It's Sculpture Season!

Dear Patrons,

Today we have the pleasure to announce the start of Sculpture Season at The FAA Collective!

We have special content coming your way this fall - all sculpture themed.

Over the next couple months, we will be sharing with you:

• Art History Lectures given by the Florence Academy’s Assistant Director, resident Art Historian and painter, Tom Richards, at the FAA Florence campus.
• Lots of video content! Interviews, technical demonstrations and processes featuring FAA Faculty and Graduates.
• “Spotlight on Art” newsletters featuring one artwork by FAA Alums from around the world who speak directly about their work.
• “Eye on the Community” posts to keep you up to date with the going ons of FAA Collective Artists.

“Moonlight is sculpture; sunlight is painting.” (- Nathaniel Hawthorne)

With this we end our tribute to the sunny topic of landscape to bring you this season’s feature, Sculpture. As moonlight sculpts the terrain, illuminating hillsides and leaving valleys in shadow, so have FAA sculptors learned to observe and render the body’s softer masses as they surrender to harder ones, or bones surfacing, escaping and disappearing under other forms.

These concepts are the legacy left by former Director of Sculpture at The Florence Academy of Art, Robert Bodem. It was in 1997 that FAA inaugurated its now renown figurative sculpture program under the direction of its creator and founder, sculptor, Robert Bodem. Under Rob’s care during his 20 years as director, the curriculum flourished and allowed FAA Collective artists Eran Webber, Mitch Shea, Maudie Brady, Eirik Arnesen, Marusia Nita, Valentina Zlatarova, Poppy Field and Jana Büttner to develop their skills.

And it was Rob who taught these now masterful artists to emulate the moon. Of the passages of the human figure, Rob states in his manual, Drawing in Space, “Such variety can never be measured, only seen and understood. Studying the human figure on this level, where one can describe the hardest form in comparison to the softest, and the infinite range in between, or equally, the deepest transition compared the shallowest should not be understood as being a slave to nature but a means to a greater goal: to develop an aesthetic vocabulary to help one fully express one’s ideas as they develop in their work.”

The beauty and complexity of producing sculpture will be discussed and studied in all the content we will provide you during the next few months!

Art History Lectures - All about Sculpture!

Over the fall, we will release a series of informative Art History Lectures given by Florence Academy’s Assistant Director, resident Art Historian and painter Tom Richards, at the FAA Florence campus.  After last year’s lecture, “Sculpture in Florence”, we couldn’t think of a better way to start off the Sculpture season than with “Sculpture in Rome”, followed by a three-part series created by Tom for FAA sculpture students that focus on the nude figure.

In case you missed it, click below to view:

Art History Lecture w/ Tom Richards - Sculpture in Florence

VIDEO - A day in the life w/ MITCH SHEA

This year we had the pleasure to follow the process of River God, a recent work by Mitch Shea, current Director of the FAA Sculpture Program, from its initial steps in clay to its final casting in bronze.

The beautifully filmed and narrated video that will be released this fall brings to life the centuries-old process: as we enter a foundry outside of Florence, Mitch explains the technical process behind this ancient technique and describes for us the historical context behind the discovery and use of this material.

Follow The FAA Youtube channel for more videos, including:

Art Talk w/ Mitch Shea - River God

VIDEO - Tools w/ Jana Büttner - Create your own Loop Tool

Jana Büttner graduated from the Sculpture program in 2020, and was invited to continue for a fourth year as Graduate in Residence. We have featured Jana’s beautiful work in previous posts, and during the past year, filmed her talking about her favorite sculpture tools: some are useful for blocking in large masses, others help her capture the smallest details. We also learned about some interesting customization tips. In this new video, Jana shows us how she makes her own loop tools!

Click below to view:

Tools w/ Jana Büttner - Sculpture Tools

VIDEO - Technical Demonstration w/ Eran Webber

Last year we produced one of our favorite FAA Collective videos with Director of the summer Figurative Sculpture workshop, Eran Webber, in which Eran explains how to sculpt the mouth in clay. This year, Eran is back with a brand new demo!

Filmed in class at the FAA Florence campus during a morning demo for summer sculpture students, Eran demonstrates how to construct the eye on a portrait. This informative live demonstration is essential to understand the topography of the eye before the student attempts to sculpt. To quote again Robert Bodem, “While working be aware that when you are physically manipulating your work, it must be in response to a question you have observed and answered.”

Click below to view Eran’s previous demo:

Techniques w/ Eran Webber - Constructing the Mouth 

After graduating in 2010, Eran has remained on the FAA Faculty as Principal Instructor in the Sculpture Program from 2010-2013, and returns each summer to direct the Figurative Sculpture Workshop and other scheduled sculpture workshops during the year.

We hope this demo will inspire you to come to FAA to sculpt with eran next summer, in the meantime click here to learn more about FAA Fall Workshops!

INTERVIEWS - Spotlight on Art

Robert Bodem, La Marionetta, Bronze, Life size, 2009

Get inspired by the words of our artists as they explain the story behind their creations!

Admiring a finished artwork is one of life’s greatest pleasures! But learning directly from the artist the how and why behind the creation of their work can make for a better experience. We have reached out to several FAA Alumni with questions about their work, and over the next few months we will be publishing interviews with Artists such as Founder of the Sculpture Program at the FAA Robert Bodem, Marusia Nita and more!

Stay tuned and follow us on our social media to be sure you don't miss the full article! @thefaacollective

Let the Sculpture Season begin!