Austin, Morgan
English 1010 LO3
Summer 2013
RA Hughes, Instructor
15 June 2013
Descriptive Essay Sculptures are an amazing part of history. They have the ability to spark the interest of a viewer or inspire his/her emotions. Some can even put a smile on your face the moment you enter the same room with them. In this essay, I will describe a sculpture that did just that for me. When I first saw this work of art, I thought, “Who in their right mind would put something like this together?” After closer examination I realized that this funny looking statue had quite a few inert details I had not noticed at first. Within a few minutes I went from thinking that some idiot threw it together in 15 minutes to realizing that whoever made it put great care into the small details. As I continued to examine this little person, there were constantly more things to find. Needless to say, I was fascinated. Standing about a foot tall and weighing roughly 15 pounds, she was sculpted from assorted metals. The sculptor used aluminum, iron, steel, and a few premanufactured parts to bring this little lady to life. The artist used the metal-to-metal bonding process called brazing. These pieces could only have been pieced together by a skillful hand. This led me to believe an experienced welder must have done the job. Her arms and legs were made of flathead screwdrivers with notched tips for toes. These pieces seemed to have been heated and bent to form more realistic looking body parts. She also had a coiled spring serving as a torso, ball bearings in place of eye balls and her face was a lawnmower sparkplug. The spring gave the statue some life due to the movement it allowed. I also enjoyed the use of the sparkplug as a face because of the ingenuity it suggested. Her breasts were fishing lures and her hips were made from automobile hardware. The backside of the hips even had a split for a butt crack! There was also a second piece of hardware at the top of her torso serving as a connector between the head, torso, and arms. A few links of chain were used to create her ears and ponytail. All of these things pointed toward the artist responsible being an outdoorsman, a shop worker, a craftsman and most likely, a joker. Showing off her fashion sense, the piece of art included thong underwear down around her knees. However, the underpants were on backwards! An earring made of a retaining clip was also incorporated into the figure on her right ear. She also wore stylish glasses that seemed to be something straight out of the 1950’s and a welder’s mask on top of her head. My favorite part of this piece isn’t what it’s made of, but the scene the sculptor created. The sculpted woman is seen sitting on the toilet holding a newspaper! The artist also included a toilet paper stand and roll placed next to the statue. The toilet was made of old pipe and a Zippo lighter while the newspaper was aluminum sheet metal. The stand seemed to be a small rod with a spool attached to serve as the roll of paper. I was impressed with the quality of the bonds in the figure. It seemed to all be brazen and the artist was apparently experienced with this process. The most impressive part of it