I am leaving town tomorrow to attend Thomas Charles Bell's graduation ceremony in Baltimore (he has earned his Master's Degree) on Friday. This prompted Deb Gessner driving down from Prescott Valley this morning with the Billy the Kid sculpture in progress. Ed Reilly at Bronzesmith sent me jpeg images of the work yesterday, but after a round of changes, Ed thought Deb and I would work it out faster if we were in the same place at the same time. So Deb came in after our Design Review meeting at 11 this morning to work on it. After an initial pow wow, she started revamping the face while I went next door to Janie's to order out for lunch.
Deb Gessner rebuilds the Kid's facial features while I eat lunch and chirp in know-it-all suggestions.
After nailing the face (Deb got his eyes just so), we went over the enigma of his hat (so odd looking, crazy crease, distorted crown) and tried to make sense of the whole thing, giving it style, but at the same time trying to be true to the damn photograph. Not an easy thing to do:
Deb builds up the hat brim on the Kid's hat while I hold my breath.
Deb deals with the crazy crease in the Kid's lid
"Teachers may come where you don't look for them."
—Old Vaquero Saying