I come from a very talented and creative family. They never cease to impress and amaze me with their individual skills and ability to create. My dad is a wiz with cars and does body work plus he can pretty much build or fix anything. My step dad is a medical illustrator. My brother is a chef. My other brother takes after my dad and is also a car wiz. And my mom, she’s a sculptor.

Recently it seams that her sculptures are getting larger and larger. She’s always done life size stuff but larger than life seems to be the trend lately. And when she told me she was going to be sculpting a 15 foot tiger for Grambling State University I said, “That’s awesome! But I’m pretty sure that’s not going to fit in the studio.”

After a whole lot of searching and hunting she finally found a warehouse space for rent. There were tons of trials to overcome with this project which you can read on her very well documented blog about the whole process here http://gramblingtiger.blogspot.com/. But after everything was sculpted and before cutting the whole thing apart to take it into the mold making stage I suggested we take some photos of her and the piece. So we did!

The above photo is one of my favorite shots from the day. The size of this thing is almost overwhelming. And it should be noted that there are another three feet of rocks that go under it, so that back foot will be on a rock, not on the ground. I’m incredibly impressed with how she executed the stripes. Truthfully, I’m incredibly impressed with the whole thing. I can’t wait to see it in bronze! But it will be a few more weeks until that happens. They’ve already cut it up and started the mold making process, from there the molds get shipped to the foundry. The foundry pours waxes, makes more molds, pours the metal, puts everything back together and then finishes it off with a patina. Then it’s off to Grambling.

It was especially fun to watch the process of this sculpture. It was also really great to be able to capture some photos of my mom with the Tiger. And of course I had my little assistant there with me.

To see more of Bridgette Mongeon’s work you can visit www.creativesculpture.com. Or to read all about the process of creating this giant tiger visit http://gramblingtiger.blogspot.com/.

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