They may seem foreboding, they may be charming: But sculptures, in a frozen pose, reflect part of the human spirit while telling something about their craftsman.
Hillsdale is no stranger to this art.
In the 10th Annual Michigan Small College Art Exhibition this year, Hillsdale college's Casey Hay won first prize and a small endowment of $400.
Other Hillsdale students have won national art competitions and have been able to showcase their work on the east coast.
Tony Frudakis, a professor of sculpting, helps give them their passion.
A teacher by day, he continues molding and creating work that has been featured in galleries throughout the eastern seaboard.
Not only has he garnered national acclaim throughout the country, but his techniques have even been promoted in books like Masters of American Sculpture .
“My most influential teacher is my father,” said Frudakis.
When he was teaching hundreds of students at the National Academy of Design, Frudakis' father took care to finely instruct and encourage his passion for sculpting.
This meticulous concern impacted Frudakis more than any other teacher he had, leaving him indebted and grateful.
“How can I pay this back?” he said.
“I can't pay it back, but I can pass it on.”
Holding nothing back from his students, Frudakis shares his learning through information and knowledge-not just through a particular style.
There are many techniques to creating uniqueness in sculpture.
One can portray eye color through an optical illusion: If you want to make blue eyes, dig into the eyes sparsely.
For a brown eye, carve more deeply. This technique also works with hair color.
Sculpting is an ancient art-prehistoric, in fact.
The earliest statues, such as the Venus of Willendorf , are dated to about 28,000 B.C.
Yet throughout the centuries, from the Venus of Willendorf to Raphael's David , every sculpture has reflected the quality of life.
Human sculptures, as Frudakis said, “try to capture a person's life within a piece reflective of their whole life.”
“One thing about sculpting that is really challenging is to try to express your idea within a fairly confined framework,” he said.
“In other words, a sculptor doesn't have a backdrop to express his ideas. It's a terrific challenge”
Yet sculpting can depict surrounding countryside, since it serves to invigorate and humanize its environment.
It creates a more familiar and aesthetic surrounding to which Frudakis finds we can relate to in theme and scale.
And it is also the culmination of a vast knowledge of science, mathematics and art.
Great artists such as Phidias, Rodin, Michelangelo and Camille Claudel understood the delicate interactions of nature before they could mimic the shape of a leaf or the curl of a wave.
To learn technique, most sculptors had to apprentice many years with a skilled instructor (many sculptors never attained more than apprenticeship).
Many students find four years simply not enough to apprehend all that they need.
So Hillsdale's dedicated sculptors tend to apprentice here a fifth year, specializing in sculpting, before going on to graduate school.
Why return to Hillsdale to keep learning?
“There's a real need in the world today for the kind of young artists that our art department is willing to shape and form,” Frudakis said.
“The world is hungry for true beauty.”