This is the idea I visualized in my mind of a beautiful male figure doing a
backflip or a dive where his body arches and goes backwards and over and his body
doing this beautiful c-shape this elegant sensuous c-shape that's what I
wanted to capture my work doesn't just mimic what the human body can do I
want the work to take the body to another level so I change the piece I
curve it even more the life cast I am making is used as the model for
sculpting the final piece when I pose the model I want the model to portray the
story that I'm trying to tell you know you can do a cast of a person but you
have to get the emotion right because in the end you can sculpt the detail but
you cannot sculpt the emotion this piece is part of a series of swimmers and
bathers that I began working on in the late 70s it is a piece I wanted to do
for a long time so once again I turned to technology to scan my machete into foam
13 feet high but when I get the foam back you still have to sculpt it you only
get foam and the foam has no detail no fingernails no lines it is at this point
that I make changes in the pose variations in the gestures and also add
all the little details to the entire piece
conceptually the biggest challenge is to portray the strength of the human
spirit from his emotion to his whole body the feeling of the pose his
perfection all elements that make it a wonderful piece of art and not just a
man jumping off a diving board
I'll be making an edition of three this model will be exhibited in the 2013
Venice Biennale in Giardini under the patronage of the Concilio Aeropio Del
Arte and the Muscarelli Museum of Art the first piece will be a permanent
exhibition in Riverfront Green Park in Peekskill New York and the second one
will debut in my New York Spring solo show at Jim Kamner Fine Art
we're in Excalibur foundry today and we're here to see the process of making the wax for the diver
with this piece I want to show the human spirit how we strive to get ahead how we
drive and work hard to achieve something incredible the dive represents the power
to succeed the dive the struggle to survive
making a sculpture that is hyper realistic is not just captured by
outward perception not merely defined by physical forms and spatial fields that
blend together but also by inner relationships composed as much by the
unseen as by the scene in the end it's like a melting pot where physicality
sensuality perfection and vitality become one
I'm also working with the structural engineer who designed an intricate steel
armature and pedestal it would have been easier to work life-size but I wanted
it as a public work for outdoors therefore it had to be monumental size
proportionate to its surroundings
after two years and approximately 8,000 hours of casting and lodging
mold making and foundry work with constant detailing with the help of more
than 16 people the golden mean is finally ready for installation on the river
front of the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art in Peekskill, New York
the golden mean describes proportion but it is not merely a term it's an actual
ratio to Aristotle it was at a desirable middle between two extremes to
the Greeks it was beauty John Keats said beauty is truth truth is beauty to
lean too far in either direction might cause one to fall but to achieve the
golden mean is to strive for perfect balance the path to enlightenment and
virtue
the incredible reception the city of Peekskill and the people of Peekskill have
given it when I told Peekskill that I was gonna take it out to send it to
Venice they told me they had raised the money through a grant and through the
people of Peekskill to buy it so that was the third amazing thing that happened
and they're dedicating it to the city in September
