At age four, Josué Benjamín Figueroa began making sculptures with clay.
Now, at 15, he hopes to achieve the Guinness World Record with a 20-foot sculpture of Saint Augustine.
The sculpture is located in the city of Guacara in Carabobo State in Venezuela. It is made of fiberglass-reinforced resin. It also has an internal metal structure to give the sculpture stability.
To achieve this great feat, Figueroa needed the tireless work of at least 10 people.
“Blacksmiths are needed to create the metal structure precisely because it has to support the weight of the clay to model and mount the clay on the structure so that I can do the modeling," Figueroa told Telemundo 51.
On his Instagram account, Josué shared the final result of the sculpture and said he takes pride in building something so great at his age.
“Imagine how proud and happy I feel that just a few years ago, I was making clay dolls, and today this six-meter [20-foot] sculpture of Augustine of Hippo that I made is installed. It's incredible what practice, dedication and discipline can do. It's so important, you can achieve anything.”
"Today I present to you the largest sculpture of Saint Augustine of Hippo in the world and the largest sculpture made by a 15-year-old boy.”
Josué asked users to share the post, which generated 336,000 likes. He also explained the importance of Saint Augustine of Hippo.
“For those who don't know, Augustine of Hippo was an extremely important theologian, one of the most important for the Catholic Church, for the Christian Church, and the Church in general, and it is one of the most impressive stories of redemption that there has ever been.”
Josué also shared a video of the inside of the sculpture:
Discovering Sculpting as a Child
Figueroa told Telemundo 51 that he discovered sculpting at age four thanks to his father.
“I have 11 years of experience, how crazy! I remember that I wanted a toy that my mom couldn’t buy me, so when my dad realized this, he bought a box of clay and made me the toy that I wanted out of clay.”
“Then he taught me that I could create anything, any toy I wanted I could create with my hands. When I discovered this, it was a huge illusion. At that time, my father only made that little Mario to show me how to use clay and that I could achieve anything with that material.”
Figueroa's art has carried him a long way in the years since.
In 2021, he started his own show “El Taller de Josué” ("Joshua's Workshop") on Nickelodeon, the same year he won the "Inspiration of the Year" award at the Kids' Choice Awards.
“With my hands I am forging a future, opening the doors to a world of possibilities for emerging young artists. With this new six-meter sculpture, I tell them that if you can build a future in art, if you can dream big, with discipline and a lot of practice you will see how your dreams take shape,” he said on social media.