Sunday, 29 March 2009

Ararat


Yet another association

Top view:



The weather was much better today


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Saturday, 28 March 2009

Ceci n'est pas un bateau

Today I went to see the Noah's Ark replica in Drachten




The rain was pouring - as if the flooding was about to begin - but not really favourable for telephoto pictures.



It is really a pity that this model is not really operational , like the Batavia for instance.
It reminded me of mythbusters, but then this whole project was set up to bust darwinism and to prove that Genesis is not a myth.

Two years ago I read Frank Westerman's Ararat - an account of his pilgrimage to Mt. Ararat and at the same time an exploration of his lost faith, the clash between religion and science and a quest for The Ark Itself.

I too am fascinated by the metaphysical character of the Ark and the flood.
But here was no room for any myth. And so I could not help wondering where Noah had kept the termites...
Or how eight people could ever dispose of that much manure, on a daily basis.

And then there was that lady, who agreed with me that the giraffe was at least twice the normal size. Were giraffes bigger in those days, she wondered.

The Armenian student and his family, proud of his - their Mount Ararat, where satelites had spotted the remains of the Ark.

Me - connecting everything with anything - supposing myself to be the only atheist present, ever sceptical.

C'était un bateau ivre

English translation of Ararat by Frank Westerman



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Thursday, 19 March 2009

Hard as stone...



I am still struggling with the piece of tropical hardwood that is going to be the stand. It is really hard to handle and difficult to carve. Its grain is interlocked and splinters feel really poisonous.

I want it to be like a tree trunk and I want it at the same time to be like the nave of a wheel - with broken off spokes.
The idea came to me on seeing a picture of the driving wheels from GWR King Edward II at Didcot.

More about GWR 6023 King Edward II



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Thursday, 12 March 2009

Meganeura completed today

L 53cm W118cm
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Future work?


This photo fragment could be the model for a bust.
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Tuesday, 10 March 2009

Ten years on



Meganeura - the giant dragonfly. Started in 1999 - willow, turned on a lathe, carved head. Wings from chickenwire. Never really completed and therefore without legs and cervi. It did need some reconditioning and so I added at last those legs from old metal wire. The cervi have been added as well.


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Cervi made from hanging folder metal strip



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green man


With horns from cuckoo-clock weights.
Work has started on what is to be a treetrunk-like stand
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Sunday, 8 March 2009

Face du jour


Tree weaving spools form one mask
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Saturday, 7 March 2009

Adze


Adze in the making. Sawn from a freshly-cut laurel branch. Blade from a rather ancient Nooitgedagt plane iron.
[To be continued]
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