography. I do photography of sculpture because people want me to, and it's not too onerous a task, and--eventually--I came to appreciate having a visual record. Visual records led to verbal records and the Web allowed merging the two expressions into one.

Photobucket's deplorable change in operations caused much of the record here to disintegrate. I'll have to address that someday. Fortunately, Blogger now does its own photo hosting so recent posts are still integrated. I don't know if anyone else uses this resource but I do, because it can be read from anywhere.

It is, however, a static display. I add to it. Older entries don't change. The technique for presenting sculptures here is settled and well polished.

In Second Life, sculpture presentations are in a pioneering era. The capability to show static images came about earlier this year, and I set up a gallery on a beach made for the purpose. A month or so later, a friend of mine gave me a display into which I can load my photographs and have a slide show. Its square display works well for many photographs.

For sand sculpture, however, the square often doesn't fit. Few of my sculptures are square in profile, and I frame them tightly in the photograph (a holdover from the days of limited number of pixels). So, I told people that a sand sculpture show was a good idea, but I was still working on the technical aspects.

Then my friend moved the state of the art into another zone. The new image display is big and rectangular, and shows 6 images at once. The six can be parts of one big image, or six separate images (such as flower close-ups), or any combination that fits within the 3X2 mosaic. I at first thought this would be reserved for special shows but it soon became the imager of choice for everything. It can be adapted to just about any subject, meaning that my sculptures of varies sizes, proportions and shapes can be accommodated.

Is the imager a tail, or a dog? What is sculpture, then? The question came up this day on the beach, when I deliberately added earthworks and balls to this sculpture--something I hadn't done in years--to make for a more interesting horizontal composition arranged for the imager. And as soon as I got home, I edited an image to suit. We have a Thursday "Show and Tell" session, you see.

Click on the images to enlarge.

Senses!

I remembered the shading of the surfaces on Monday's sculpture. The feel of the sand, subtly smoothing away the bumps and ridges left by rough carving. Free-piled sand is more plastic and it rubs away less smoothly.

So, I planned this one. I even brought some water. Tools, too, that hold up better than mussel shells.
   
Build number: 17P-3 (monolith with earthworks and balls)
Title: "Sensual Space"
Date: October 4
Location: Venice Breakwater, south side littoral
Start: 12:00, construction time approx. 3.5 hours
Size: about 24 inches tall, 28 inches wide, 18 inches deep
Digital Images: EOS 5D Mk IV, 100mm macro, tripod and handheld
New Tools: none
New Equipment: none

This one started out somewhat bigger, and became a little taller. It also developed an alarming lean to the north. It's well packed, and good sand. It takes a smooth surface once the outer layer of sand is gone.

There's time to carve some details in the curves. I can't do thin sections because there are lots of shells and fragments in the sand. But I can make it balanced.

This time I deliberately retain the waste sand to use in earthworks, which I build up in a curving berm around the east end. It seems to want more. The sand in the borrow pit is still wet so I pick up some and make a Venice snowball. It requires dry sand from higher on the beach to firm it up. That one invites another and it becomes a stack of two. There's another subtle point on the earthworks that calls for a third, smaller ball.

How much of this is for photography? I've learned a few things in dealing with the images for the Second Life show. One is that my image display is horizontal, so I have to use multiple images to fill the space, or shoot some horizontal format photographs. The balls and earlthworks will spread this one out and make at least one good landscape.

It still works for itself, making a more interesting base without being too distracting. I believe that earthworks should be in proportion to the sculpture itself but that assumption, like many others, is kind of blowing in the breeze of change. Try something and see what happens.

By the end of the day I'm thrashed and very glad to have the tripod with me. I can take my time setting up and pointing the camera, and not think about holding it steady while pointing in the right direction.

Going home is more of a slow stagger. At least it's cool. And the tide window will still be open Friday!

Santa Monica
2017 October 5