Karaova [Black Valley] - Comlekci - Turkey

Sculpture


Name Love Snakes
Material White Marble
Block River Pebble
Origin Yatagan, Turkey
Entity Inception Date 2008 July


10 Love Snakes

Progress Photos
Taking progress photographs as a sculpture evolves is not as easy as it sounds, once engrossed in the revelation process it is not easy to stop, take off dust mask, gloves and hat and take pictures. Getting someone else to do it would be equally difficult and impractical, I just spend the odd day and random spare hours sculpting, I don't work to any program. The easiest way is to take pictures at natural breaks [for whatever reason]. This means that the amount of time between stages can be somewhat erratic, nevertheless the outcome at least gives some perspective to the discovery process.

This was the first piece that has a progress photo record.

Coincidence
Interestingly, on the day that I had just completed wrapping a wire frame model of 'love snakes' with black electrical insulating tape I was walking along the road in Comlekci village only to discover that a 1.5 meter black snake was escorting me rustling through the grass at the side of the road. Now snakes in the village itself are not so common so it was quite a coincidence that I should see a black snake in our village within minutes of having completed a wire frame model of black snakes. The snake was 'dealt with' by a local farmer and was disposed of before the thought occurred to me that it would have been appropriate to have used the real snakes fangs in the sculpture.

Development
My initial idea was to have the snakes entwined in battle, it was only during the process of removing the unwanted marble that my thoughts evolved towards a dominant, slightly mesmerized, aloof snake and its smaller, more aggressive love mate. I had for some time been toying with the idea of sculpting intertwined spirals.

The Love Snakes are now released from the marble pebble that had imprisoned them for so many hundreds of thousands of years.

I am particularly fond of this piece, each viewing angle providing a different aspect of the encounter between the snakes and the overall balance of the whole piece.

The whole sculpture including the base, is formed from a single piece of marble.

Love Snakes 0 - A marble sculpture revealed by Cliff Fraser Love Snakes 1 - A marble sculpture revealed by Cliff Fraser Love Snakes 2 - A marble sculpture revealed by Cliff Fraser Love Snakes 3 - A marble sculpture revealed by Cliff Fraser

Love Snakes 5 - A marble sculpture revealed by Cliff Fraser Love Snakes 5 - A marble sculpture revealed by Cliff FraserLove Snakes 6 - A marble sculpture revealed by Cliff Fraser Love Snakes 7 - A marble sculpture revealed by Cliff Fraser

Love Snakes 8 - A marble sculpture revealed by Cliff Fraser

< Previous | Love Snakes | Next >

This piece is featured in the 2009 Bodrum Art Group calendar.  

Bodrum Art Calendar 2009 - Click for larger image
Love Snakes as featured on this page and Horned Goat

Click on the images for a bigger picture, then click your browsers 'back' button to return to this page

Sculpture Links All Sculptures Index | Tools | Marble

Fraser Clan Crest