I’m confident the answer to the initial question is “yes”, but in my little corner of the world I’ve never met a sculptor - no students, no teachers, no amateurs or professionals - and I don’t recall hearing about significant sculptures being erected anywhere in the last few decades.
Sculpting fascinates me, but I’m totally ignorant of how it works. If you’re a sculptor -
- when/how did you start? Do you start with clay and pottery?
- How do you “practice”? Play-doh? Gotta imagine it’s different based on your preferred medium?
- do artists still use marble? Seems like it’d be insanely expensive & one mistake screws the whole thing up
Ehhh, depends on how rigidly you want to limit things. Big sculpture has always been an expensive field to work in. Stone and metal just don’t lend themselves to a person just deciding to get started at them.
But smaller scale, and other materials? You can find artists doing that in pretty much any city with any kind of art scene at all
Clay is fine for practice and final works, btw. As is wood, though it’s less reusable.
Caveat: I ain’t famous.
But I’ve sold some small stuff over the years. Paintings too. And books, but that’s creeping outside of what you asked.
Sculpture on a big scale is pretty limited. But anyone can sculpt things that are reasonably sized, just for fun, if they can afford the supplies.
Depending on how you limit sculpting as compared to crafting, I’ve even made decent side money making stone and glass knives (it’s called knapping, but there is art to the craft). But I’ve done some wood carving, mostly animals, that did okay in terms of selling (mostly to wiccans that wanted their spirit animals in a pocket friendly size).
Stone is a difficult medium. Takes more expensive tools, more work, and it is less friendly to mistakes. Never worked with marble, but the stuff I did mess with wasn’t forgiving at all.
Biggest thing I ever did was knee high though. Well, except for carving the tall stump of a tree that got damaged in a storm.
But I can’t say I’m a sculptor. I’ve done some sculpting, and that is different. I never have done it for a living, nor even as a steady thing. I dabble. I dabble in a lot of things because I like trying new things, and taking them to a casual degree of proficiency.
People still sculpt. Go look up Bobby Fingers on YouTube to get an idea of what sculpting looks like.
There are a variety of clays. From what I hear, most sculptors use some form of air-dry, not firing clay like pottery would use.
Nobody ever sculpted in marble. You would sculpt in clay, make a plaster mold, fine-tune the design, then meticulously transfer it to marble.
I mostly agree, but saying nobody ever sculpted in marble is a bit like saying nobody ever painted with oil paint because most of the most well known oil paintings were done according to sketches made with charcoal or pencil.
The finished sculpture is made of marble, and thus it was sculpted in marble. Not at first perhaps, but eventually
Of course there are still sculptors around! Like most art sculptures have gotten more abstract tho. Visit any museum of modern Art and you are sure to find some!
Marble and the like are of course incredibly expensive, and for that reason most people stick to more affordable options like wood or ice. Or do additive sculpting with clay/plaster, welding or something like that. If you really want to work with stone you might want to apprentice with a stonemason.
How did I start? Took a pocketknife in my hand and started whittling. The foundations of working in a subtractive manner are largely independent of material.
Although it’s been sporadic for him as he is no professional, my dad has always sculpted as his creative outlet. His best work being from the time period after we lost my mom. His chosen medium are various woods, but when I had an interest myself, he would show me carving techniques in soap bars and create initial sculpture(s) in clay before attempting to remove material on the final workpiece. I only made a couple things in wood, but I got more into charcoal drawing and music and didn’t explore the third dimension much more (until I got into modeling on the computer for practical/machining purposes). I imagine CAD design and 3d modeling programs likely had an impact on the interest in physical sculpture in general.
If you’re interested in smaller scale sculpting, it’d be remiss of me not to direct you to The Crafsman Steady Craftin’
Hi, I used to a lot, but lack the financial means to currently.
I started in school, and I loved it so much I had my teacher fail me twice just so I could retake it. My retakes were a mix of TA work and whatever project I felt like doing.
Since then, Ive made a few clay based projects, as well as dabbling in wooden sculpture. I’m currently unhoused, but I imagine it will again be a part of my life once I’m back on my feet.
Yes they exist, although it does seem like it’s a bit of a niche medium these days. Hit the art show at your local convention.
I can ask some folks I know if they’d care to comment here.
It’d be cool to get enough of 'em together to start a decent Lemmy community.
Is molding a form of “sculpture” ? It’s a technique commonly used in the cosplay and larp scene.
Cnotbush streams himself sculpting clay figures and statues daily on twitch
Ace of Clay, Dr Garuda, Art Chong, North of the Border, Sculpture Geek, etc all post sculpting vids on YouTube.
Some use a polymer clay you bake to harden, some use plasticine based clay that never dries. Depends on the artists preference and needs.
When I was in high school - ages ago - one of the substitute teachers of my art class was sanding/polishing their marble bust they were working on. It was neat to see the process but it’s really just a lot of wet sanding once past large removal / chipping.
Go visit Bali. In the town of Ubud, there is a whole street of people carving and sculpting right out in the open. You can just walk down the street and watch really great art being created.
That sounds awesome.
In addition to the stone/clay based works that you might be thinking of, I find certain metalworking sculptures to be interesting, too. Alexander Calder made a bunch of red steel sculptures, almost architectural art, in addition to things like dynamic mobiles. Louise Bourgeois’s “Maman” is an interesting one, too.
There are small metal sculptures, too. From little trinkets made from wire, to welded metal parts, to elaborate chandeliers, these all involve artistic creativity in manipulating materials in a three dimensional space, and it’s a skillset that I admire and respect (and do not have any, myself).
