Madame Pele by Scott Zuziak
- Madame Pele by Scott Zuziak – A couple years after the 2018 eruption, I hiked to the top of Ahuʻailāʻau (Fissure 8 in Puna) and stood atop the pu’u. Still smoldering, the destruction and beauty of Pele’s creation took my breathe away. At that moment, I knew I had to capture this experience in a piece of art. In mid 2022, I began with sketches of my vision. When the drawings were complete, I began sculpting a 5:1 scaled mock-up in clay. When the clay mock-up was complete, I began the woodworking stage by preparing the wood and laminating a solid wood carving blank, weighing over 350 lbs. I began rough carving the wood blank with crude equipment like electric chainsaws and grinders to remove wood quickly and achieve the general shapes. Before any detail began, 1:1 scaled models of the hands and feet were sculpted in clay to reduce the chance of errors in the fingers, toes, skin folds and nails. I would continue carving more detail with hand chisels & gouges, rotary tools, and finally with high speed micro machines that dentists use on teeth. After countless hours of sanding and detail work, the piece was sealed with a spar urethane and stained using brushes and a single color oil paint. The different transparencies / intensities of the sienna brown color is due to thicker application of the brushed finish. In total, over 500 hours was dedicated to Madame Pele over the course of 1.5 years. She measures approximately 64” wide X 48” tall X 12” thickness. She weighs approx. 250 lbs. The piece can hang on a wall or a custom easel can be made for table top display.
- Mahalo for views – Scott Zuziak, The Puna Carver
