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Sutton Betti

Modern Classical Bronze Sculpture

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Blog

#27 inspiration and what causes it

September 10, 2012 By Sutton Betti

There are days when I get inspired and when I do I try to take note on three things: 1) what I ate for breakfast 2) did someone make me feel this way or did I just wake up inspired and 3) how long my inspiration lasts. What I conclude is that eating does make a difference, but it’s usually did I eat leafy greens such as kale, chard or spinach. I try to eat those everyday, because mostly when I do eat raw veggies I feel better. I sometimes have to force down some greens, but I have found if I make it an interesting salad with say sunflower seeds, cherry tomatoes, croutons, spinach, chard, dandelion root, pickle, cucumber, and a sesame garlic dressing with some olive oil and lemon juice than this gives me extra energy and mental sharpness. When I was younger, I suffered from cloudiness of thinking and lack of energy, but in the last two years I’d say I have gotten more and more energy which has spilled over into my creativity and therefore my art. I believe this change has been from my change in diet. This diet change was influenced by a man who I shall call “John”. I was fortunate enough to have gotten to know “John” through many wonderful dinners. I have learned a lot from John, not only in my art (as he is a well known and respected gallery owner, patron, and an all around expert in the business of sculpture), but also in my personal life-namely my choices in food. Through these many weekly dinners (and a few drinks) John cooked some incredible dishes. Food that I could only get from a 5 star restaurant was made right before my eyes. I took note and learned as much as I could, however, I don’t remember much of it-lol. What I do remember though is John spontaneously creating dishes. He never followed a cookbook but tried things out. I remember him saying to me he was testing out some dishes by having me over and he and I would laugh. Little did he know he was helping me get a taste for cooking. Although I am not near a good cook by any standards, I do prefer a grilled corn on the cob or grilled eggplant topped with cheese as opposed to spaghetti and … and macaroni and cheese. Most of my diet was that up until a few years ago. What is interesting for me to note is my art has blossomed tremendously in those three years, my mind is quieter from distracting thoughts and I have become a better person (at least in my opinion-ha). Ok, so that covers numero uno. Number two is did someone make me feel this way. The answer to that in it’s relation to my feeling inspired is usually yes it did contribute. There is no denying that a smile or a little recognition can make one feel good. I think if I woke up feeling inspired it might be short lived if there wasn’t someone to make it skyrocket. One of my newest and favorite things to do once a week is to visit a local coffee shop. It is not just any coffee shop, but one that was started by a well known sculptor’s husband. I am fortunate to know the sculptor and some of the family that runs the coffee shop. Just saying good morning and knowing that they remember my favorite coffee gives me an incredible amount of joy in my heart. How special they make me feel is beyond words and it’s these little things that make me realize the importance of kindness and smiles. It is the same when I make someone else feel good. If I can do that I will have positive energy throughout the day. and 3) how long my inspiration lasts. This is directly related to the foods that I eat (the fuel I put in my body) and the positive energy I receive or give (mostly in the morning hours). If I have done the first two things than my conclusion is I will be inspired 25% of the time and it will last all day long. Now this is the inspiration to come up with new ideas, set and meet or exceed daily goals. My conclusion is if I do this all of the time, than 75% of the time my day will be “good” to “so-so” days, but almost never bad days (btw, where did the word “so-so” come from? Sounds Japanese to me). If I’ve had a bad day than I probably didn’t eat well or someone pissed me off enough to make me go downhill. Now, it’s important that I get enough sleep so these studies only include when I get about 7 hours of sleep, which is what I tend to need to function.

Filed Under: Blog

#26 Joe Gomer Tuskegee Airman

September 9, 2012 By Sutton Betti

Sculpture of Joe Gomer Tuskegee Airman

I’m currently sculpting a life size monument honoring Joe Gomer Tuskegee Airman. The sculpture, when completed, will be cast in bronze and installed in the hometown of Mr. Gomer in Iowa Falls, Iowa. The sculpture is my first ever war statue and as such I’ve had to do a lot of research on clothing and gear that Mr. Gomer and the Tuskegee airman would have worn back in the 1940’s. Although much of my work incorporates lots of clothing, this one is no exception. I still have more work to do, but this is how he looks now.
Joe Gomer Tuskegee Airman

 

 

Filed Under: Blog

“Sculpture picked as winner of Broomfield’s Choice Award evokes joy” Broomfield Enterprise – July 26, 2012

July 26, 2012 By Sutton

Sculpture picked as winner of Broomfield's Choice Award evokes joy

Filed Under: Media

#25 Liddell-McIntosh Memorial

May 16, 2012 By Sutton Betti

Liddell-McIntosh Memorial. I visited Fairmount Cemetery yesterday following mother’s day and what would have been Jessica’s 26th birthday. Although I had a hard time photographing the piece with the harsh lighting I think it came out alright. The sculpture memorial is situated near one of the entrances to this large and beautiful cemetery located in Denver, Colorado.

Filed Under: Blog

#24 9″ clay reduction of Paganini

April 29, 2012 By Sutton Betti

Here is a demo I made yesterday showing the creation of a miniature version of Niccolo Paganini. The miniature sculpture is 9″ height and will be cast in bronze this year, 2012. In the video (which is sped up at 20x normal speed) I demonstrate the entire clay process which took me 6 hours to make.

Filed Under: Blog

#23 evaluating my processes and techniques

April 26, 2012 By Sutton Betti

For the past month I have been spending more time thinking about processes and techniques than I have been sculpting on my own works. There are bucket loads of ideas worming around in my little head and popping out when I least expect it; at night as soon as I hit the lights, on the toilet, when someone is talking to me. It is odd to most people, but I’m sure this is what all artists deal with-getting ideas out of nowhere. I do go through dry spells and I feel that it is natural, but I’m learning how to get out of them as they sometimes scare me: “what if I grow old and this is it, no more ideas” or “so this is what happened to Bernini when he got older”. I’m determined to never let that happen! It is a promise to the universe that I’ve made-I will always have new ideas for sculpture. Period. So rethinking my processes and techniques is only to better serve the ideas and get them out there. The areas that are in need of major adjustments for me are armature building and reference materials. I have found that if I have all of that at hand I can usually go through a piece relatively quicker and achieve a high quality sculpture. If I don’t have enough reference material or if I have questions I am tremendously slowed down and sometimes the sculpture will sit for way too long. Example: I started a sculpture over 10 years ago “Violinist” (not “Paganini”, this was way before that) and it still sits in a storage shed in California! When I see it, I get very sad! I wish there was time as I would like to destroy it. The problems I ran into on that are deeper than I could fix, I had used sulfur based clay (which inhibits rubber mold making), the rebar armature was when I was learning to weld and has weak welded joints and it was a poorly planned out sculpture where I didn’t make a small maquette first to work out bad angles, etc. 10 years later, I’ve made improvements in my sculpture (I don’t use sulfur clays, I’ve learned how to tig weld and I make small clay studies before starting large pieces). However, there are still areas to improve that would make sculpting go much quicker and give a better end result. I recognize that I would like to have a variety of small aluminum armatures handy and ready to position and add clay to. Having these would allow me to jump right in a piece if I feel inspired to do so. This leads me to the second improvement I want to make, having all necessary reference photos printed and organized by sculpture. I’ve created a folder in my filing cabinet called “New Sculpture” and have been looking through photos I’ve taken of models, of myself, in different poses from all angles that I will print and put in their like a waiting line at the liquor store on a Saturday night. The reference photos answer many questions for me as a sculptor and are very important to keeping the piece fresh and alive-at least in my minds eyes. These two things are key to me producing more sculptures and I hope to finalize my thoughts on this soon so I can get back to creating clay people and more interesting blog posts!

Filed Under: Blog

#22 The birth of desire

April 19, 2012 By Sutton Betti


When I was at the Academy of Art University one of my teachers, whom was a well respected artist as well as teacher, told his intermediate anatomy class that only 1% of us would make it as sculptors. This perked my ears up. It was meant to discourage I think, but got me curious about sculpture. I started researching what my teacher was creating artistically, his past works, education, etc which then introduced me to other sculptors works which led to me signing up for more sculpture classes. Essentially what this one statement did was challenge me and get me curious about a field that was apparently difficult to get into. This curiosity led to my passion which led to developing the necessary skills as a sculptor.  
When someone says something negative regarding generalizations one must look at why they would say such a thing and challenge it. If it is not proven challenge it, if it is proven challenge it anyways! You must always try to prove people wrong! Eventually you will find your passion and the people that support you no matter what; learn to embrace them and bring them into your life. Surround yourself with those that recognize your passions. The others respectfully discard and do not allow them to make choices for you! When you surround yourself with these supportive people you can begin to take the necessary criticism seriously as you begin to know them and they begin to know you. A general comment coming from a frustrated artist/teacher who maybe was rejected over a project is someone you cannot trust and you should not make decisions based off of someone who had a bad day!
As I got older I remembered what my teacher had told me, but it got me thinking more and more about sculpture. I became more and more curious about it, although I didn’t realize it I was training myself for becoming a sculptor. After sculpting a few pieces soon after college I decided to apply for a job as a halloween mask maker. To my surprise I was hired. I was fortunate to be hired by someone who was incredibly ambitious, very talented, managed a multi-million dollar halloween company CMN Enterprises and Illusive Concepts, and quite simply was an amazing and inspirational man-and he believed in me enough to hire me. His name was Mario Chiodo. Mario trained me with the tricks of sculpting in the halloween industry and eventually pulling me aside to work with him and his clients directly as he created a second sculpture business: life size sculptures for the Las Vegas Hotel industry which was booming in the late 90’s. Mario had me drawing and making small maquettes as designs for large sculptures for hotel lobbies and courtyards. This, in turn, led to me going to Italy (at Mario’s suggestion) which cemented my desire to become a sculptor. I have not looked back since!
I had a lot of support in the arts beginning when I was a young child, but there has always been challenges and for every person who supported me I was dealt a handful of rejections and doubts. This is simply how the universe works when making a decision: testing us and once we’ve passed the test, supporting us and eventually being tested all over again followed by support. My decision to ignore these people and their unsupportive statements and by bringing in the necessary support in my life as a young artist was telling the Universe “hey, I WANT to be a sculptor!!” And the Universe supported that once I learned to overcome the challenges and doubts. Although there are still challenges and doubts, now I look at them differently.

Filed Under: Blog

#21 Tennis Player Alberta Brianti Sculpture

April 10, 2012 By Sutton Betti

Sutton Betti.
Alberta Brianti clay for bronze, life size dimensions
Colorado, USA
Nearing completion on the clay sculpture of Alberta Brianti. The sculpture will be in a limited edition of 10 and cast in high quality silicon bronze. A small version of the sculpture (quarter scale) will be available in a limited edition and also cast in bronze. I’m planning on having the quarter scale piece and the life size plaster at the 2012 Loveland Sculpture Invitational.

Filed Under: Blog, tennis player sculpture

#20 Memorial for Jessica Liddell-McIntosh

March 30, 2012 By Sutton Betti

Jessica Liddell-McIntosh (1986-2009)
Installation day for the memorial of Jessica Liddell-McIntosh. The project was installed at Fairmount Cemetery in Denver, Colorado on Thursday, March 29, 2012 and is my second permanent installation in Colorado. Although there is no figurative elements in the piece, I enjoyed making it as this is something quite unique from my past work. Commissioned by Jessica’s mother, the memorial is designed to show the young woman’s love of snowboarding. Being a snowboarder myself I was able to understand her daughters love of the sport. Today was a day, I felt, of closure to her daughters death. Emotions were expressed and love was shared. RIP Jessica Liddell-McIntosh. Photos of the finished installation in a few weeks.

Filed Under: Blog

#19 Niccolo Paganini-Bronze Sculpture

March 27, 2012 By Sutton Betti

Niccolo Paganini, bronze, 66 inches height ©2011 Sutton Betti Sculptures
Niccolo Paganini (1782-1840)
 
“Paganini was called “The Devil’s Son” and “Witch’s Brat” for his demonic and amazing violin virtuosity!  Audiences thought Paganini made a pact with the devil to be able to perform supernatural displays of technique!” 
-wasn’t that what they thought about the famous blues guitarist Robert Johnson? Jimi Hendrix?? and how about the Charlie Daniels Band and their song “Devil went down to Georgia”, Steve Vai and Ralph Macchio in the movie Crossroads? Well, Paganini was negotiating with the devil before there ever was a Robert Johnson. And he deserves a little credit for doing so.
 
I made this sculpture because of my love of Paganini’s music and his virtuoso playing skills as I am a former guitar player-although very amateurish. I listen to Paganini’s music 200 years after it was created and imagine his world. Imagining what it would have been like to hear him play live. He was the first virtuoso, before Eddie Van Halen and was doing it when no one else was. Of course, Eddie popularized a new way of playing an instrument (finger tapping, harmonics, etc.), but he didn’t invent it, he just did it in such a way that it become his signature. Paganini invented a whole new way of thinking of the instrument before anyone else did.
 
“Paganini single-handedly changed the course of music by inventing the cult of the performer. Before him, even the most talented, charismatic and successful musicians were at best respected, lived merely comfortably and were quickly forgotten upon their retirement or demise. Paganini, though, was worshipped hysterically, rewarded with fabulous wealth and still is remembered in awe. With Paganini, the performer became a superstar. Indeed, although he had no pupils and few successors, the line that began with Paganini extends through every musical idol of our time.” –
-http://www.classicalnotes.net/classics/paganini.html

Filed Under: Blog, Niccolo Paganini statue

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