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Winged Victory

There are a few sculpture designs that sculptors like to put their own spin on such as Leda and the Swan, Three Graces and Winged Victory. Winged Victory has the head  broken off yet is one of the most famous sculptures of all time. I like to set myself up for serendipity if the art Gods want to give me a hand. 

At any rate I cast this piece very early in my exploration of working with polystyrene. Foam is extremely hard to control in the casting process. Essentially you make your pattern which is easy and then you bury it in dry loose sand like hour glass sand and pour molten metal on top of the foam. The metal burns out the foam and you are left with something in the space where the foam was. 

You always get some thing, but if you want to duplicate the pattern that is very hard to do. There are about 50 reasons why it does not work which took me about 300 tries to get some idea of what they were and how to control them. I believe that failure is my friend. I learn best when something fails if I can determine why it failed. As you pour the metal into the sand it disrupts the edge between sand and foam and you get gobbelte gook. How to get past this? Big long story for another time. So when I dug the piece out of the sand I was really disappointed. As I tried to understand what had happened I started to realize I had been given a gift by the foundry gods. The design actually was improved. Ta Da! Of course my interpretation of improved is debatable. My definition is does it tell some kind of a story and to me it does.

I see Winged Victory as a gift from a race of extinct people on another planet that Flash Gordon and I brought back from one of our dream time adventures. Another lesson I learned was a solid chunk of bronze is extremely heavy so I switched to aluminum so I could mail it easier. This piece is so heavy that it never got legs on it like a lot of my work did over the years in my little mountain of art display in my yard. Another reason is the surface is not friendly to bare hands. You need to use work gloves to handle it. I did not want to grind it which would loose a lot of the character. It was not made to be smooth. It likes to live outside which gives it the green patina ancient look.

If this sculpture interests you there is much more on this site. Go to the upper right top and enter "Arfsten sculpture" in the search box to see many styles and themes of my work.
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Winged Victory Sculpture

Richard Arfsten

United States

Sculpture, Bronze on Bronze

Size: 8 W x 17 H x 7 D in

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About The Artwork

Winged Victory There are a few sculpture designs that sculptors like to put their own spin on such as Leda and the Swan, Three Graces and Winged Victory. Winged Victory has the head broken off yet is one of the most famous sculptures of all time. I like to set myself up for serendipity if the art Gods want to give me a hand. At any rate I cast this piece very early in my exploration of working with polystyrene. Foam is extremely hard to control in the casting process. Essentially you make your pattern which is easy and then you bury it in dry loose sand like hour glass sand and pour molten metal on top of the foam. The metal burns out the foam and you are left with something in the space where the foam was. You always get some thing, but if you want to duplicate the pattern that is very hard to do. There are about 50 reasons why it does not work which took me about 300 tries to get some idea of what they were and how to control them. I believe that failure is my friend. I learn best when something fails if I can determine why it failed. As you pour the metal into the sand it disrupts the edge between sand and foam and you get gobbelte gook. How to get past this? Big long story for another time. So when I dug the piece out of the sand I was really disappointed. As I tried to understand what had happened I started to realize I had been given a gift by the foundry gods. The design actually was improved. Ta Da! Of course my interpretation of improved is debatable. My definition is does it tell some kind of a story and to me it does. I see Winged Victory as a gift from a race of extinct people on another planet that Flash Gordon and I brought back from one of our dream time adventures. Another lesson I learned was a solid chunk of bronze is extremely heavy so I switched to aluminum so I could mail it easier. This piece is so heavy that it never got legs on it like a lot of my work did over the years in my little mountain of art display in my yard. Another reason is the surface is not friendly to bare hands. You need to use work gloves to handle it. I did not want to grind it which would loose a lot of the character. It was not made to be smooth. It likes to live outside which gives it the green patina ancient look. If this sculpture interests you there is much more on this site. Go to the upper right top and enter "Arfsten sculpture" in the search box to see many styles and themes of my work.

Details & Dimensions

Sculpture:Bronze on Bronze

Original:One-of-a-kind Artwork

Size:8 W x 17 H x 7 D in

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I have an ambitious approach to life ... and to art ... make something happen every day ... but most of all have fun doing it! A sculptor first, and now working in 2D, I do my best to do just that. Presented here are examples of some of my work. •• My sculpture runs the gamut from abstract, to figurative, to architectural. The materials and methods used are diverse ... from figures modeled in clay or wax, then cast in pewter or bronze ... to aluminum maquettes (produced by evaporative pattern casting) which serve as the 3D blueprints for the pieces that are enlarged and fabricated from sheet metal of all kinds. •• My 2D pieces range from abstract to figurative. You’ll find Originals done in oils or acrylic, one-of-a-kind monotypes, collages, mixed media paintings, and more ... I love working in all mediums. Some of my 2D work may be available as reproductions on this site. ••• MY FASCINATION WITH SCIENCE FICTION & MAKE BELIEVE - When I was in second grade, television was new and the hottest thing. The "Adventures of Flash Gordon" was my favorite program. There was only one kid in the neighborhood who had a TV. We, all the kids, gathered at his house for every episode. I was a huge fan of the characters. Flash was cool and my hero. Dale Arden was OK but Princess Aura was way cooler because she was naughty. Ming The Mercilous was very interesting. But Dr. Zarkov and his super duper telescope - that could see into time forwards and backwards, far and near - was the star of the show for me. The spaceship was really hoakey. You could see the wire that it was traveling on and the little puffs of smoke coming out of it were a joke, even for me. But the concept of the show was magical. Also at that time there were radio shows about space travel and aliens and monsters. I would listen to those shows with my grandfather as I sat on the floor next to the big wooden box radio so I could get the full impact of the sounds. •• These shows inspired me to draw spaceships, mostly "new and improved" versions of Flash's ship. I taped them all over my bedroom walls. At night I would travel with Flash. We would go to distant parts of the Universe and explore ancient ruins - like what I saw in National Geographic when I was not looking at the bare-breasted girls of exotic cultures. (I think artists and sculptors, are to a large part, voyeurs.) Those memories pop up in my art over and over. •• Faces also intrigue and inspire me.

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