John Hair Studio

[Merlion]

I come across this site while surfing around. Very impressive work. Well worth going into the website and look around at his sculptures, quite a few monemental ones. One picture is shown below.

Jon Hair Studio

Edit: Oops. Got his name wrong in the thread. Can't change it now.

[evaldart]

Well he certainly has better teeth than most of the sculptors I know, pearly white and undamaged by grit and grinder projectiles.

[Todd Harry Lane]

hmm... As I've mentioned a while ago, I've never like this type of sculpture. I mean, all of that excruciating detail... what for?

Take this eagle for example: http://www.jonhair.com/handler.cfm?c...=Y&med_id=7755

Every--single--feather articulated. It saps the life force right out of the piece (not to mention that it makes it look more like an armadillo).
I get tired just looking at the thing.

There's no blood running through that eagle. It looks like a hunk of wood to me.

Sometimes you can get so caught up in these tiny details that you lose sight of what it is you're supposed to be conveying to the viewer.

If, on the other hand, Jon Hair just wants the viewer to see how much time he has spent on sculpting feathers, hey, that's cool. But why bother making an actual animal? He should have just molded feathers on a flat board and made that his sculpture.

His horse "Defiant" has all of these perfect little veins and flexed facial muscles etc., but all I can see is the fact that the muzzle is poorly observed from the get go.

"Oracle" is another example of sculpture that irks me:
http://www.jonhair.com/handler.cfm?c...=Y&med_id=7678
Extremely idealized, smooth and above all, pretty. Like that stuff you see in mall gift shops.

But "Dueling Fencers" is a nice piece! http://www.jonhair.com/handler.cfm?c...=Y&med_id=7798
It has great movement and I like the muted green patina. Jon's obsession with detail works well with the fencer's uniform.

I really believe that every sculptor would be doing themselves a favor if they would just forget about the surface. It's the *least* important part of a sculpture.
.

[fritchie]

I find his large animal sculptures the best. Don't especially care for the patinas on most smaller works. They all look artificial to me, as if painted on.

And the humans in all scales also, they are too slick to be realistic, and not sufficiently detailed to have individual character. But thanks for the post. Some of the work is good, and much is impressive.