Have a seat

 Those visiting the sculpture will not only be able to look, but they will be able to have a seat. The bench is ready. We have had the bench that the sculpture will sit on for quite some time. We needed it to be able to design around it. Though the bench is wood now, it will be a bronze bench in the end. Wood benches often can't hold a bronze sculpture's weight without reinforcing and don't last as long as bronze. We will make a mold of this wooden bench and turn it into bronze. You will learn about that later, but for now, we must protect it so that it can withstand the process of mold-making later and also that the clay will not stick to the bench. So my intern stained, sealed, and wrapped it in saran wrap to protect it.  

Teachers and Students

I know our bench is important, but then I wondered, what are the most famous chairs in history?  I'm very curious by nature, and found a blog post about famous chairs.  I have had fun with chairs over the years. Here are some of mine. 

• Booker T. Larger than life Chair. I wrote an article  about this.  Does a chair have a personality? 
• 
  The rocking chair in my sculpture at Dallas Baptist University was actually the deans chair. He spent many days praying on that rocking chair. My favorite view is one no one will ever see. It is without the back of the chair. 
• Then of course there is the Mad Hatter Chair. Have you seen it? There are lots of hidden messages in that chair. 
  I created the hatter chair with many different references. I love creating a chair out of my head.  We also made it using digital technology. Here is a video from the cnc company that helped make the hatter's chair. 
• let's not forget Alice's chair. Hiding things in that chair was so much fun, and I love sitting next to Alice. 
  
  
  

How Does An Artist Learn About Someone She Does Not Know?

That is interesting because that is the very same question that artist Bridgette Mongeon asks when she starts this process. So she becomes a detective of sorts, searching the internet, asking family, and finding out who this incredible man is and why people want to honor him. You will learn as she learns. 

A great deal of capturing a person's emotion depends on the stories of the family and friends. The more she can hear about the person, the better the sculpture will be.

 So, if you knew Mr. Tough and are reading this blog, please share your stories. 

Bridgette loves learning about people. She finds it very interesting to see where their paths lead in life and what brought them to where they are or their accomplishments. She was in grade school when she first learned she could find books called biographies. She first read about Lincoln because she thought he had an interesting face and seemed kind. George Washington Carver was another she read as a child. She was interested in how one person could find over 300 uses for peanuts. That is clever. The day she found the biography section in the library, she flipped! She could learn about all the people. 

Questions for Teachers and Students. 

• Have you read a biography?
• Why do you think people write biographies? 
• What is the difference between a biography and an autobiography? 
• Have you heard of a memoir? How is a memoir different than an autobiography? 
• You could say that the book the artist is helping her granddaughter write Issa's Grand Adventures: Book One- Texas State Parks, is her granddaughter's memoir. It is her experiences in the Texas State Parks. People write memoirs about their own experiences. If you were to write a memoir about an experience, what would it be? 

 While searching the internet, she found a video of Mr. Tough reading to children. "I love this," says the artist, "I love it for a few different reasons. The first is anatomical. I can see how his body moves and his facial features. But more importantly, I can see his smile and his interaction, and he becomes more alive to me. I hope I can receive more videos from family and friends. " Here is the link to Mr. Tough reading. 

Comparisons

Creating a sculpture or even a real-life drawing is all about comparisons. Bridgette says that all art is about comparing. You compare one thing to another. The size of a hand compared to the length of the arm, compared to the size of the chest. Many famous artists and one, in particular, was very interested in comparing. He wrote notebooks about it. Leonardo Davinci spent a lot of time noticing things. Have you ever done that? For example, sitting in your class, you might notice that the blackboard height is almost one-half of the room's height. ( I made that up. ) Or there are 24 tiles across the ceiling in the math classroom. Davinci noticed EVERYTHING, and he put it down in notebooks. You can't help but wonder if Mr. Tough ever read Davinci's notebooks. There is a lot about architecture in there. 

Bridgette will use some of these comparisons herself. How many heads high is her subject? Did you know that if you put the line in your wrist at your chin and your hand is straight, your middle finger will reach your hairline? This helps not to make hands too small or too big when sculpting. 

Bridgette keeps notes on the different people as she sculpts them. She also has to learn and research the people that her subject knew. For example, when creating a recent monumental sculpture of Booker T. Washington. She had to know how tall he was. Booker T. lived a long time before Mr. Tough, and his height was nowhere to be found in her research. So how do you find out how tall someone is that lived over 100 years ago? She found a photograph of Booker T. with other influential men. For example, in this picture, President Taft was six feet, and Andrew Carnegie was Five feet three. So she could compare and find that Booker T. Washington was about five feet seven inches tall. Wasn't that fun? She truly is a detective. 

For Teachers and Students. 

• How many heads high are you? 
• Have you compared things? What did you compare, and what did you find? 

Here is a video of how to measure proportions of things. The two hints are- keep your arm straight and close one eye when looking. Watch how this person finds out how many widths of the bottle fit in the height- from his perspective. 

STEAM Education

Bridgette works with many different tools that most artists don't. She uses 3D printing, 3D scanning, and CNC milling in her work. She even wrote a book about it. She loves talking to children about STEAM education, especially regarding her Alice Sculpture. Below are two videos. The first is an introduction to the Texas Art Educators Conference. Bridgette was chosen to speak there about STEAM. The second is a video of her speaking at Young Women in Math and Science- Expanding your Horizons. If you watch the video at about 11 minutes, you can see a CNC machine milling out a body of the March Hare. This is how Bridgette Makes things big. Watch at 13 minutes, and you will see one of the hidden 150 things—something that is both in Bridgette's artwork and in the movie Toy Story and even in the Simpsons. 

STEM education came about because the schools and the government were finding that fewer students were going into Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math STEM. So they wanted to encourage students in school to study these subjects. Bridgette adds the A to STEM to make it STEAM. Art can inform other subjects. She wants to encourage young people, especially girls, to go into these areas of study. 

Texas Art Educators introduces Bridgette Mongeon

Exploring Your Horizons in Math in Science. 

This last video has an interview with a young girl who also wants to encourage girls to get into technology. Watch this video to see how the sculptor creates in the computer. Also watch through to meet Coco. She is an 11 year old girl who built a 3D printer. 

For Teachers and Students

• Why do you think students were not studying the subjects in STEM or STEAM? 
• How can you make these subjects fun? 
• Do you remember the artists post about baseball and interdisciplinary study? 
  
• Do you think the hidden 150 thing shown at 13 minutes in the video is interesting? Have you ever seen it elsewhere?  
• What type of STEAM do you think Coulson Tough used in building your school or other things? 

A Pose

The artist, the family, and the Hughes Foundation have decided on a sculpture of Mr. Tough on a bench. They all visit the school. Now it is up to the artist to come up with a pose. 

Because Mr. Tough was an architect, it feels natural that he might have a blueprint in his lap. Usually, a blueprint has a floor plan of a building and shows how the builders should make the building. But instead of that, the artist hopes to create a few drawings. These will be of special buildings that Mr. Tough worked on in his life. Perhaps drawing of four or five of special projects. His right hand will rest on the blue print and Mr. Tough will look in the distance as if he is reflecting on his life. 

Bridgette tries sitting on the bench in such a pose in her back yard. Then she creates a digital sketch in the computer of a possible pose. It does not look like Mr. Tough, nor does it have his clothes. She needs more reference photographs to know that, but this gives the artist a direction. Everyone is happy with this design. Now she waits for more reference photographs. The artist says, "You never have too many reference photographs." 

Questions for Teachers and students

• If someone were to do a sculpture of you, what do you think the pose would be? What would show your personality? 

Who is Mr Tough and Why is My School Named After Him?

This is an excellent question.

Tough Elementary website has a bio on Coulson Tough. However, the artist wants to know more than just a few things written down on a website. She wants to know Mr. Tough personally. How does she do that when he is no longer alive? She can't talk to him. She gets much of that part of the creative process through family and friends. As they tell her about this great man, she gets a "feel" for him, and she knows that makes the sculpture more alive and more personal. So as she learns about this man, you will learn about him. 

Here are some questions she has asked the family.

He became an architect. Were there things about him as a child that people thought he might become an architect? For example, did he like to build things? 

Many times, history or events change a person's path. Did this happen? 

What kind of man was he? Did he like education? 

Again, the artist is being a detective and loves this part of the journey. 

Teachers and Students

• What things would you ask if you had to learn about a relative that is no longer living? 
• Who would you ask? 
• Do you think you could become friends with someone no longer alive and "like" them just because of the stories you hear?  
• Why is learning about people and their history necessary? 
• What do you want people to remember about you? 

Has The Artist Created Sculpture for Other Schools?

Yes. Many Schools have mascots. A mascot is a symbol. A lot of times it is  an animal. Often people think a mascot brings luck. They are very proud of their school mascots. 

Prairie View Panther

Bridgette Mongeon first created Prairie View Panther for Prairie View A&M. Then she was contacted by Grambling State University, and they said they wanted something bigger and meaner. Their Tiger is about 15 feet tall. 

The Grambling Tiger. Do you remember how old the artist said that her granddaughter is today? Here is a funny photograph of her granddaughter when Bridgette was creating the Grambling Tiger. Issa grows up with her grandma's art. As a side note: the tiger did not eat Issa. 

Called To Pray

Bridgette also created this sculpture titled Called To Pray. You can see this at Dallas Baptist University. It is not a mascot but a sculpture of something important to the school- prayer. 

Booker T Washington 

Her most recent  school sculpture is not even installed yet. It is of Booker T. Washington Sitting in a chair and will go to Booker T Washington High School in Houston

Questions for teachers and students

Does your school have a mascot? 

If it does not, what type of mascot do you think it should have and why?

Did the schools that your parents go to have a mascot?

Was there a sculpture or a painting of the mascot at their school?