my job

i work for an artist named Scott donahue. i have worked for him part time and full time for the past three year. its a pretty amazing job, i get to make stuff all day. well thats on good days, sometimes i get to clean up the studio or some other unglamorous task. it is pretty hard work because the scale of the work he makes ranges from 3 feet tall to 25 feet tall. there are often many unexpected challenges waiting for me when i get to work.

a question i hear often with a more extended answer than i ever give:
"is it hard for you to work on somebody else's art work?"
"no not really. i get to use my hands and creativity and get paid for it. i like to work for other artists, i don't feel any of the same attachment that i feel towards my own work because they are not my ideas. i can be very sensitive or insecure about my ideas, they are like my little misbehaving children i love them and i hate them. i didn't get to choose what they would turn out like, but i made them what they are. i am responsible for them. when your working on some one elses art you need to learn how to think like them and sculpt like them. i think it is an interesting challenge. its fun really. there is a new set of problems to solve every day. i don't think its a job that everyone can do well. "

here is a good shot of the beach scene that we are just about to starts making the molds for. those large holes are the places where figures will be. the final casting will be in cement and the figures are bronze.

the blue tarp is set up to protect the studio from the spray of the plaster gun, which is what we use to make the molds.

the things sticking out around the edge of the landscape are called shims. they allow us to create a separation between the top and bottom halves

here are the waxes. they have clay on their pegs from being placed in the landscape. we put them in, look at it, take them out, adjust, put them back in again. its got to look right.

just to clarify so there is no confusion, all of these pictures are of scott's art work, not mine. i work for him and i do work on the sculptures with his instructions.