11F-1 (January 1, 2011)

A year into retirement. I decided to start the year with sand sculpture, simplified to its essence. Just do a sculpture, and record only the basics of its brief existence.

That plan lasted about a week. It's mainly Jane's fault that, starting with 11F-4, I started taking that big and heavy camera with me again. "We want to see," she said. Well, OK, eventually I did too.

For this sculpture, though, it was sculpt or freeze. December 30 had been really cold. This day wasn't quite so bad but it still required a windbreaker. I didn't stay for better light. Walking is warmth. Finish the sculpture and start walking.

Later on, Larry used the images to make a 3-D computer model of this sculpture, which he then took to a 3-D printing place. After some clean up he had a small model of the sculpture. It is eerie for me to hold this little model of my work in my hand. The model has an interesting feature: due to the limitations of the process, the interior of the sculpture looks unrefined. When I look at it, I want to get in there with a tiny tool and bring the curves to my vision.

These images have been scaled so that, if looked at side-by-side with a Latchform sculpture, their sizes will be pretty close to what they'd be in the real world. The Short Form, used for this piece, makes a pile about 19 inches across. The Latchform is 21 inches.

Click on an image to see a larger version.

All photographs by Larry Dudock