Sculpture Portfolio
“Tuquski’ wa Suwa”
The Obispeño [Northern Chumash] language for Bear and Child. Life sized Bronze, commissioned by the past Mayor Ken Schwartz, Bea Von Stein and Myron Graham as gift to the city of San Luis Obispo, California. Installed in the plaza of the Mission de San Luis Obispo de Telosa. -1988
My vision for this piece was to honor the two major life forms of this particular area on the central coast of California, as they were before the influx of the Spanish and others from the European continent. The model for the child was a young Chumash girl from the Santa Ynez tribe.
Later two bear cubs and a steelhead fish were added to the group at the request of the donors family. I had always thought of the bear as a female Grizzly, so I felt it was an appropriate addition, giving a feeling of hope and future.
“happy dance”
A commissioned piece that stars on the page “The making of a bronze”. The motive was to celebrate the family’s two young, now adult, happy delightful kids. It stands about 40” tall. about 25” wide.
The mother of the family loves the poetry of ee cummings, hence the title.
They gave me free rein on the design, so it was particularly fun to do.
“Large Bronze Rabbit”
Also known as “Hare I Am” This really is a large one, about 22” to the top of his ears.
“Cal”
This large bronze FROG’s name comes from the story of the Jumping frog of Calaveras, by Mark Twain, named fondly by the family that commissioned him. He is rather large for a frog, about 34” wide, 30” tall, and 40” long.
Bronze Fish- Steelhead, w 3.5" x h 15" x L 23.5”
Same Steelhead, different view.
“Little Man Holding the World”
This is a small sized piece, 2.75” wide, 3.75” tall, and 4.5” long.
I’d love to see this one enlarged to a much larger size. I’m one of those people who were inspired by Carl Sagan’s talk about the Small Blue Dot, (About 40 years ago the camera on the Voyager 1 was turned back towards our Earth as it shot out into space and sent back a photo showing the Earth, our home, visible only as a pale blue dot.)
Giovani the Rooster, bronze. A handsome fellow. w 4"x h 12.5" x D 7.5”
“Pond Spirit”
Bronze, 14” wide, 24” tall.
This was created for two dear friends who created a place for me to live on their small estate. In exchange for a few pieces of artwork. I lived there for about three very happy years. What they wanted in particular was a “pond spirit”.
“hand carved street address”
About 20” wide, 26”wide
Carved into a slab of a local stone, I’m not sure what it was, softer than granite, not as soft as soap stone.
Another piece created for the same two dear friends above.
“Racoon”
Bronze 14” wide, 24” tall.
Some people don’t like Raccoons, I have many happy memories of them. There was a family, two or three generations of them that would come to our front porch and politely eat along side the cats out of their own bowl. it was a harmonious group.
“Mattie, angel dog”
Bronze 12” wide, 8” tall.
A friend asked me to do a sculpture of her dog Mattie, who had passed on, to mark his grave site. This turned into a series for more of her animals and a few for other people’s animals. They were originally cast in concrete and then some experimental outdoor mediums that didn’t work too well, then resin which was beautiful, but not great for the environment. Now they are available in bronze, I suppose that’s not great for the environment either, but at least it will never be floating around in the ocean.
“Dakota”
This is one of a group in the same style later translated into a series of large figures for children to play on, sold to parks and other recreation places for SportRock Intl.
“Peaches”
Peaches was the beloved cat who greeted customers at the Volumes of Pleasure Bookshoppe in Los Osos, California.
“The Great Twirly Piece”
This was created for an exhibit at the Cal Poly Union Gallery. I’d been learning to weld and use a plasma cutter, for cutting shapes from sheet metal. The figures turn when the ropes were pulled. The ropes had to be removed later when it was installed outdoors as sometimes kids would spin it too fast or try to climb the ropes.
That’s all for now, I’ll add some new images. Take a look at the Works in Progress page for some studio photos.