This year's Sculpture Deathmatch was Saturday, April 23. Held during the busiest semester of the academic year and during the absolute busiest part of that semester, the Deathmatch is something that I keep in my head all year. I'm always "thinking" about it. When it should be scheduled is important, but I also have to carefully consider how I'm going to do it. I have to know the date in order to put out the call for volunteers. Then I have to know the volunteers in order to know exactly how I need to divide up the teams. Then I need to know the teams in order to know exactly how much chaos to conjure up during the event.
This year Victor wanted to be in his first Deathmatch and he indicated that desire to me early on. He also suggested that it would be fun for him to be paired with only one other team member, perhaps a freshman. I was very interested in the idea. I love to get mismatched teams and see how they perform under the intense pressures of the Deathmatch.
Soon I had a date set and a large list of volunteers. Shirts and stickers were ordered and the snacks were purchased.
The weather was perfect and there was definitely an excitement in the air. Violet wanted to help again this year and she was appointed as one of the judges. I was up at 4:45 am to run and after coffee, she and I were headed to school.
Freshmen are reluctant to participate in the Deathmatch because they don't know a lot of people and the whole idea is ridiculous even before you consider that a freshman has no sculpture experience. I recruited MG because I liked her energy during plaster pouring day. She admitted she was apprehensive but she still jumped at the chance for an adventure. She joined Victor to create Team Ducks.
Team Leave It On The Horse was a bit of a super-group. Michael, Georgia, Lux, Abbie, and ECoop have a lot of sculpture classes in their past. Michael and ECoop are return contestants and none of them are afraid of anything. Seriously, any one of these students would make a good solo contestant.
At 8:45 am the teams were announced along with the rules of the day. Each team was given a 12" steel sphere, 60 feet of 3/8" steel rod, and a plastic container filled with recycled plastic lids. All of these materials had to be used in the creation of their sculpture. Other materials could be used as well, but they had to use all of the provided materials. They were also asked to pick a number between 1 and 5 with no explanation. Team Ducks chose 4.5. Team Leave It On The Horse chose 1.
Both teams understood the importance of using time wisely so they immediately got to work.
It was interesting to see MG jump right into an important role working with Victor to create their design.
MG also got a crash course in using the plasma torch. Victor showed her the basics and then left her to cut out shapes while he formed them with a hammer.
Meanwhile, the opposing team was multitasking with everyone doing a different job and moving very quickly.
Providing annoying hourly time updates is a fun part of the event. This year Hannah reprised her role as our Deathmatch Hannah-Hannah Clock. Each hour she posed with a new tool to announce the time.
During the afternoon hours, several trips were made to get supplies. A couple of food runs and a supply run to Lowe's and Walmart were necessary. The teams continued working while I took my Minions to gather supplies.
Our friend Abigail was in town on a job and she stopped by to visit. Seeing Victor in anguish caused her to step in and see how she could help. Team Ducks needed a few tutus for their dancers and Abigail was on it. She took some measurements, some fabric and some wire and disappeared for a couple of hours.
I love teaching people how to use power tools and I especially love teaching people how to weld. As the 2 person team struggled to divide up the labor, MG quickly needed to know how to weld. My favorite part of the day was getting to teach her. She showed no fear and was a natural at it. Within 10 minutes she was welding completely on her own.
By this time, Team LIOTH was already painting their sculpture outside. They began with a simple idea for using their materials and just kept stacking more ideas on top. Each team member was providing input and helping to solve problems. Even with 5 team members, they still ran into their fair share of issues but they were moving right along with no outward signs of panic.
Around 7:00 pm, Team LIOTH was putting on finishing touches and planning their installation. Georgia volunteered her truck to move the sculpture, saving a lot of time and effort. Soon the sculpture was oriented on the pedestal and safely anchored. Then they made a few final adjustments and they were done!
Team Leave It On The Horse with their spider family sculpture. A job well done. They worked together as well as any team in Deathmatch history and Micheal didn't burn his hands off this year. They were now able to relax and wait to see if the other team would finish.
Panic had set in on Team Ducks. As the minutes ticked away, major design changes were required. Victor and MG worked together to come up with solutions and there was a lot of movement in that final hour. As the clock neared 8:00 pm, other heroes stepped in to help. Katherine helped MG with some tasks while Ethan appeared like an angel and became a crucial helper in that last hour.
Team LIOTH was watching and Georgia offered to let Team Ducks use her truck to save time. Soon there was a large crowd gathered in the dark at the final pedestal. Victor and MG applied paint while Ethan held the sculpture in place. A few anchors were placed and around 8:45 pm the second sculpture was installed, just 15 minutes before the deadline.
A very relieved and exhausted Team Ducks posed with their sculpture. We all went back to the studio to clean up and put away tools before heading out to dinner.
So who won?
Well, most of the judges were present during the Deathmatch and witnessed the spectacle. We let the dust settle and on Monday all the judges saw the finished sculptures in daylight. Each judge turned in their vote to me and the winner is......
Team Leave It On The Horse! Congratulations to Michael, Abbie, Lux, Georgia and ECoop!
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