Sunday, March 18, 2012

A sculpture is just a painting cut out and stood up somewhere. - Frank Stella

That's about how I approach sculpture. I think of it as drawing or painting in 3D. If I can visualize it, I can sculpt it.

Recently, I took a part time job at Loblaws. For any of you who are not from here, they are a major grocery store chain. The particular store I work at, is the new flagship store, and as such has been designed to be like no other grocery store. We have all sorts of amusements in the store. Located in the old Maple Leaf gardens building, there is a lot of stuff to commemorated the Toronto maple Leafs in the decor. They have preserved part of the structure and the old walls show through. You can find centre ice marked in aisle 25 for example, or a giant maple leaf made up of the old stadium seats. We also have things like "The Wall of Cheese".

What captured my imagination the most though, was the giant block of chocolate. For one thing, I love chocolate. But tho block is huge - it has to be about 28 inches, by 28 inches by about 18 inches high. Massive!

I stood across the aisle in my own department, and watched the people working in the patisserie chunk off pieces of this block using a chisel, and all I could think was, "I have got to get my hands on that and carve it!"

Since we regularly have entertainment in the store, I figured seeing me carving it would be a great form of entertainment. So, I finally approached our director, and he loved the idea!

We eventually decided on a hockey theme, and set a date. After 22 1/2 hours of carving, it was as done as I could get it. There were a few technical problems, in that this block is made to be able to chunk away pieces. This made carving with the type of perfection I would have preferred not quite attainable, but overall, everyone seems to love it, so I am very pleased.

Here are a couple of still shots, and a short walk around video.







We are currently selling raffle tickets to win it, with the money raised going to the PC Childrens Charity.  So if you live in the area, please come by and get a ticket or two. It's for a great cause! You don't  need to worry about what you will do with all that chocolate - my suggestion: find a kids hockey association, and donate it to them - you'll be spreading the love even further.