Living and Breathing the work
The sculpting of a life-size statue can be very intense and time-consuming work. From the initial meetings and concept work to the construction of an armature (a form of skeleton made of wire for the clay to be built upon), it can actually take quite some time to get to the physical sculpting stage. When doing any kind of commemorative piece, sculptor Seamus Connolly, embarks on a process of total immersion in the subject’s life; from old photographs, books, video clips even items of clothing and so on. He will, quite simply, live and breathe the subject of the statue for the period of time that he is working on it, in order to get a real sense of the person. He wants to develop an understanding of them, in as much as is possible. From how they stood, moved and even talked. Often this kind of research will help inform him of how the armature (wire skeleton) needs to be posed.
The stage of actually modelling the clay, and getting the likeness of the portrait to a point that the sculptor is happy with can take many months indeed. In Seamus’ own words, a statue, in his eyes, is quite simply, ‘wrong until its right’.
A life size statue in its clay form is a sight to behold. The soft, porous surface of the clay is extremely skin like, and can take your breath away when you first stand before it.
Then begins the process of moulding the statue to get it ready for casting. They use the traditional, lost-wax, method of investment casting, which is a very traditional process, and Seamus has perfected it, over his many years. It is an extremely skilled job from beginning to end. Seamus also casts commercially for other artists and is helped in the foundry by long term friend and contemporary artist and sculptor of note, Adam Pomeroy.
