I’m confident the answer to the initial question is “yes”, but in my little corner of the world I’ve never met a sculptor - no students, no teachers, no amateurs or professionals - and I don’t recall hearing about significant sculptures being erected anywhere in the last few decades.
Sculpting fascinates me, but I’m totally ignorant of how it works. If you’re a sculptor -
- when/how did you start? Do you start with clay and pottery?
- How do you “practice”? Play-doh? Gotta imagine it’s different based on your preferred medium?
- do artists still use marble? Seems like it’d be insanely expensive & one mistake screws the whole thing up
Although it’s been sporadic for him as he is no professional, my dad has always sculpted as his creative outlet. His best work being from the time period after we lost my mom. His chosen medium are various woods, but when I had an interest myself, he would show me carving techniques in soap bars and create initial sculpture(s) in clay before attempting to remove material on the final workpiece. I only made a couple things in wood, but I got more into charcoal drawing and music and didn’t explore the third dimension much more (until I got into modeling on the computer for practical/machining purposes). I imagine CAD design and 3d modeling programs likely had an impact on the interest in physical sculpture in general.