ART Sculpting

A basic rule

SCULPTING A BUST OF AN AFRICAN WOMAN

It is a wonderful experience to sculpt the bust of a person; a process that moves me through a whole range of emotions from doubt and despair through excitement, exhilaration and triumph. My experience as a sculpture teacher has been that many people want to sculpt realistic busts and figures yet have the belief that it is beyond their capability. The result of this belief is an unwillingness to stay with the process long enough to go through the lows to the highs. We have learned culturally to reject, avoid and deny the lows, fearful that we will get stuck in them, and to put on a happy face while avoiding activities that might bring us to frustration and self doubt. We are culturally terrified of "failure". However, such a path of avoidance and denial leads us to dwell as shades in the mist of vague discomfort, all the while wearing masks of emotions unfelt. Doubt, fear, failure, sorrow, despair are the stones of the path and gateway to strength, self discovery, joy, and the expression of our wholeness, our Human Being. There is no wholeness without the assimilation of and openness to all possibilities.

Sculpting with clay is a process that, if entered into fully and with the commitment to persist, will open many doors to our essential Being, a way Home to the infinite and eternal home of the here and now. It is both simple and mystical, as we are simple and mystical. Usually, the most difficult step is the first one, stepping past the belief that we cannot do this, that we are somehow flawed and lacking what it takes to give form to a lump of clay(earth). It is my experience that it is here that a teacher can prove most useful by presenting a "Way to begin and a Way to go about the work" that is simple enough to prompt, for but a moment, the conviction (or at least the possibility) in the student that "I can do this." I have attempted to do this with my method of building the head, step-by-step, with clay. It is a method that assumes no special talent or knowledge from the person wishing to try and it is presented with certainty and faith that the student can and will succeed. I have been a delighted companion of inevitable Creative Expression and I invite you to surrender to Her guidance, joy and fullness, for She is in you and you in Her.
Thus do I offer this article on the process of sculpting the bust of an African Woman, with photos of all the steps, the "ugly" ones too, so that you will not feel like giving up because the head looks so bad that there is no chance for a happy outcome.