Emma Hardy Sculpture

I love creating these pet portraits for peoples homes. Here are some lovely words from someone who received this painting of her Pomeranian as a gift -

“Just wanted to come and thank you for such an incredible portrayal that will hang with happiness and pride in my home. He's the little Pomeranian who's eyes you got perfectly, THANK YOU

Emma Hardy Bronze Acrobat

The Turtle begins their slow and steady trek down to Miami tonight, with one eye on the Earth. Come see them at SeaFoam! Foam Home LB Homies!

Pet portraits don’t just mean cats and dogs

Another pet portrait to be sent off as a holiday gift! 🎄 🎁

Pet portraits in time for the holidays are available now!

Email me: [email protected] for more information

Later

Rabbi Yosef Karo I never know what I am going to asked to make next. Another large head. Sure. Thanks to Paul and Ilo for a fun weekend and their help in the studio

Fear and Desire
On a more serious note, our world is, once again, in seeming chaos. My work, “A Long Way Down”, shown at the Lucca Biennial indoor exhibition, is about the opposing forces of fear and desire to jump into the unknown. We the human race are facing so many challenges. We are in the midst of a global pandemic. Fires burn across much of the country and around the world. Our oceans are in distress and many species are dying. Our children are being raised up in a world where women's rights are being taken away and racial injustice and sexual identity intolerance are at a new low. And yet, there are so many wonderful, creative people out there trying to make sense and beauty of the world in the middle of the situations and ideas that threaten us. These brave people recognize that we are in the midst of terrifying times, but are compelled nonetheless to reach toward the beauty within each person and each possibility. It takes courage to take this leap across ideologies and to create a new tolerant world. It is my hope that we are able to balance the forces of fear and desire within each of us, allowing us to trust our neighbors and to open our hearts and minds to new ideas in order to bring peace to our world.

Hi Everyone.It’s finally me. I have a confession: I wasn’t responsible for a single post! Thanks must go to Scout Patterson, who was responsible for the posts while in Italy. She did an amazing job with social media as well keeping us organized in the studio space. For all the patience she had with making the fur. Thank you Scout.
Without the help of so many of you ( JAMESTOWN COMMUNITY especially ) who contributed to the go fund me, my A TEAM wouldn’t have been with me! It wouldn’t have been the project it was them so THANK YOU!!!!
Thank you Xiaoxiao Strong. She stayed with me to the bitter end. She was instrumental in so much of the project, applying the fur to the dog and the final layer on the girl too. As well as completing a minor in business management after working with me all day.. Congratulations Xiaoxiao and huge Thank you!! Okay and a personal highlight was having Hayden with me. What a special experience getting to work with my son. Not only did he keep me laughing, Hayden took on much of the engineering, wood working etc and generally being my task master. He tried his absolute hardest to keep me on schedual. Doing the running around and being my right hand man. I miss you Hayden!!
A special Thank you to Jamie Preira who started the go fund me with Hayden, for getting us started with social media, sending me all your posts and generally going above and beyond! Not only that she spent lots of time with Jesse, constantly sending me updates and images of her. Which made it possible for me to be gone so long!! As so many of you know Jesse along with Hayden and Henry is the love of my life.
Last but not least Thank you to the great crew at the Lucca Biennale. Without all your help and support this adventure would never have happened.

The piece is located in Piazza San Michele one of the most beautiful Piazza in Lucca with the imposing church of San Michele In Foro, founded in the 8th century

Today was the big day!! Very excited to share the final install with you all!

All hands on deck this week as we prepare for install at the end of this week!! We've made some additions to the hair and the dress has come together nicely.

Feeling great about all of the textures we've been able to create on the girl! The contrast between skin and dress really adds something special to the piece. We were sad to see .mansquid and return home on Saturday but and I are continuing to cruise through as install day is fast approaching.

Week four is off to a good start! The girl is almost completely covered in her first layer of paper from head to toe and the dress is starting to take shape! Some finishing touches were added to the dog as well. It's crazy to think we only have about two weeks left in this residency

Yesterday's progress update! Our main focus was the girl. Trying to get the head just right, still working on a direction for the expression of the face but very pleased with how far we've come.

Week 3, Day 3 and all 3 pieces are in the works!! I started working on the mud section for "Long Way Down." This piece will be installed as part of the indoor exhibit of the Paper Bienniale. Progress continues with the construction of the girl and it's so exciting to finally see the dog with her!

There was a connection issue between the instagram page and page. Thanks for your patience as we update the page with what's been happening in Italy this month!

We're in the final stages! Our starving mother is really starting to grow into my vision. More hair was added today as well as some details on her face. We also started constructing the structural inside of the girl today!

Completely blown away by the amount of progress we've made on the dog this week! Hoping to be completely done by the beginning of next week. We are full speed ahead with the girl on Monday as well!

.lucca

The whole team has finally arrived and we've already made such progress on the dog! Tomorrow we'll be in the sculpting phase and almost all patterns for the girl have been cut out.

The evolution of the dog. It is very exciting to officially have it free standing without any other supports.

Thanks to Hayden for his incredible help and photos!

Italy is open for travel and we are all set to go! Thank you so much to the friends and family who have helped make this possible by sending encouraging messages and donating time and money (https://www.gofundme.com/emma-hardy-italy-art-show)

I am so excited to have my son Hayden and my two assistants, Xiaoxiao and Scout, join me for this residency.

The theme, Fear and Desire, is about to come to life with the creation of my piece, "Risky Rewards."

Check out my website: www.emmahardy.net/blog to follow updates on my experience and progress at Lucca Paper Biennale—www.luccabiennale.com

A note from Hayden Mans - Emma's oldest son:

I’ve grown up in and around my mom’s artwork. I’ve come to appreciate the superior art that she’s created and I’ve seen how profoundly it’s touched so many people from our neighbors to gallery goers, to the Burning Man community.

She’s now been invited to the most prestigious event in her career, the Lucca Biennale https://www.luccabiennale.com/en in Italy. This is an incredible and long awaited opportunity for international recognition of my mom’s talents.

And as you well know, financial success for most artists is elusive. While the event will be covering mom’s expenses, she will not be paid or guaranteed any sales from this trip. All her costs to date are out of pocket. She is constructing one of her pieces on site in Italy, a figure of a woman and a dog interacting, the piece will be over 10’ tall and made entirely of paper.

She is allotted 2 assistants and only four weeks to complete the two pieces, however, because of the complexity of the piece and the time constraint, it is crucial that the build goes smoothly. The assistants that will be provided by the event would need to be trained in her unique processes using up precious time for the build. Instead, her goal is to bring the help she needs, one art student from CU that has been helping her with months of prep and myself. If we can raise enough funds for us to make this once in a lifetime trip, we will be able to help my mom streamline the build and create the best piece possible!!

If you’ve ever seen my mom’s work I’m sure you’ll agree it’s really moving. And if you haven’t seen it in person, hopefully you will someday, particularly likely if events like this can lead to more successful commissions. It would be so awesome to see her have a really successful show and this will be a lot easier with the support of her assistants in Italy.

I've set up a GoFundMe to try and raise enough money for her to be able to bring 2 of us to help.

Thank you for considering a donation to the arts. This is a huge opportunity for my mom and we're so proud of her!

You can access the page here: https://gofund.me/24d6fa23