#25: building big ben: heading for the foundry

When my colleagues left, Ben perfect, Ian perfect, I installed the tack and called Marcus at Artcast. He was to arrive the next day to take the wax master to the foundry. What to do with the free day?

Here's what I did:

I took some hours, put up a big theatrical backdrop that I had around, put the camera on a tripod, and started taking pictures. I figured that it wouldn't hurt to hack together some propaganda, like a politician in front of a new stadium, taking credit for the whole thing. We know that this was a cooperative project. A picture is worth a thousand words, some of them true.

Marcus arrived in an amazingly small van. This wax master was 12 feet long, huge, with great bulk. I wasn't really around for the cutup. Marcus wielded his Japanese saw, its fine blade slicing through wax, styro and plywood with some ease. I don't think he was here more than 40 minutes. All that work was cut into pieces and hauled away. Yikes, I'm glad I didn't see that.

A few weeks after my studio was cleared, I was asked to make a visit to the foundry. Somebody was making a video. 

It turned out to be Spruce Meadows, a Calgary equestrian centre, known to anybody who has ever shovelled out a horse stall. I guess this video has gone out around the world. 

Horse People are not fooled, though. This whole gig was about an amazing horse, not about sculptors.

I never heard from Spruce Meadows again. I wouldn't have missed a moment of this whole adventure, including the unveiling, coming up in the last instalment.