Divine sculpting.(using Cyberware's laser scanners)

With braided hair, simple clothing and bare head and arms, the 8-foot-tall statue of the Virgin Mary in the recently dedicated Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles deviates from her usual portrayal with flowing robes, a veil, and a halo. Just as Mary's depiction defies the traditional, so did the methods used to create it.

The 1000-pound statue is the work of sculptor Robert Graham, who initially handcrafted a 30-inch model from plastilene, an oil- and wax-based clay that holds detail but does not harden. From that, he generated a mold and polyurethane cast, used to design the clothing. After this version was approved by the archdiocese of Los Angeles, it was digitized at Scansite in Woodacre California, so that the much larger version could be realized.

Technology was central to achieving the detail and subtlety required to convey Graham's vision. "The challenge I set was to make [Mary] majestic while dispensing with the usual trappings and signals of majesty," says Graham of his statue. "There is no crown, no scepter, no throne; only her regal beauty, her invincible self-possession, and the abstract perfection of her gown, like an apparition in its wrinkle-free smoothness and impossible triangle symmetry."

Before it was scanned, the polyurethane cast was painted gray to ensure flat, even surfaces. Then, technicians at Scansite digitized the object using a Cyberware MM laser scanner for the head, which required more detail, and a Cyberware MS3030 for the rest. "Once the point-cloud data was collected from multiple scans of the entire model, we separated the figure into pieces and conducted detailed scans of the head, body, arms, hands, and feet," says Noriko Fujinami, director of Robert Graham Studios. This enabled the group to capture all the necessary geometry of the organic structure.

The ...