Michael Birnbaum on the Mance Lipscomb sculpture project
Last month had wonderful news about Blues man and songster Mance Lipscomb from Dr. Michael Birnbaum:
Dear Folks interested in the Mance Lipscomb Sculpture project:
Here are pictures of the head of Mance Lipscomb in the sculpture as sent me by the sculptor, Sid Henderson. As you see below, he feels the work is now complete from his perspective.
He has asked for criticism and suggestions for improvement. If you have suggestions, please send them to me, and I will try to combine them with my own judgments and relay a summary to him.
I think that he as done an excellent job on the head and face, but I will have some adjustments to suggest. These will involve the eyelids, the veins on the sides of the throat, tendons in the neck, and some other small changes. Mance had an interesting face that looked different from different angles, and his sculpture similarly has these variations with viewing angle. I think photographers will enjoy taking pictures of the final work to see these effects.
I will also request that Sid send me some new pictures that include scenes that you have seen before, including the hands and the Harmony Sovereign guitar. It will help us to see the complete picture, now that the head is finished, to see how the facial expression combines with the body posture and hand positions.
I would like to get some more input from you to make sure that we try to address anything that we can all agree on that should be changed before the next phase of the project begins. The next phase, of course, is to construct the mold and cast it in bronze.This will require paying the foundry bill in advance. We are not quite ready for that phase yet, but we are close. When I have heard from those concerned, I will forward the suggestions to him and work with him until I think it is ready and then send it back to the main parties for a final approval before we trigger the next phase.
At the last Bluesfest in August, I got a report on the fund-raising for the project. I have sent an additional contribution since then, and I imagine that there have been other recent contributions. Has the fundraising yet reached the level required to start the next phase of the project? How is the fund at this point? As I recall, you still needed about $18,000 as of last year to complete the whole project, except for the stone bench in Mance Lipscomb Park, by the little creek, where the sculpture will be seated.
Have you heard about that movie project that Mance's grandaughter is trying to promote?
Included are some pictures of Mance to refresh your memory. These also show what the sculptor was working from. The last pictures below show the current version of the life-size sculpture.
Best wishes, Michael