The Thieving Sculptor Professors Intuitiveness

 I had a wonderful cranky old sculptor professor. He was head of the art department and taught many classes, I just happened to have him for sculpture.

Let me describe him...He was small but wide...maybe in his 70's...he was bald and had lots of skin problems on his pate. He was of Irish origin ( Hennesey) and quite humorous, but kind of cantankerous. He had a very strong presence and a deep voice. 

His wife made him caftans to wear at home as he wanted to be more comfortable. He had to be very careful going down the stairs as he had fallen many times from getting caught up in the skirt of the garment. I can see the whole image of that in my head. 

Anyway, We were free to use any of the equipment to make our art...however, I was told...Caroyl, DO NOT use the electric table sander. ...or for that matter...nothing electric and nothing sharp.

What? How dare you! Of course, that was the first thing I wanted to to do...cause, i'm just like that. Later in the class when he wasn't looking, I took a small long piece of wood and fed it into the sander...sure enough the tip of my finger went in and zip, OW! and the blood started to flow...He was so mad at me! Who could blame him. It wasn't too bad but it proved his suspicions .

I made a lovely little clay sculpture. I was studying a lot of art history so it ended up looking like an Etruscan icon. It had a woman's  head,  long hair and the torso of a woman ( no real details, just basic) and the bottom of her body just smoothed down into a rounded point ( a sort of stump)....like a very limited mermaid.Hard to imagine. I think I still have it here in storage. It was never fired or painted. It's about 10" long...flat / unfinished on the bottom. It is made to lie flat. My teacher loved it...but kept his love for it on the low down.

It disappeared! I just could not find it anywhere.

Later in the year, I had an appointment with said professor. I sat down on the other side of his messy desk and suddenly, I see my little icon mermaid! holding papers down. I said...hey! that's mine! He had a sly smile on his face...I grabbed it....He had taken it. It's a complement but really?

I have dragged it all over the world with me and it is in parts at this point. It kind of looks like the sculpture below, but flat and clay colored....very basic.