Dimensions - 18 x 12 x 8 inches

Materials - Sugar Maple (head, cravat, buttons); Black Cherry (coat, pedestal, base)

Time Frame - April 20 - May 29, 2004 (94 hours total time logged)

Collection of the Freedom Forum / First Amendment Center

1207 18th Avenue South - Nashville, TN

The first few Presidents lived before the invention of photography, so, except for life masks, the original source images of them have all been filtered through the biased eyes of the various artists who painted or sculpted them when they were alive. The only way I know to proceed on a carving with this kind of source limitations is to clip as many sources as possible on a board and let my own biased eye try to average them out. I also like to read a biography and hope that a bit of knowledge about the subject's character will somehow seep into the portrait. For this portrait I read James Madison by Gary Willis, The American Presidents Series, Henry Holt and Company, LLC.

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