In line with the quote, “art is never finished, only abandoned,” by Leonardo da Vinci, I’ve begun to develop a different side of the sculpture “Patience is a Virtue”. I hope to bring something new to the work and, of course, improve it the best I can… for every day we live, we see things anew and therefore have more to bring to our art. The individual wolf that inspired the piece – Yellowstone’s famous “’06 Female” of the Lamar Canyon Pack- was originally depicted in a pose taken while waiting for a grizzly bear to leave her kill; I wanted to develop the hunter/provider side of this pose a bit more. I’m reaching for deeper meaning in the piece… not just making another/smaller wolf.

Shown above and left, is the finished bronze (14″ tall version) in her ‘waiting’ pose. I have begun a smaller (8″ tall) version (three images above and right) where I am trying to improve upon the overall design and pull in a slightly different facet of her inner landscape. Above all, this wolf was a skilled hunter, a provider for her family – and often made kills by herself. Through small adjustments (shown & enumerated below) the goal is to transition the piece out of a ‘patient, persistent’ feel to one of potential energy – poised, ready at any moment to draw her laser-like sights on her prey. All the notes and numbers are visual representations of a few of my thoughts on the issue. To read about each of these, you may wish to read the text below.

Notes on design issues and adjustments to the model of “Patience…”:

Above are my initial efforts to reproduce, then modify the original design of “Patience…”. Of particular interest in getting things close to the original design, I had to get the angle of the front legs (#7) into a >90 degree angle in order to convince you that she could step forward rather than stay put. If she was bent too far forward – denoted by the difference in the height of the back versus the nose (#4), she would look to be cowering, rather than powerful and attentive. To add to the forward tension, I removed the ‘ground’ in front of her front feet (#2) to create more negative space, but then tried to ‘root’ her to that seat by adding to the base in the area of #1. Bringing the tail back, instead of leaving it wrapped around the hind leg, also helps to offset the enlarged, negative space in #2. If the line from the back to the tail (#3) were straighter, than curved, it might convey more of a lightning rod effect of high tension throughout her whole body – I don’t want to much of this… not at this stage anyway. Orchestrating the negative spaces, their size and locations can greatly influence the ‘gravity’ of the piece, so, #s 8 & 6, are important to work with in an effort to create the right sense of ‘grounding’ and ‘weightlessness’ – a yin & yang, of sorts, that is unique to the expression of this particular piece. Similarly, I wanted to put a base on this piece beneath the plinth or earth below the animal. In the image on the right, there is too much of this base for the size of the wolf – SO, I reduced it in height by ~1/2″ (#9) so that she didn’t look to be balanced on a tuffet, rather, it needs to convey a rooted feel, one of being tied to the earth, linked or emerging from the elements… This is how far I’ve gotten at this point anyway. More to come later…