The Story of Bob, by Max, in two parts, wood and bronze. In a Facebook posting this morning. There will be two pictures. one in wood, one in bronze.
The Chapter of Wood. By Max Vasilatos:
A long long time ago …, I had carved a face out of light poplar, named it “Bob, a white guy”, and I gave it to Arnold Zwicky. Around that time, I carved a few wood faces, mostly in the pendant sized range, some even given loops and chains.
Bob stares at us seriously, coming vividly out of the wood. Here he is on one of my curiosity shelves, as described in my 8/9/16 posting “The old curosity shelf” (the neighborhood has shifted over time, as neighborhoods will, but Bob is still in this spot).
two shelves (from a set of five) in the main room of my Ramona St. house. A somewhat dark photo (from Kim Darnell’s phone), but it will give you the idea:
(#1)
— on the second shelf, from the left: [my man Jacques]’s Inuit carving of a seal, bought in New Brunswick years ago
— a patterned Chinese chopstick box in the back
— then in a box, at the back, a wood carving of “Bob, a white guy 1997” by Max Vasilatos
— in front of it, [an] EDZ glass-tube construction and a jade elephant from China (there’s also a jade turtle, but you can’t see it from here)
— then in the back, a lacquer bowl with a different EDZ glass construction
— in front of it, a small silver dachshund and a Scott Nelles cast-bronze duck paperweight that [Jacques] loved …
— finally, Rainbow Bear, a stuffed teddy bear in a rainbow sweater, with a lot of Mardi Gras beads around its neck (party on, bear boy!)
The Chapter of Bronze. From Max:
More recently, I’ve taken to making molds of the faces I have, and casting them over at the shop where I learn about lost wax casting.
(#2) Bob, in a bronze made from copper and silicon
The original smoothly wooden Bob has been replaced by a pitted, lined ancient relic Bob!
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