The Plaster Cast as Sculpture
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Jasper Johns, a well known American sculptor, became famous through the use of plaster as his art media. His sculptures basically consisted of people encased in plaster, for which he utilized real people and used plaster bandages, very much like a doctor would use these to secure an injured limb. His works are now shown in major art galleries throughout America, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Modern Art Gallery .
Today, people visit the above museums to view the works of Jasper Johns, and art critics have written galore about the great plastic quality of his art works and plaster sculptures. Was Jasper Johns a plaster cast admirer? Nobody has raised that question, but one thing is for sure: art fans and art critics have found his plaster cast sculptures to be great pieces of art; and they flock to museums to see his sculptures and find beauty in it.
Then, there are some of us who may not be into art, but admire the beauty of a plaster encased leg or arm, just like art fans and critics do. The difference is that the works of art which we admire are placed by medical doctors rather than by an artist, but the cast is still as beautiful as if it was made by an sculptor. In fact, some of the plaster casts which we see on people's legs and arms are beautifully and smoothly finished,very much as an artist would finish a work of art.
The works of Jasper Johns are still and there is no life to them. But the works which we cast admirers enjoy watching, move, and inside of them there is a limb which is very much alive. To watch a woman´s plaster encased leg go through the paces of walking is like poetry in motion, there is beauty in that cast and there is life inside of that cast; which is not something which you would find in every plaster sculpture made by an artist.
Some people prefer to go to an art museum to see plaster casts sculptures made by an artist, while some of us prefer to take a leisure walk outdoors and see live plaster sculptures, like a slender leg encased in a plaster cast. We don´t need to go to an art museum to see works of art made out of plaster, because we can find live works of art walking right by us. And one nice thing, is that the wearers of these live pieces of art, can talk to us and let us know what their injured limb feels like inside of that cast.
While some art fans collect art books full of photographs of plaster sculptures, we cast admirers like to collect photos of limbs in plaster casts. Is there a difference between the two hobbies? And are we any different than those who admire the plaster sculptures of Jasper Johns?
Every person who is reading this article has spent numerous hours surfing through the Net, hoping that by chance we would find someone who would share our secret interest and with whom we could freely talk about a subject which a lot of people in society would consider taboo, but yet they flock to art museums to see sculptures made out of the same material and made in the same manner as a doctor would apply a surgical cast on a patient.
The page that has been made available to us by Bob is to be used as an exchange media by all of us, cast admirers; who for years have had to go at it alone, and often times we began to think that we were the only person in this earth who considered a plaster cast over an injured limb to be a beautiful item. As the weeks go by, I´m sure that we´ll see the number in the site visitor counter increase rapidly, and we´ll come to the realization that we are not just a handful in the world but a rather substantial number of people.
In the meantime, lets get our thoughts out in the open for everyone of us worldwide to enjoy, and hopefully more sites about plaster casts will come on line.