Sculptures (bonus points for music related)

[madx2]

I am lucky and fortunate to know a most gifted artist named Don Wiegand. 
There is a St. Louis institution--bar/restaurant/music venue named Blueberry Hill.  For years, Chuck Berry has had a standing, monthly gig in The Duck Room there.  The owner, Joe Edwards wanted to honor Mr Berry on his 85th birthday.   My friend was contacted to do a piece and this is the result.  It is on display at Blueberry Hill under one of Chucks Gibsons.



It is a "life cast" of Mr. Berry's hands (in plaster) playing a Gibson Sonex.   (No guitar was harmed in the making of this piece.)  It looks like you will have to scroll right to see it all.

Don is a remarkable person.  He has opened his home/studio over 100 times for non-profit organizations to hold their fund raisers there...at no cost to them.  He has met presidents, the Pope,  actors and other many other famous people but he is the most down-to-earth, humble person I know.  I have known him for 40 years and he has "the gang" over once a month to play music at his house.


Here is a link to a recent story the local NBC affiliate did on Don.  You will have to watch a short commercial before it plays...sorry about that.

http://www.ksdk.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=299763

Please check out the Wiegand Foundation that he set up.  It does good stuff for the community.

http://www.thewiegandfoundationinc.com/

I hope I didn't go on too much about my friend.

 

[Steve]

I hope I didn't go on too much about my friend.

Nonsense; dude's made good!

[BigSkyTaylorPlayer]

Fantastic!!

[not darth]

That's incredible work! 
I love the motion that is implied, it looks like the hand is in mid-strum.  Brilliant!
Another great detail is the weathering of the hands, I'm certain that was very hard to carry over that well, goes great with the road worn headstock.  All in all a very 'composed' piece! 
 
-K

[madx2]

not darth said:  "Another great detail is the weathering of the hands"... I think I need to explain how the sculpture was done.

Don had a 5 gallon bucket that Mr. Berry placed his right hand in while holding a pick.  It was filled with alginate (the material a dentist uses to make a dental impression).  When it set up (about 10 minutes) he gently pulled his hand out, leaving the pick.  Plaster of Paris was poured in the cavity.  When it set up, the alginate was gently removed, revealing an exact copy of the hand holding the pick.

For the left hand, Don made a wax copy of the middle of the guitar neck.  Mr Berry "played" a chord and the same process was done in the 5 gallon bucket.  So these hands, every wrinkle, vein, callous and pore are Chuck's.

A wire armature was made to suspend the hands and guitar neck giving the illusion of floating in mid-air.  The guitar strings are brazing wire!  I am not sure if they are bronze or brass but they would definately be classified as "heavy".

The restaraunt owner contacted Jimmie at Killer Vintage Guitars in St. Louis asking if he had a Gibson neck laying around.  Apparently most Gibson guitars don't have a bolt on neck but the Sonex 180 did.  Turns out this neck was all that remained of a guitar Jimmie owned when he was 16. He was very proud to see his old axe in the finished product.

[michaelw]

very cool 

thanks for sharing, madx2
really great stuff

[madx2]

Blueberry Hill is a major concert venue and there is talk of Don possibly doing a  "Legends of Rock" series.  The artists will come to his studio when they are in town! 

If it happens I will keep everyone updated. 

[not darth]

Don had a 5 gallon bucket that Mr. Berry placed his right hand in while holding a pick.  It was filled with alginate (the material a dentist uses to make a dental impression).  When it set up (about 10 minutes) he gently pulled his hand out, leaving the pick.  Plaster of Paris was poured in the cavity.  When it set up, the alginate was gently removed, revealing an exact copy of the hand holding the pick.

Very cool, that's kinda what I thought.  It's a common process, but it's tricky and it takes a lot of care and experience (and timing and luck) to get a great mold with such definition and to have that detail come through in the final product.  The Mythbusters use alginate all the time to make molds of hands/etc and you may notice that their molded products come out looking lumpy and cartoonish.  It's an art in itself. 
-K

[madx2]

My artist friend, Don, called "the gang" up last week and said to come by on the 8th with our instruments.  He was casting the hands of a very good player named Carl Jackson.  The name didn't register with me so a Google search revealed he toured with Jim and Jesse, played in the Glen Campbell band, played with Earl Scruggs, Emmylou, Dolly Parton....on and on.  He is also a 2 time Grammy winner for CD production.  What an under-achiever!   When the cast of his hands is done I will post a picture here.


We picked (mostly it was us watching with our jaws in the dropped position) until 1 am.  We are by no means professional quality but Carl was most gracious and humble and didn't roll his eyes once.  Something that made it even more special was that Carl's father accompanied him on the guitar (Carl's 1957 Martin D28) when he played the banjo. 
Don has a sculpture of Mark Twain at the museum in Hannibal.  Here is a link to the project that brought Don and Carl together. As you will see, there are some big name people on this cd.

http://www.marktwainmuseum.org/index.php/community-projects/mark-twain-cd

One last thing, here is a link to Carl and Emmylou performing "Boulder to Birmingham" in '92.  Man, she's beautiful.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NvTmkqkERz4

[madx2]

Since we just lost Chuck Berry (and no one started a thread about it) I thought I would "bump" this to the top of the list.

I hope I didn't break any forum rules by doing it.

[TaylorGirl]

Since we just lost Chuck Berry (and no one started a thread about it) I thought I would "bump" this to the top of the list.

I hope I didn't break any forum rules by doing it.

No rules broken. Appropriate in the circumstances, thank you.
RIP Chuck Berry.