W.E. SINGLETON-IN 10 DAYS no less.

If only people created and made more of their gifts, how much more interesting the world would be!  Forget the mall when you can use your hands and your imagination.

Written by Tracy Mang 

I was at the beach with some friends and they started brainstorming about a retirement gift for their boss.  Being an artist, they always turned towards you and say something like, get Tracy, she could come up with something.  Geoff McVeigh immediately asked me if I could do a papermache’ lifesize of his boss.  Geoff was mentored by, and thankful for Mr. W.E. Singleton.  Geoff was determined to make his gift, more of a blue ribbon-one of a kind prize, a show stopper, a present to make your head tilt to the side with a “WHAT?”  I had never done papermache except in kindergarten, and had only done a few ornaments out of clay for a Christmas party tree.  I heard myself say sure, I’ll make it fun.  Geoff commissioned me to interpret and design a figure for an unveiling Jan. 2005.  This was to be the last gift of the evening, at an honored Roast for Mr. Singleton, at the Downtown Club.  Mr. Singleton, a commercial real estate tycoon in Richmond, VA, a generous donor to the VCU Performing Arts Center, was in for a surprise.

As Geoff began to bring me newspaper articles about Mr. Singleton I gathered the following: he looked like a slightly bigger than life man, a 68-year gentlemen, whose size, character, and photos somewhat resemble WC Fields.  Mr. Singleton is a “man who has everything man.”  A man reluctant to accept new age technology.  A man known to drink 10 Jack Daniel’s and water before dinner.  A man when asked in a newspaper interview, “What’s your favorite food?”  Answered…..”Jack Daniel’s”.?  I quickly learned from the several Richmond Times newspaper articles that W.E. had made a million + career in real estate, had green eyes (the color of money), chain smoked Kent cigarettes, drank to excess, loved jazz music, had a large presence and a sense of humor.  He loved jazz music so much that every inch of his pool house were cluttered with photographs of he and all the “greats”-Miles Davis etc.

I began this project with the newspaper clips, a few digital images, 5 pounds of Virginia Dogwood Clay, and the help of Jonnie Kinney-the owner of Richmond Pottery Studio.  Our greatest challenge was time-the roast was scheduled to be just days away.  I must admit: If only people created and made more of their gifts, how much more interesting the world would be.  Forget the mall when you can use your hands and your imagination.  I decided, at that point I wanted the sculpture to be whimsical and classic at the same time.  The timelessness, like an old jazz tune, would come from the frame.  Joe Frostik came to the rescue.  He produced this stately frame, a circa 1890-1910, that he had purchased from The Museum of the Confederacy in Richmond, VA.  Originally it had hung with a portrait of a Southern General.  Using ammonia, I carefully lifted the hundred-year dirt out of the gold leaf edging and then enhanced the edges by adding some Renaissance gold leaf.  I rubbed and buffed the gold until it accentuated the details on this creamy 30x36-scrolling frame.  I had a brass tag engraved to say-WE SINGLETON “MY WAY SINCE 1966”.  The formal frame would balance the silliness of the $ eyes, the rolling tie, and the Jack Daniel label that the bust would be mounted on. 

Eclectic-ness the necessary ingredient for intrigue.

The stages were fascinating.  First step: Extruding the clay into coils.  The vinegar slip acts as glue, to attach the coils to one another creating a large head.  Stuffing it with balled up newspaper to maintain shape and prolong the drying time.  My original concept was to make the likeness as an actual bust that sits on a pedestal.  I changed angles and decided to create it on a flat surface.

Step two: The creative decisions.  The eyes had the dollar sign.  The tie would be painted yellow with polka dot, the type Mr. Singleton actually wears all the time.  Kent cigarette logos would be hand painted on each polka dot giving it some whimsy.  The back of the tie was where I chose to sign my piece.  Like actual ties on the underside that says: Handmade by Tracy Mang.  The nose and the chin sculpted as close to likeness.  Scoring and slipping the ears and pieces it slowly became one.  Using a fetling knife, I sliced in the details to make the hair more pieced and realistic.

Next step: Firing the beast.  SCARY.  Johnnie’s 30+ year experience of knowing when the piece was dried and ready to fire.  If you have any air space within the piece it will respond like a grenade and explode in the kiln into millions of tiny chards.  God willing Mr. Singleton survived with only a few cracks that were glued and I camouflaged the injuries with acrylic paints.  Painting was the easiest part for me.  That’s when Johnnie said the piece came to life.

Finishing touches: To attach the head we wired it to the JD laminated plywood in a purely artful way.  Screwed on the tie.  Propped it up under a large white veil and hand delivered it for the night of the presentation.  At the end of the night Mr. Singleton came up to Geoff.  “So….  Where did you find this?”  Geoff off the cuff chuckled.  “Yardsale”.  It definitely beat out the Wal-Mart vest he received, as if to suggest that’s what Mr. Singleton would be doing with his precious newly acquired free time.  In my opinion, Geoff’s intention was 20 steps above the boring, old gold engraved plaque that no one ever bothers to read.  Geoff would say, “If those plaques make it out of the gift box, they won’t stand out on the “I love Me wall” like a sculpture.

The project as many artists can explain, made me feel many emotions such as fear, anger, success, amazement, anxiety, fun, etc like a ride at Kings Dominion.

Making the W.E. Singleton Sculpture - from Start to Finish

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