12/30/16
Finished the Christmas Projects that were mentioned in the entry of 12/10 below. Click the picture to see the finished St. Joseph.
Click here to see the finished Teacher that was commissioned by my 6th grade teacher, Mr. Traut. He saw my little sculpture honoring him and liked it enough to ask if it was for sale.
12/10/16
Been working on alot of Christmas projects lately. One has been difficult between having to resculpt part of it and the mold material not curing right, but things are getting done. Click the picture to see some of the projects.
10/21/16
October has been a little crazy. Since paid commissions have been down, I signed up do do a thing called #creativesprint where they give me a prompt every day of October. The challenge is to make something inspired by that prompt each day. I've limited myself to making only sculptural solutions to these "assignments". You can see the results so far by clicking the image here.
9/26/16
It has been a while since I did a serious drawing. This practice piece was done as a demonstration for my 8th grade class. It turned out so nice that I decided to place it in my 2016 Sketches page. Click the image at the left to see a larger image.
If you haven't see the sketches from last year, you can click here to see some of the better ones.
9/18/16
I saw Charlie and told my wife I wanted to sculpt a portrait of him because of his perfect nose and cool beard. She said, "That's creepy." Her comment, however, didn't stop me from asking him if I could take some pictures.
Since this isn't a commission, I did a speed sculpt session, trying to get as far as I could in an hour. I even took a video of it. But the thing glitched so the vid is unusable outside the camera.
I guess you'll have to settle for process pictures that you can see by clicking the image here. (Oh, and if you're wondering how far I got in an hour, This is the page to look at.
8/25/16
For me it's fun to play with a new face. I found one in Megan and had a great time all alone in the studio, music cranked and lost in "making". (not "creating" because that implies making something out of nothing. God does that but I can't. All I do is make the clay look like something.)
Have a look at how Megan's sculpture evolved by clicking the image here.
8/10/16
Just stumbled across a radio interview where Melissa K. talked about the sculpted portrait I did of her. Very flattering but not entirely accurate.
Made me feel important tough. Click image here to be brought to her portrait page, then click the link to the MP3 audio file. Or click here to be brought to the KFGO radio page.
7/27/16
Art can be therapeutic. I felt like him but after 2 hours of sculpting on this half-lifesize bust titled, "Lost(soul)", I felt better.
Today, however, I experienced how computers are taking away work from sculptors. I was commissioned to do a portrait of a Marine, Brian St. Germain, but found out today (after putting in hours of work on the sculpt) that they used a computer and 3D printer to "print" a foam statue --Including the face. So now all we have to do is put a thin layer of clay over it.
Ever wonder why artists ask for half down and half upon completion. Because of stuff like this where someone commissions a project only to cancel it after I've put in TONS of time. Ugh!
7/24/16
After updating the "
Recent Additions" section today, I realized that I didn't blog about MeLissa's rough portrait.
MeLissa is the Communications Coordinator and Media Producer for Fargo's Arts Partnership. She was interviewing Brad Bachmeier about the Park brick sculpture and he introduced us. After talking about what I do, I offered to show her by doing a quick portrait of her and recording it. The result can be seen by clicking the image here. Be sure to watch the video too.
It's a "rough" portrait because I wasn't able to finish it as it was destroyed in transport from Fargo.
7/23/16
Sooooo fun working on my own projects. Worked on the hands of my Exuberance sculpt. Click the image here to see how tiny those little hands really are.
Also, be sure to check out the progress on the Fargo Park Project by
clicking here.
6/25/16
A lizard that's 30 ft. long and an 11 ft. tall archway are progressing with the help of many volunteers. More pictures have been added to the Fargo's Madison Community Park Project.
Click the image here to see how this enormous project is progressing.
6/18/16
Another large brick project is in the works and I am privileged to be part of it. Carving brick is not necessarily "fun" but to be working with Brad Bachmeier on another project is always enjoyable (despite the long hours and torturously tough brick clay).
The project is for Fargo's Madison Community Bike/skate Park. We are carving an eleven foot high entry arch and a 30 foot long lizard park bench out of bricks.
Brad is organizing a large community of volunteers to help make this a success. Countless artists, students and interested community members are volunteering their time and talents to the cause.
Click the image here to see how this enormous project is progressing. And click here to visit the official website.
6/10/16
I'm very happy to announce that another piece was finished this week. I'm particularly happy with the bronze patina because it's so vivid and shiny. This is an example of how a finished clay sculpture can be made to look like Bronze at a fraction of the cost. A bronze this size (2/3 scale) would cost over $8000. This clay version is around $2000.
As always, Contact me with inquiries!
5/25/16
Much of my work is done a a part of a larger project so the finished sculpture is a team effort. It's always fun to see the finished products of those pieces. The little girl in pigtails seen here is a perfect example. The dress was done earlier and then the face made separately later on.
The Brian Moore portrait was installed recently as well. Click here to see the finished bronze.
4/11/16
Today was a good day. I finished two projects. One was in the works for a while now and finally recieved final approval from the parents and police station in New York. Brian Moore's portrait evolved more than most of my portrait commissions. It's interesting to see the slight variations that helped make it a better portrait. Click the image above to see that sculpture evolve.
The second is a re-working of a sculpture I did in 2015. The client wanted pigtails on the little girl and wanted the face changed a little. Click here to see that one.
3/31/16
This blog is usually about my business. But lately between getting lessons ready for my students at two schools and sculpting, I haven't had time to blog about the business end of things. But tonight I'm taking 15 minutes out of my way too hectic schedule to blog about something fun.
The first Lego set my brother and I got was the one pictured at right. He and I always shared the pieces and, after a while probably lost many of those pieces. This weekend I received that lego set again. I found it in France and had it shipped over. (Shipping costs were as much as the set itself.) So after over 40 years, I finally am able to build the models pictured on the box. Click the picture here to see a happy me.
Some people buy Corvettes during their midlife crisis. I buy lego.
3/6/16
I always pray that my kids have talents and abilities that allow them to support themselves and their family. Lately Andrew has been making pots and he's pretty good.
We've been talking about Pottery Apprenticeships and are planning visits to area potter's shops to learn about their experiences and advice. His research into potters and apprenticeships has brought to my attention many videos that I've recently used in my high school classes. After watching one about Richard Bresnehan and Warren Mackenzie I realized how fortunate I was to apprentice under Bob Eckels in 1996. (Click here to read the 1993 Ceramics Monthly article about Bob's shop.) A picture of me at that time can be found in the Sandy Hagist memorial page here.
Alot of story retelling, remeniscing, remembering on my part over the last month or so. It's fun to have a kid that appreciates some of the same things I do.
2/18/16
Of all my portrait sculptures I'm most happy with Karen's. I love her hair and cute little nose.
She asked that I don't put it on Facebook or on my website. But after discussing the matter, she admitted that her issue with the sculpture is that it looks too much like her and she doesn't like looking in the mirror.
IF she were a paying client, I'd respect her wishes, but at this point, it's my favorite portrait sculpture and I love looking at it (because I love looking at her) and since she's my wife, I think I'll post pictures and deal with the consequences later.
1/29/16
More little sculptures here. I count myself lucky that I can still be employed to make 2/3 scale police equipment. Soon 3D printing will price me out of a job because of the perfect accuracy on such straight-lined and small sculptures.
1/17/16
I can finally show the finished portrait of Catherine. This project had to be put on hold since September because of an extraordinary amount of urgent commissions.
Be sure to click through to the comparison pictures and let me know your thoughts.
1/11/16
A lifesize soldier clay-over job kept me busy for a good while before Christmas.
Here you can see what I worked on. This was made for a waste mold. A mold will be made over this rough clay, a new wax will be cast and details added. Then a final mold will be made to cast the wax for a finished bronze. Click the image here to learn more.
1/08/16
A former student asked if I had ever carved a skull. After searching my computer I realized there was no picture of the skull I sculpted back in 1996. So to remedy that oversight, I'm posting it here today.
I made this skull as a study to better understand how a person's face is constructed.
So as a way of starting the new year I'm blogging something from the distant past. Ironic isn't it?
I've been busy working alot of small commissions lately but have used my time to sculpt instead of update the website. Eventually I'll get this thing updated so you can see where my time has been spent and what things I've made.
