Sculpt Across America : March 2010

Washington DC

[thumb=https://photos.travellerspoint.com/244231/thumb_Texas_Loui..ppi_999.jpg] [thumb=https://photos.travellerspoint.com/244231/thumb_DSC08781.jpg] [thumb=https://photos.travellerspoint.com/244231/thumb_DSC08787.jpg]
[thumb=https://photos.travellerspoint.com/244231/thumb_DSC08792.jpg] [thumb=https://photos.travellerspoint.com/244231/thumb_DSC08799.jpg]

I've hit the road again headed north on my way to Washington DC. This was my planned week off to see all the sights and visit alot of Museums. Did you know they are all free! Its amazing~ So be prepared I have tons of works I'll be posting pictures of...I just couldn’t help myself and have to share all that I saw.

Check out those prices... $18 and hour??? I'm definitely in DC and will park outside the city and take the metro in. Yikes!

So I made it to see the White House and thank goodness for zoom lenses on the camera... Because they have us soooo faraway is ridiculous! So I walked all around DC my first day to see what I could see. It was a beautiful day as it sprinkled on and off and then the skies opened up showing off this brilliant blue sky with fluffy white clouds.
[thumb=https://photos.travellerspoint.com/244231/thumb_DSC08838.jpg] [thumb=https://photos.travellerspoint.com/244231/thumb_DSC08840.jpg] [thumb=https://photos.travellerspoint.com/244231/thumb_DSC08844.jpg]

[thumb=https://photos.travellerspoint.com/244231/thumb_DSC08849.jpg] [thumb=https://photos.travellerspoint.com/244231/thumb_DSC08850.jpg]
The WWII Memorial was beautiful and there what this whole group of vetrans there in there orange t-shirts.

[thumb=https://photos.travellerspoint.com/244231/thumb_DSC08858.jpg] [thumb=https://photos.travellerspoint.com/244231/thumb_DSC08857.jpg] [thumb=https://photos.travellerspoint.com/244231/thumb_DSC08856.jpg]

[thumb=https://photos.travellerspoint.com/244231/thumb_DSC08871.jpg] [thumb=https://photos.travellerspoint.com/244231/thumb_DSC08872.jpg] [thumb=https://photos.travellerspoint.com/244231/thumb_DSC08864.jpg] [thumb=https://photos.travellerspoint.com/244231/thumb_DSC08862.jpg] [thumb=https://photos.travellerspoint.com/244231/thumb_DSC08861.jpg]

There was these two ducks leading all these little ducklings out of the reflecting pool up the banks. They stole the spotlight for some time!
[thumb=https://photos.travellerspoint.com/244231/thumb_DSC08880.jpg]
Lovely Lincoln! And check out the surrounding walls and ceiling~ stunning

The crowd was steady throughout the afternoon.



What an amazing view and gorgeous skies! My time here with Lincoln was very powerful. The presence of the structure and sculpture is encompassing.

The columns and the ceiling was so impressive and just illuminated the place beautifully.

This was the Blue group of Veterans. Many who had travelled together with a group of 400 service men and women total.

The beauty is in the Details~
[thumb=https://photos.travellerspoint.com/244231/thumb_DSC08937.jpg] [thumb=https://photos.travellerspoint.com/244231/thumb_DSC08940.jpg] [thumb=https://photos.travellerspoint.com/244231/thumb_DSC08945.jpg] [thumb=https://photos.travellerspoint.com/244231/thumb_DSC08948.jpg] [thumb=https://photos.travellerspoint.com/244231/thumb_DSC08949.jpg]

[thumb=https://photos.travellerspoint.com/244231/thumb_DSC08951.jpg]
The Vietnam Memorial was more powerful than I ever imagined and you have to experience it in person to truly feel the impact.

Einstein sat tall and proud~ large sculpture has such presence~

Gotta have a Metro shot... and below is a stairway to...???

Iwo Jima was Awesome.

Around town, some interesting sights.

Segway Tours are all over as they zip by you listening through headphone as the tour guide describes the city's sights.

Savannah GA.

So my trailer is back in action and my wonderful students from the Panama City Beach Workshops suggested I stop over in Savannah Ga. a must see city as I head north to Washington DC. And they were ever so right!

Yes I'm addicted to the road by now and I have taken so many pictures of the road that I just cannot hold back anymore so you're going to see tons so consider yourself fore warned!
I was enjoying the drive so much I had passed Savannah and was in South Carolina before I knew it! Yikes~ Life is interesting like that...it wasn't too much of a detour and found my hotel in plenty of time.

So now in Savannah, I hit the Art Scene starting at their 3 main museums.


Absolutely stunning Relief Portraits~!


The downtown area is gracefully divided by these beautiful town squares as character filled trolleys zip around town under sweeping moss filled trees.

I really enjoyed seeing this old Lutheran Church rested on the corner of Bull street crossed by Presidents street.

I absolutely loved these amazing town squares and took that picture from that angle... the brick was mesmerizing. Love love loved it!
From head to toe all Georgians had an inate sence of southern style.

The architecture and details around town were so fun and everywhere.

The main Telfair had this interesting exhibition, very detailed.

Texas Louisiana Mississippi 908

Savannah Georgia was Stunning and I'm so glad I had time time to visit.

Leesburg FL to Panama City Beach FL

Well it was a long drive from Leesburg to Panama City Beach but it is always an adventure and full of fun scenery.
As I arrived in PCB I stopped in this great Italian place that just hit the spot! And below is a picture of their ocean view from the front and patio dinning area. Just Gorgeous~

As you drive into Alys Beach it has quite an entrance of white white buildings, entry collums and tons of palm trees.


There's lots of water everywhere you go and beautiful picture opts!

The Main square had lots of activity and fun vintage "Tin Can" Trailers lined up selling food & drinks. A great atmosphere just steps from the water.

This was Alys Beach area where the Workshops were held, quite a resort like atmosphere.

A familiar City!

The Beach town full of narrow tall getaway homes and the lovely ocean. The water was warm, and the sand was pristine! I could hardly believe it. Clean and silty fine sand, So different from Santa Monica and Long Beach Ca. There was no seaweed washed ashore or anything! So I enjoyed an afternoon on the beach as a reward for canvassing the town putting up flyers for the workshops. Yes there was a bit of frustertion involved but lets not go into that!

Here's the place all set up and ready for some workshops! Tuesday night I gave a free technical lecture on how to approch portrait sculpting and the figure. Lots of great questions and interest on how sculpting will enhance their painting skills.

So the first workshop on Wednesday night was a great success! We had 13 Sculptors diving into the clay for a Quick Sculpt Figure Workshop. Those Sculptors really went at it and they really did remarkably well. We all worked right around 1/4 life-size and they quickly picked up on the Box(pelvis) and Egg(ribcage) I was telling them about. Once that was established then the rest just flowed~ What a fun group who loved sculpting!

The Results...

The Noble Scuptors!

I got to see a Whalen Wall too at this massive building that sold boats!

I checked out the local community college's art center and they are located right a this beautiful bay~

Near this awesome Tree~



Where this crab came rigth up to my flip flop

Tons of wildlife around and watched this bird go fishing for his lunch~

There was lots to see at every turn...

Especially this Museum of Man of the Sea

And was saved by Santa Rosa Pottery's Deborah Orr who sold me some much needed clay when more students signed up last minute. What a lovely property and studio where she works and teaches. Thank YOU Again Deb!

So The 2 Day Figure Workshop was that Saturday and Sunday. It was a solid group of absolute beginners. So the Good news was they had no bad habits! WooHoo! They were great listeners and bold sculptors. All did very well and I lectured before they started to give them an overall idea of the process and the vocabulary I'd be using. It was a beautiful reclining pose that required no armature. Great for beginners!

Didon tackled the portrait that day. Here's she's startin with the profile.

Day two went well, check out the level of focus and intensity as they worked.

I had just packed up all my stands, clay, tools and armatures and loaded it all in the trailer on my last day in FL I was exhaused. I rolled into my hotel parking lot and amazingly enough thats when my trailer decides to brake off from the tounge! Thank goodness it wasnt minutes earlier when I was zipping down the highway. Yes I went over a speed bump and hear a huge CRACK! YIKES that didnt sound good. I go out and inspect and there's the entire trailer tilted and hanging on by a thread. Litteraly. So the next day I found a welder only 7 businesses down from where I broke down. I crept down the street praying that it would stay attached for those painstaking minutes, and it did. I was so thank ful for these guys and it only took them 2 hours to fix, reattach and reinforce the tounge and structure bar. PHEW! That could have been the end of the trip but once again, I was saved by angels~ Two burly angels

This shows it pretty well how the center of where those bars meet is hanging down and twisted and broken off.
What an Adventure!
.
.
Thank you Panama City Beach... now I'm off to Savannah GA!

Athens, Georgia to Leesburg, Florida

What a crazy weather day it was driving out of Georgia down to Florida. I find out that some major storm system was going thru Georgia and I got just the tail end. The deluge of rain lasted about 2 solid hours of the long drive to Leesburg. It slowed things up pretty bad because the wind was whipping the trailer around quite a bit.
.
.

I know it’s the south but I was still surprised to see very large confederate flags out and about as I drove thru towns and I saw them along the highway too.

The rain was just coming down in sheets!

Oh and I saw tons of road kill but this was my first Armadillo in Georgia.

So after a long drive to Leesburg FL I was looking forward to a break in the Humidity which lasted about a half a day. Then the sky broke open and absolutely poured on us. I was out in downtown Leesburg passing out flyers for the workshop and telling the locals about Sculpt across America and got completely drenched.

It did let up fairly quickly but this was very random weather and I'm definitely not used to the humidity.
Here's the city hall and newly rejuvenated downtown district in this very small quaint town.

There was tons of great buildings and huge old trees

In true southern form Christianity is big and God is in the coffee Business! These Dueling Downtown Shops are kitty corner from each other and claims to be divine!

.
There’s lots of character in these small towns starting with their cars. Yes that’s a powder blue pimped out caddy with Texas long horns as a hood ornament.

.
.
So I'm at The Leesburg Art Center teaching a 2 Day Portrait Sculpting Workshop. The Facility is multi-functional and just hosted the 12th Annual Bikefest where the art center was turned into a night club and bar just for their event and when I arrived the space was cleared out and ready to sculpt in! Awesome way to keep an art center going when the economy forces you to get creative in tricky economic times.

I started with my "Speed in Which Form Turns" power point presentation to walk them through the basics and then we dove in starting with the profile.

.
.
That night I headed out to see the town and I came across a public boat dock. The water’s edge was all swampy and right away I spotted a small 3ft alligator and watched as it darted around the shallow water as I stood safely on the high metal dock. There were some nice fisher men on the end of the dock and shared some alligator stories with me and said they hang out under the docks to sleep and hunt. So I checked out the other docks to see what I could see. I was about 20ft away and there was a huge splash and the fishermen went crazy hollering at me to run over its a big one. And yes it was they said it jumped out of the water with something in its mouth. I got there and saw it as it swam out to the middle of the lake. It was big, the guys said at least 7-8 ft long!
.

I was able to snap a shot of the little gator but the big one ducked down too fast as a ski boat zoomed by us.

.

I was very happy to have my very own gator sightings! The sun was setting and I was pleased with my evening adventure~

.
And of course there's southern characters everywhere you look!

.
.
Day two of our sculpting workshop we brought the features out to full volume working off our profiles and silhouettes. Our model is looking quite peaked and thats the results of a late night out partying with very little sleep and was sick and nauseated the intire day.
.

.
.
Our numbers were few but intensity and fun was abundant. After we headed out for drinks and hanging out. What a great town full of wonderful people ~ Thank YOU Leesburg Florida!

.
.

Arkansas to Georgia

Its a beautiful Day in AR and I find out I hit the road just in time... tornados warnings were out for several parts of AR that day! Phew~

Then I headed out of Arkansas on my way to Georgia and I’m driving real slow 55mph cruising along with my trailer…it’s a beautiful day and an easy drive. I’m headed to Georgia but will go thru Memphis and stop in Birmingham AL for the night.

This here's my travel Guide Frog.

I had about an hour left before I reached the Arkansas border and whooop whooop whoop I hear the police sirens behind me pulling me over! Oh now what could possibly be the problem since I was going so slowly and in the right lane, I was stumped!

So two Sheriff officers approach the passenger side of my car with their flashlights on and pointed at me at 11am in the morning!(can we say overkill? They must have noticed my California plates!), I have my license and registration out and ready for them,(I’ was guessing it must be a problem with my trailer) so this funny “Roscoe P Coltrain” Sherriff leans in my window and informs me that I “failed to merge”. I was baffled. How do you merge rigth when I’m already in the slow lane? So I ask what that means and in a disgusted grunt he says “when law enforcement is at the side of the road all vehicles must merge into the fast lane”. I totally get the reason for the New law and I’m sure they have had problems with officers being hit by oncoming traffic. The part I don’t understand is the fact that they were sitting in their patrol car on the side of the road(no lights on or anything) not even in the emergency lane but in the grass to the right of the lane sitting and radaring people for speeding. So it wasn’t like he was out of his patrol car giving a ticket or anything it was just the two of them parked.

They must have been totally board to pull me over especially when I was one of the few cars on the road and going so slow to begin with. So I say to the round pudgy Sherriff, Sir I’m very sorry I had never heard of the new law before or else I would have abided by it. The grumpy statey said there are signs everywhere and stomped off to his vehicle returning with my ticket.

Unbelievable, he wasn’t about to give me a warning! I was shocked and a bummed because at the time I imagined the ticket would cost around $90-$100 but never imagined it would be a $215 dollars worth of a penalty! UGH, I was really bummed especially since I’d never even heard of the law before and I’m on such a tight budget. So for the next hour of my drive in Arkansas I had my eyes glued to every sign that passed. Even driving thru Tennessee I never saw a sign stating that law until I got to Alabama ~ He was quite mistaken but I’m over it and It was very funny to see this guy stomp off to his patrol car all goofy and grumpy just like a mix between Boss Hog and Roscoe P Coltrain from the Dukes of Hazard.

So to cheer up a bit, I treated myself to a detour to Graceland as I passed thru Memphis TN. It was a great distraction and very fun to step back in time and walk in the Kings mansion!

Graceland Baby!

It was extravagant for the times especially the Jungle room and the halls of all his gold records etc but it wasn’t as outlandish as I had imagined.

The Jungle room was dark and crazy... major shag carpenting on the floor.

This was the Peacock room~

The Lisa Marie Plane~

I walked away even thinking how modest it was for someone of his stature. Oh and its shocking how low some of the ceilings were! And how many of the rooms ceilings were carpeted! This one was like astro-turf!

Lisa Marie's play set~
I love the grounds around the house. He had horses and fountains and sculpture etc.

Then off to the right behind the pool is his grave and headstone with his parents and Pricilla.

It was cool to see and people had left flowers and mementos for him around the site. They displayed so much of his costumes and awards etc. It was an cool tour and a great distraction.

What an Entrance!

.

And here's one of his restored trucks~

.
I hit the road soon after and headed to Birmingham Alabama for a quick stop over and then on my way to Athens GA.

I stopped over at the University of Georgia to check out The campus and Art Department Facilities. Looks like they have just added on another Fine Art wing too!
.

The campus is gorgeous with beautiful buildings

Downtown Athens is a really lovely and thriving college town. lots of people out and enjoying the hot & sunny day!

Then I checked out the Oconee's Art Center where I'm going to teach a Figure Workshop and they were having an art fair that weekend.

The Art Center had tons of work rooms and a back barn building they are getting ready to turn into artist work space!

Its a really pretty area right on school street surrounded by cool homes with southern porches! love it~

.
Unfortunately this particular workshop didnt run. It was a last minute effort and we just didnt get enough sign ups. I was very happy to make the connection to this wonderful Oconee's art center and look forward to seeing them again in the future. And thanks to Gary the organizer for all his time and efforts in getting the word out and trying to make this one happen~ we'll get them next time.

Now finding myself with some spare time, I headed to Atlanta GA.
And stopped by the Engineer Guy to pick up some clay. What a great little supply store with a very nice owner who showed me all kinds of mold making materials!

.International Blvd!

Finding my way around was interesting. My GPS kept me on my toes! check out how this interchange is...and the GPS kept saying keep left as you stay to your right, turn left now! yikes, life is interesting~

I toured around Centennial Olympic Park which is huge and has sculpture sprinkled around along with a huge fountain kids were having a blast running thru. Perfect on this super hot day!

I was also hoping to see Richard MacDonalds Sculpture "The Flair" there. I thought he had donated that piece to the 1996 olympic games to this park but couldnt find it anywhere. I even asked some locals and they had no idea where it was or even what it looked like. No such luck~

.

Heading back to my hotel I ran across this cool Car Show and had to share some pic's with you. This is such a cool form of functional sculpture that is just eye candy. Look how that form turns!

and of course there is a truck full of sod in the parking lot! gotta love it~

.

And here's my Rig parked next to those retiree's road coaches I mentioned earlier that zoom by me, and most are towing a car behind them as well!
.

So Cheer up! Life doesnt always work out the way you planned but I'm headed on to Florida now.

Isnt this field majestic! America the Beautiful!
.
.
.