Radiant Comics

Do you know what I want to learn to do one of these days? Of course you don’t. I haven’t told you yet (boy I’m witty today). I want to learn to sculpt. Nothing complicated. I don’t want to make a statue of David or anything. Just a sculpture of something or other. Of course that has always been my problem with making sculpture. I have never had any idea of what I want to make. I only have had a vague notion of wanting to sculpt something. Vague notions are not a recipe for action.

In all my years of art school I never took a sculpture class. Probably because I was more interested in learning drawing and painting but considering that I had to take bowling, macro economics, and volleyball I question the curriculum in hindsight. I don’t regret not having a sculpture class either because, like I said, I really don’t have much of an idea of what I want to do sculpture-wise.

So why do I want to sculpt something? I’m not sure why. Maybe because it’s the one area of art that I have never dabbled in. A “Grass is always greener” sort of thing. But I also think it has something to do with toys and action figures. Not that I think toys and action figures are sculpture. Sure they employ sculpture to their own ends but it is their own ends that define them. Some people believe art is a perception. I don’t. Art is an object. But I digress.

Still toys remind me of sculpture. And I have some toys sitting around so there is a connection in my mind. I also have a few pieces of actual sculpture lying around. Most of them are really statues rather than sculpture as their point in not artistic but to capture a fictional character in the solidity of three dimensions. It’s the license that is important not the finished product. Once again I digress by getting into the nature of art and commerce but I’m a digresser.

With all this talk of toys maybe that is what I really want to make. I don’t know. It’s a question in my mind. I’ve only ever made one piece in my life that I would consider sculpture. And it’s barely sculpture at that. It’s a bent piece of thick plastic coated white wire that is twisted into the shape of a person’s head and shoulders. It only rises beyond the two dimensional by an eighth of an inch or so and is hardly impressive yet I’ve kept it around for a couple of decades. Why? I guess I kinda like it despite it’s inadequacies as art.

I think my drawing also lends itself to toys. I draw a lot of strange little whimsical characters. They might look good as small toy like sculptures but I’m not sure. I only make them in two dimensions. Three dimensions is a whole different ball game. Maybe that’s why I never got into making sculpture. It’s too defined by what is real. Even if it’s fantastical. My work tends towards the unreal.

No matter what my motivations are for these thoughts going through my head today I’m pretty sure I won’t be making any toys, sculpture, or any thing else three dimensional. It interests me enough to think about it but it doesn’t interest me enough to do it. Very few things exist in that category for me. It’s a strange sort of cranny in my mind. I think I I just like the idea of sculpting something.