The Final Details

The final pose for the sculpture

Sculptor Bridgette Mongeon and
Dr. Blackburn pray over the project. 

I leave Dallas with a pose, an agreement and an extremely tight deadline.

A Chair?

While at Dallas Baptist University, we took a walk and looked at the art, as well as the placement of the  proposed sculpture.  Then we began to brainstorm about a pose.  At first Dr. Blackburn was posing, but it was understood that the sculpture was to be of a younger man, so I encouraged Dr. Blackburn's assistant, Shannen to step into the creative process.

Finalizing a pose and obtaining photographic reference is a huge part of the process. For those artists reading this blog, the rule of thumb is— you can never have enough photographs as reference.  We still had not settled on the chair, and as mentioned in a previous post, to expedite the process and make the deadline, I intended on finding a chair in Houston and taking it apart for mold making.

Then I was introduced to Dr. Cook's chair.

It is safe to say that I became emotionally involved with this chair.  More on that later.

The meeting

It is a whirlwind of a day.  The idea of this entire piece started from a sculpture that was seen elsewhere. Dallas Baptist University wanted to have a man praying to represent Dr. Gary Cook's investment into praying for the campus and the students. They wanted a sculpture that would demonstrate the passion and importance of interceding and seeking God for direction.

The original poses started our creative process.  

I came with a few ideas. The sculpture could not look like any others. It had to be an original design.  I had hoped that my investment into the processes would help us to get our creative juices going and finalize a design quickly while visiting DBU.  One thing was for sure, with such a short time to create this piece we had to move fast in every aspect of this job, including the design process.

The proposed sculpture had a traditional chair. Using a chair that I could find at a store and then make a mold of to cast in bronze would help me to make this almost impossible deadline of the first week in April.  That entire concept of using a store bought chair would change. As you read on you will see what I mean.


FOR ART STUDENTS
If you are interested in learning how I create my sketches for presentation I have several blog articles about this elsewhere.  They are created digitally using several different computer programs.  Here are some links

Presentation for a Park 
The completion of a project 

The Beginning

The beautiful campus of Dallas Baptist University

Things are already moving fast.  Within just a couple of weeks of talking to Dallas Baptist University about the possibility of creating a sculpture of a praying man, I'm headed to Dallas to meet Shannen Smith and Dr. Blackburn.

Usually a life size sculpture of this size would take an artist about 3 months to sculpt and an additional 3 months in the foundry- at a minimum. I have one month to sculpt and three months at the foundry.

When Shannen from DBU first called me about sculpting a praying man I was reminded about a desire that I had many, many years ago.  When I first began sculpting I had a vision of creating a series of bronze sculptures of praying people and having them set within public places. I envisioned a man in a suit kneeling next to his brief case, a housekeeper kneeling, a student on the way to school and others.     Prayer has always been important to me.  I felt that the series would remind others to pray.  I had that vision nearly 30 years ago.  I figured if that sculpture series  happened it would have to happen through a client. You see bronzes are so expensive to create. After so many years, I had almost forgotten about that vision, until this phone call.  When I received a call from DBU, there was a part of my heart that leapt at the fulfillment of a portion of this old creative vision.

Prayers

I am especially excited about this project because, Through the years my life has been full of prayer, and I have had a burden of intercessory prayer for others.  I think it is something I inherited from my mother, if you ascribe to the idea that you can inherit spiritual gifts. I do know there has been generations of faithful Christian women, and I'm immensely pleased to be a part of that inheritance.

The God's word series http://www.godsword.net

• Over the years, many have said that my talent for sculpting is a "God given gift."  That is a huge responsibility.   I pray often for that gift and guidance.
• Throughout my career, I have done several sculptures of people praying.  Years ago I had a garden sculpture line and created two sculptures of children praying. One was of a little girl, and the other is this one of a little boy praying and peeking up at God
• One of the first pieces in my God's Word Collectibles line was of two girls praying with the scripture James 5:15 "Pray One For Another." Each sculpture in the series comes with a letter from me saying why this scripture is important in my life. 

Pray one for another...


Confess your faults one to another; 
and pray one for another; 
that ye may be healed. 
The effectual and fervent prayer 
of a righteous man availeth much. 
James 5:16

The praying boy was a part of my life size
garden sculpture series that I created
years ago.

The Card Inside

Pray one for another

Some give simple trinkets to show how much they care,

but the greatest gift we give a friend are simple little prayers.

Spending time before the Lord to petition for a need, 

or crying to our loving God to simply plant a seed. 

Praying for a healing, coming to the throne again,

or praying for a tired soul when hope has all but waned.

Thank you for agreement, “for wherever two or more...”

Through you, and this I now do know 

what friends are put here for.

I can never quite thank you for being there for me, 

lifting up my life to God as you intercede

It’s important that we realize just how much we care

with this special gift given silently in prayer. 

Bridgette Mongeon © 1997 

OTHER INFORMATION- Generations of Christian women...For the last years of my mom's life I asked her if she would agree to pray with me on a regular basis for the talents that I possess and so that I might know how to  use  them to the best of my ability. She agreed and we prayed, and through that special prayer time many things happened. I grew closer to my mom. She loved the regular meetings and began to depend on them.  Then I asked mom if she would like to podcast. A woman who had a strong ministry but was homebound from her age and illnesses was now blessing people in ways that she could not even imagine.  Mom passed away in 2009. We had even podcasted about the possibility of her death and dying. If you are interested in hearing more about mom's ministry and the Generations podcast where three generations of Christian women shared their thoughts about different issues and aspects of life check out the host bio page or the 5 years of podcasts. 

Welcome

The artist talking with her
clay creation Richard Hathaway
made into bronze and sitting
at the Vermont College Campus. 

Welcome to the project blog for the Dallas Baptist University sculpture of the praying man.  As a writer and a perpetual documenter, I love to create these project blogs for clients.  I do this for several reasons:

• It is a way for my clients and their friends to watch the progress of a sculpture, to see the entire process and marvel. It is as if the client and their friends are in my studio watching over my shoulder.
• Someone recently asked me to describe myself.  I said, "I'm passionate, creative and highly motivated. I have a strong spiritual side, and my driving force, which is almost an obsession is not just to get to my goal and destination, but to see how many people I can help along the way."  This means if I learn a life lesson, or I find tools that will help me with my craft I must share them. In light of that, if you are an artist, you will find lots of information here, and even tutorials that will further help your exploration into your own creative processes.
• I am both a writer and a sculptor and the two parts of me fight for my attention. This is a way for me to entertain them both and make them friends.
• I find my memory is not that great, so on a humorous note, I'm often Goggling myself and what I know to remember what it is I shared.  This way I can find that special vendor, or step by step process that otherwise would get lost in the recesses of my brain.

I hope you enjoy the project blog. I look forward to your comments.