FREEDOM (new piece!)

FREEDOM

She is freedom. What used to be a recurring theme in my miniature polymer clay statues has become an allegory. Freedom is here, her position with arms outstretched to her sides and head tilted far back is a bearing of her soul and not concealing it. The butterflies are also hand made by me and they symbolize ascension from restrictions. The butterfly after its struggle emerges from its cocoon or restricted habitat to become a being that soars thought the skies, that is why butterflies surround her, to further drive the message home that SHE IS FREEDOM unrestricted.

This piece is pleasing visually because of its high amount of surface texture contrast, and information which is something I have always had difficulty creating. I did it by spray painting the figure with a matte spray paint very lightly which created a stone-like surface with lots of tiny bumps all over it, this sucked up the gold paint like a sponge and distributed it evenly. This texture remains and is contrasted by the horizontal brush strokes on her dress which are very smooth and sleek. In life perhaps more than my pictures here there is a definite separation between her clothes’ smooth texture and her skins pebbly roughness. The dress’ color itself was built up over a period of time, it was originally beige-white, then blue and white, then sky blue streaks, and then painted in a gold finish which was too much like the skin, so brown paint was mixed with bronze paint which has soluble metals in it over the top. Finally it was washed over with a clean wet brush to allow some of the original blue to shine through, the effect is an astounding, amazing blend of metallics. Her hair is the third texture in the piece, the twisted coils of hair from behind are quite impressive, it took a long time to fasten each one on beginning from the nape of the neck going all the way to the front of the forehead, the effort was well worth it.