This year's theme was "Hawaiian". So, I came up with "Hula Dog" as the sculpture for our project. As with previous V.S.A. festivals, there were several wonderful artists on hand giving workshops. Some of the other arts explored were: music, dance, juggling, printing, doll making, and origami. 

In my case, I began like I always do, with a wire armature (which I made ahead of time) of the subject. That's it at the top right with my cousin Ed who was my assistant for the festival. Ed did a tremendous job helping out at the festival. I didn't realize he had creative talent until that day.

So, please feel free to click on the images at right to see a larger, full color version of the photo. Briefly, the whole process went as such:

1. (top) I told you about the armature. Yes, that's 3/8" rebar inside the legs for stability. Hula Dog is standing on a piece of 1" thick particle board from my neighbor's entertainment center. Do you think they'll miss it? Just kidding, they were tossing it out.  

2. The first part of the "papering" procedure involved draping strips of glue-soaked orange paper over the armature. We're using 50 lb. roll paper for this. This is a pretty heavy paper- almost like construction paper. My hope is, when dry, it'll give the sculpture a bit more strength. Ed and myself would dip the paper strips into the glue, strip off the excess, and hand them to the participants. They would step over to sculpture and slap the paper on. I'd like to take this opportunity to say thanks to the "team leaders"- the volunteers who led the groups to each art stop and helped with the project. Many of them are pictured here with the festival attendees. 

3. After the first group left (there were three groups working on it, each had one hour), the piece was completely covered with the orange paper.  The next group's assignment was to re-cover the dog with glue-soaked newspaper.  This was a larger group of people, so we had time to add some extra layers to enhance the strength of the piece.

4. The final hour brought in two groups (whoa-chaos!) for the finishing color (blue). Things were going so fast I barely got time to take a picture before the whole thing was covered.  Luckily, one of the groups had to leave to attend another art project, otherwise, I don't know what I'd have done to entertain them for an entire hour. I guess I could've sang show tunes...

5. After the dog was completely covered in blue, Ed and I added a few finishing details, like eyes, nose, collar and a  cheesy-looking grass skirt. There's a picture of Ed and me with the dog before the skirt was on. 

6. -Bottom- That's the "Big Kahuna" Jerry standing next to the finished Hula Dog. 'Looks like they have the same tailor. Jerry and others are responsible for putting together the festival each year, and do a fantastic job!

I'm not sure where "Hula Dog" will be displayed; but past projects have found homes at V.S.A. sponsors' company headquarters. 

Thanks for looking. If you have any questions about the project, drop me a line.