Who do you want to be?

As you have probably guessed by now if you've read the content of my last few posts, that I am a regular gym user and have been for some time now. I'm in relatively good shape but sometimes after a hard day at work, followed by the mental battle of coming up with ideas for drawings and sculptures. I don't always have the physical or mental energy to push myself when I get to the gym. That was until whilst searching online for gym motivational tools, I stumbled across this incredible video by me hero Arnold Schwarzenegger 'Who do you want to be?'. This video had a profound effect on me, having watched it numerous times, it has helped me push myself not just in the gym but in all areas of my life. That's enough of my life story, the point I am making is this piece I designed and have made is thanks and tribute to Arnolds words of wisdom.

I wanted to make something strong. Create an image that was powerful enough to inspire people into taking their life into there own hands and pushing themselves to achieve their dreams. Here are a couple of my original ideas about having the world in your palm...

Then I thought about how to display the idea that you need to push yourself to achieve. My dream has always been to be a beast of a man, to look like Michelangelo carved me out of stone. It was this sentiment that gave me the idea of what to do.

Drawing a man carving himself from stone is powerful imagery and represents you decide what you want to be. Work hard and you can be anything or anyone  just "Do not be afraid to fail". With my Arnold Schwarzenegger motivational video on repeat in the background I began to make.

 

Creating a face fitting to the piece really turned out to be challenging endeavour, hours spent doing and re-doing it became extremely stressful. I was relieved to finally create a face that I was happy with.

 

As you can see the detailing was a gruelling but rewarding process. This have become my favourite sculpture to date. I think that the roughness of the rocks contrasts well against the smoothness of the torso.