This is all there now. I’ve thickened up the bands, brought the arms in a little, detailed the bands crossings, and trimmed the curves and corners both inside and out. I also tapered the bands from the feet to the hands. The height, volume, and proportion is good. It feels I’ve gone far enough, without overdoing it. I want an organic lyrical feeling overall to this sculpture.

Mostly now I need a final surface treatment. I want some vocabulary of surface markings and I’m going to get inspired by a book given to me by my friend S.L. This is thick beautiful coffee table book from the 60’s about, who else, Henry Moore. As the Eye Moves, David Finn and Donald Hall, Abrams N.Y., documents in photos and poetry, a single sculpture Three Piece Reclining Figure No. 2; Bridge Prop. I recently happened to see a copy of it in Washington DC outside the Hirshhorn museum. What I’m looking for is a rich vocabulary of markings and textures such as H.M. would do, only something at my modest scale. This is inspirational, to get me loosened up – Otherwise, I’m perhaps too tempted to overly engineer perfection.

Now I’m going to take a vacation and a few weeks of from this – a mid-summer break before I begin the moldmaking process.