The patriotic theme for National Post Card Week 2009 would be based on a new sculpture relief. After many sketches, I arrived at a satisfactory design of a patriotic manhole cover for a sidewalk scene.

USA Manhole Cover

Once it was completed, I set it into a durable foam piece. To look authentic, it needed random sidewalk cracks. My reference photos of paving cracks helped me to plan. I gouged several meandering crevices from the USA cover’s edge and painted the depths black.

 

 

Relief Edge

Believe it or not, finishing the relief edge was very time consuming. The top layer was of cement embedded with crushed stone. The lower level was pebble filled dirt. Lots of holes had to be punched into the foam for the pebbles to “take root.”

The final task involved some creative thinking and practice in lettering. What would a child write on the sidewalk? “I luv the USA!” fit the space. Young children often write “luv” for love and some of their letters are written backwards. Whose name should I use? Molly was perfect. It was old fashioned and it complimented the scene.

 

The 2009 post card can be seen under my website bio.

https://bobbimastrangelo.com/postcards.php