So I was watching the Discovery channel about six months ago and was introduced a tribal type of branding called scarification. The program was a documentary that followed the day to day lives of an African tribe.

Scarification is the act of creating shallow cuts in the skin to form designs and patterns. What happens is that the cuts would scar up forming bumps in the skin. The many bumps together formed a pattern on the body hence creating a form of tribal art. Although scarification is not anything that I would want to do to my body, I have to admit that many of the designs are beautiful to look at. I’ve been wanting to sculpt a nude for some time because I knew it would be a great challenge for me.

Most of my figurative sculptures are of very muscular males and sculpting a woman, especially a nude, is not something that I have a lot of experience with. When it comes to my art I like to do things that are a little different then the norm. I love African art and a lot of the African culture so from the beginning I wanted to sculpt an African tribal woman. However, I wanted to do something different than the everyday sculptures that you see for this type of art.

While trying to come up with a unique idea for a sculpture I had flashed back to the scarification documentation that I watched several months ago. I knew that this is something that I had to give a try. It was going to be a great challenge and a very unique piece for me to create.

So with a little research on the web I finally come up with a unique idea for a sculpture that has everything that I am looking for.

1. The sculpture will be tastefully done as a nude which helps me improve my skills as a figurative sculpture.

2. My goal is to create a piece that makes you think without being offensive.

3. I want the subject of this piece to exemplify beauty but not in the traditional sense of beauty.

4. Last but not least I want to create a variety of different textures for a type of art that would traditionally be smooth.

I laid out some big challenges in front of me and here are the step-by-step tutorials on how I created Indigenous Allure.

• indigenous - originating in and characteristic of a particular region or country; native (often fol. by to): the plants indigenous to Canada; the indigenous peoples of southern Africa.
• allure - to attract or tempt by something flattering or desirable.