Upright Carry (2019)

A few years ago at our gym, there was a special seminar for pregnant athletes doing CrossFit. They were taught how to train and coach safely during pregnancy and after delivery. Well, they trained well into late stages of pregnancy with modifications to movement and intensity and we cheered them on. After delivery, their training resumed, albeit very limited at first but as time passed, they regained their capabilities and before you knew it they were back better than ever.

I watched this process with interest as I knew a sculpture of a pregnant athlete would be very special. I always regretted not making a sculpture of my wife while she was pregnant; alas, I wasn’t active in art at the time. But when the top female athlete of our gym was 8 months pregnant I knew I couldn’t miss the chance.

When I sat down with Sacha to hear some of her story I got the full discourse on what it takes to be a high level competitive athlete. It wasn’t just the volume of training that surprised me but how much of her life had to be planned and organized towards a singular goal. Every workout programmed, every meal planned, protein weighed, gym clothes at the ready twice a day. A decade of her life like that; oh yeah plus a partner and a day job, no, a career to manage.

Then, there was the defined musculature that she walked around with. If she went out with a tank top; the stares were one thing but perfect strangers would walk up to touch her triceps or abs. To this day, a strong woman is still a visual anomaly and treated differently.

The pose we started with was a lunge with a weighted ball overhead. Something about the ball and the belly together looked symbolically interesting. I made a small model but abandoned it because I didn’t like the scale of it. I wanted to continue to go larger and more impressive in scale.

I as I had suspected, this really was a special project. I felt connected to a miraculous moment through this artwork. I also noticed something different about Sacha, while all my other models took a very serious focused facial expression while posing, Sacha had a calm relaxed smile the whole time. I observed a pure lack of self-consciousness and her being in the moment.

I modified the pose so that it would only from around the belly button up and planned it for 23″ tall. I was nearly done modelling before the COVID pandemic broke out and I took a 5 month sculpting hiatus as my sculpture studio closed. I took the time at home to make Origami and finished Turbulent Journey during that time.

When things opened up again in the fall, I went back to the studio eager to quickly finish the sculpture and start mold-making but all the details, face, hands, hair… I spent an extra two weeks finishing up the sculpture.

This was going to be the biggest mold I had ever made and I decided to go for a single mold instead of molding it in pieces. I also wanted a higher quality mold with better registration so the parting line wouldn’t be as visible. I think a simple mold would have taken about 8 sessions at the studio, this one took about 15. The extra steps were required to have full control of the parting line in the silicone – this is where the two halves open up, where leaks happen, misalignment occurs and I wanted to eliminate those problems as much as possible. I show few images below, I didn’t catch every step but hopefully it provides an idea of the process.

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I made a test casting in HydroCal (plaster) and then a second in Hydrostone, a much harder gypsum cement. I was pleased with the casting which required only very minor repairs. After casting of course, was the surface finishing to get the rusted iron look. Maybe more on that later. Next will be a resin/iron casting and then who knows, I’m thinking a wax casting for… BRONZE?! Let’s see 🙂

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