Well, good riddance to the year of the rats! And welcome the year of the Bull. After the shenanigans of those dastardly rodents, bring on the Bull with his diligence, honesty and perseverance to help us navigate our way towards the control of this pandemic!
Of all the bulls I have made, my favourite is my Highland Bull made in the autumn of 2017. 500kg of curls and character! He took two assistants and me over 4 months to make.
After sketching him up, I made a really strong stainless steel armature to hold over 200kg of long dead wood. The trick to making a sculpture like my Highland Bull is to use really rutted and crevassed wood as the primary layer over the armature. These deep recesses allow me to insert curly pieces of driftwood to give that shaggy coat that the Highland cows are renowned for.
Curly driftwood is very difficult to find; All the wood that I use is decades dead and the smaller pieces have long since been used for fossil fuel. I pay a premium for this beautiful material and end up ploughing through at least 200kg to attain the look I want.
The snout and the hooves are made from a really special specie of reclaimed wood - the Madré de Cacao. This tree was introduced by the Spanish priests and the resulting long dead wood has great weather resistant qualities and takes a high sheen.
As usual, we transported the bull together with a couple of other sculptures into the highlands of Cebu and Rolando Pascua, a close friend and veteran of dozens of sculpture shoots, took some stunning shots.
For more details about my Highland Bull, please feel free to
contact me. Contrary to my grumpy morning face perfectly captured by Rolando, I'm always happy to talk about my process and work!
