Male Torso Fountain

All items are handmade at the Little Red Day Spa’s very own workshop located in Seattle, WA.

“Male Torso Fountain”
Tufa concrete
36” x 10” x 10”
1999
Can be gallery mounted or set up as a fountain. 
$800

During 1999 and 2000 I had a brief period of doing some sculpture. I was also doing paintings at this time which featured fragments of figures to celebrate the beauty and power of the torso. Most of these paintings did not include heads or limbs, almost as though they were paintings of ancient ruins. Like this sculpture they did not look gruesome or macabre. 
 
It makes sense that I would have done sculptures at this time because they were sculptural paintings. This piece was cast from a mould made from a torso I sculpted in clay. For this particular piece I mixed the concrete with potting peat to create holes and cracks. This not only gave the piece an ancient look, it also meant that if I pumped water into it, the water would ooze out everywhere rather than coming out all in one place like a cut pipe. I only made a few versions of this including one that is not a fountain.
 
Mixing peat with concrete is called “tufa” and is used by architectural decorators to create aged concrete affects on architectural ornamentations. I have simply used it here to create a certain effect on my sculpture. The peat is easily washed out after the piece is unmolded.
 
Below is another cast from the same mold. This one is solid concrete that I “artfully” broke once it was out of the mold. I also painted the sculpture and mounted it on a steel post and concrete pedestal.