Personal Sculpture

Recently I went to a friend's house and talked about art and future exhibitions. He is Alexis Kapraras, who is a painter, sculptor and icon painter. He is going to have an exhibition soon and he told me that he wanted to make a man's sculpture.

I offered to help him, although I think he helped me more in many ways. 

I saw this as an opportunity of being a 'model' for an artist. I mainly wanted to see how art is created, what the artist goes through in order to achieve his goal, how long this process takes. It was a life experience for me.

Here I will post various pictures from this personal experience in order to show the progress of this sculpture. 

Alexis, our sculptor, is originally from Cyprus. He currently lives in London with his family. The whole process took place at his house.

Alexis began using wood, clay, a stand, nails, plaster, water, soap and measuring tools (used for thousands of years). He had to be really precise with his measurements. He used simple materials which get the job done and which have been tried and used since the beginning of art!

It is interesting to point out that the whole process took about 25 hours, including the breaks we took, meaning having a cider, some ice cream, crepes, bits and bobs and a chat with Alexi, his wife Athena who is also an artist, Poly (their son) and various friends. 

Of course the interesting part was when I helped with the plaster. It was a long but fantastic process. This part took place in the garden shed whilst listening to classical music. 

Alexis told me that when he is in the shed finalising the sculptures he can only listen to classical music, which you have to be there to understand why. In the mess of the materials there is a calming motion and a sense of creativity.  

Before finalising with the plaster, the clay was inevitably destroyed, reminding me of the Mandala, the Buddhist art which when created is quickly destroyed. However in this case we retain the form through the plaster. 

Using two types of plaster, Alexis slowly chipped of the outer layer of the cast. Slowly but gradually we had the final apocalypse of my head. Whilst it was still clay, I have to confess, I wanted to punch it. This of course changed when I saw the plaster sculpture appear. 

The end result, I am sure everyone will agree, is great and is an exact copy of my head. The details are magnificent and evident. Now all I can do is wait for the coming exhibition and see how Alexis will use this sculpture.

I would just like to thank Alexi for this great experience he gave me and hope that all goes well with the coming exhibition.