Description
Natural Body
Ceramic Sculpture by Richard Siegel – Surrealism
This work started with a body torso created blindfolded. Once the base was done application of various fruits, bugs, animals and other things were applied painted with Spanish “engobe” colors and finally glazed with a clear enamel.
This is a one off item, there are no others like it in the world. It is not an industrial piece made for mass manufacture. It is an ORIGINAL WORK OF ART.
The base sculpture was created blind folded and is that of a woman’s torso. If you look hard, because the pictures do not show everything, you can see the underlying torso. The over sized breasts are where the bees and lady bugs are. You can see an arm with a watch and hand reaching under, caressing the buttocks.
There are some 45 works attached to this base torso. Each of them individually hand crafted and carefully attached to the main torso.
- 15 Lady Bugs
- 11 Bees
- 1 Praying Mantis
- 7 Various Flowers
- 1 Clock
- 1 Scorpion
- 1 Banana
- 3 Strawberry’s
- 1 Bunch of Grapes
- 1 Centipede
- 1 Cobra
- 1 Green Snake
- 1 Grasshopper
- 1 Whale
- 1 arm with watch and hand.
- Various leaves and vines
Each of these works were created and attached to the main torso through a painstaking process using red clay. Many hours are spent in the creation of such a work. Once all the various objects were attached the whole work must dry. It must dry without cracks or fissures since that might cause the whole piece to explode in the oven. So once it is dry and everything checks out it is placed in an oven at 980 degrees Centigrade for 24 hours.
It comes out of the oven and everything must be checked again and the whole work washed in water to remove dust and anything that might have fallen on it. If all is okay I can begin to add the colors.
Since this work has so many parts to it care must be given as to how, when and where to apply the colors so that it works. First comes a base coat. This work, because it is red clay, takes me several weeks to apply two base coats. Each base coat requires 24 hours to dry. This would help make the colors pop out and keep the red clay color from changing the tones I wanted. The base will take 24 hours to dry.
Then I can start to apply the various “engobe” colors. The underlying torso was colored first and once again a day to dry and clean off any color that may have spread.
Each one of those colors takes 24 hours to dry. Each of the different works had to be worked on individually. This helps in keeping the colors consistent on similar objects, like the bees and the lady bugs, while allowing blends and such to the various flowers. The flowers were fun to make and fun to paint. If you look at the various bugs and fruits you can see each was treated with care to make them work together. The centipede and the crowning mantis great examples.
The work shows many techniques used to make a myriad color variations from pure to total blends and bleeds. It took several weeks to get each dot and leg colored. It was now ready to pass through the oven again. Cooked at 980 degrees Centigrade for another 24 hours.
Once it comes out of the oven and cools for 24 hours I can apply the clear enamel and let that dry for a day. It can then be put it in the oven again. It took more than 4 months to complete
Dimensions of Work:
24cm x 25cm (9″ x 9.5″)
x 23cm height (9.”)
3.6kg Weight
Materials:
Red Clay
Variety of “engobe” colors
Clear lacquer
Signed “Rick” dated (2016) This item will come with a letter of authenticity from the artist.
About the artist:
Richard Siegel was born and raised in Chicago. He was a star student at the Art Institute of Chicago in the mid 1960’s. His works have been featured in art shows by the famous Willoughby Sharp. You can read more about him using search engines.
This work passed 3 times into an oven, each time 24 hours at 980 degrees centigrade.
Insurance is mandatory and included in the shipping price. This is a large and heavy piece of about 8 pounds!
This sculpture took more than 30 work hours to create. That is not the time waiting for drying or oven time. If the time were paid at slave wages it should at least get me $300. That is not considering the actual costs of clay, colors, brushes, oven costs, etc. When I go to Lladro porcelain one can buy great art in porcelain. But it is not original art, they are merely copies made from molds. I have been to their workshops and they have great artists there. I learned a lot from them.
I bring you 10 years of study in the heart of Spanish ceramics. All these techniques, from the 18th century to present are tools I use and add to the creativity of an American artist creating these ceramic works.
