I was privileged to spend my weekend sculpting with a great group of people in Ponte Vedra not to mention the internationally renowned Peter Rubino. To be more accurate I was attending a 3 day workshop being taught by Rubino. I love the tactile nature of sculpture. My many visits to Florence have been spent visiting piazzas and gazing at the sculpture monoliths of great Italian sculptors. However my own experience of sculpting has been fairly limited to hand modelling clay in High School and an earlier workshop which I wrote about in this blog. The results were not exhibition worthy but my enthusiasm for sculpting a human torso remained.
In stepped the Cultural Center of Ponte Vedra and Peter Rubino to provide an experience on my bucket list. Great artists do not always make the best teachers but that is not the case with this experience. Rubino broke down sculpting into simple chunks of learning and practical experience, taking time to observe, advise and encourage every participant throughout the 3 day experience. Everyone was encouraged to develop their sculpture through their own observation of the live model and their own style, including one classmate who transformed her torso into a beautiful abstract. By the end of the weekend, each of us proudly packed a 3ft sculpture into our cars ready to hollow and fire. I'll blog more about it when it is complete.
For now I want you to experience some of the genius of Rubino himself. Take a look at some of his extreme sculpting and see why he inspired us all so much.