Archives for Sculpture

Big Vision, Big Energy

Big Vision, Big Energy

June 15, 2023 | by

To truly appreciate a piece of Brenna Kimbro’s art, you first have to back up, way up, taking in the full scope of the thing. Then you have to get up really close, cheek to jowl, observing the fine details that comprise the entire creation. Zoom out, panning from nose to tail; zoom in, picking up the dancing of hooves, the flare of a nostril. These paintings and sculptures, many of them larger than life, are the work of an artist who clearly has no reservations about taking up space. “My tendency is to make things enormous,” Kimbro says. “I
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‘The Harder You Work, the Luckier You Get’

‘The Harder You Work, the Luckier You Get’

May 4, 2023 | by

“It’s another day in paradise,” says sculptor and gallery owner Ken Rowe, savoring his view of Sedona, Arizona’s, snowcapped mountains. “We’ve been here 28 years now, and I never tire of it.” A self-described Arizona boy through and through, Rowe was born in Phoenix to an electrical engineer and an amateur painter—a combination Rowe credits as foundational to his art. “Growing up, without even knowing it, I had this wonderful influence of the mechanical aspect of life through my dad’s career and the artistic pursuits from my mother’s side.” Although his mother never made a career of her painting, she
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Inspired by Nature

Inspired by Nature

January 5, 2023 | by

After more than 40 years as an artist, Margery Torrey has sculpted a myriad of subjects. She’s done pigs, puffins, and people. She’s created eagles and antelope. She’s designed a full-on steeplechase scene with multiple horses racing for the prize. Until last summer, however, she had never sculpted a sailboat. Even so, she didn’t hesitate to accept the commission when it came. It was a request from the children of a dear friend and was intended to be a gift for their father’s 85th birthday. “When she asked me about it, his daughter said, ‘We know it’s not what you
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Poignant Moments

Poignant Moments

November 3, 2022 | by

Colorado-based low relief sculptor J.D. (Jeremiah) Welsh spent much of the past year working in secret. The award-winning member of the National Sculpture Society (NSS) is no stranger to producing complex works on tight deadlines, but he poured many months and 23 years’ worth of skill into one special, small object: the Brookgreen Medal. “I honestly never thought I’d have the chance to do it,” Welsh says of the medal, which honors the prestigious Brookgreen Gardens sculpture garden in South Carolina and is presented to artists who ear the Anna Huntington Hyatt Award at the NSS’ annual awards exhibition. It
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Turning Chaos Into Order

Turning Chaos Into Order

September 1, 2022 | by

When Evelyn Tennyson, owner of Two Old Crows Gallery in Pagosa Springs, Colorado, asked Dave LaMure to create a monumental sculpture in honor of her late husband’s passion—trout fishing—he hesitated before giving her a de!nite answer. “I said, ‘Let me research it,'” he recalls. LaMure was so focused on the unique vessels he was making that he wasn’t sure he wanted to take time away from those creations to take on a trout commission. That changed as he began his research and became hooked on the story of the Native Cutthroat Trout, which was thought to be extinct for 70
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Boundless Talent, Boundless Energy

Boundless Talent, Boundless Energy

June 30, 2022 | by

Star Liana York’s energy knows no bounds. Neither does her talent. She’s not only been creating award-winning sculptures for more than four decades, she also owns and runs a ranch with her husband and operates an Airbnb. After competing in horse events and breeding and training horses for many years, she has set that aside. There are, after all, only so many hours in a day, most of which York fills with creating magnificent sculptures that have earned her countless awards and are treasured by collectors. York’s monumental sculptures are placed at sites throughout the country that include the Smithsonian
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Sudden Inspiration

Sudden Inspiration

May 1, 2022 | by

Tim Whitworth gets lost in creating. Ideas for a sculpture can overtake him at any minute, setting his mind in motion on every facet of its design. “I can be driving down the highway, and if I see something I’ll ask myself, ’Now, how do I put that into 3D?’” he says. “I’ll go through it in my mind.” That sudden inspiration also has its drawbacks. “Sometimes I get an idea about a piece,” Whitworth says. “I’ll get it designed, go through the process—design what it will look like, create the patina – then maybe won’t do it. I’ll do
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Putting Marrow In The Bones

Putting Marrow In The Bones

March 1, 2022 | by

“I used to sit at Clark’s desk and draw. Who does that?” Acclaimed Western sculptor Richard Greeves is reminiscing about his childhood in St. Louis, Missouri, and yes, he’s talking about that Clark: Captain William Clark, of Lewis and Clark. Greeves’ childhood home, a stone’s throw from the Louisiana Purchase celebration grounds, afforded him the opportunity to serve as an unpaid gofer at the Missouri History Museum where he would rummage through the archives and make himself comfortable on the explorers’ furniture. “Back in those days, nobody thought much about it,” he says with a laugh. “They just thought of
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Finishing Touches: An Interview With Erik Petersen

Finishing Touches: An Interview With Erik Petersen

March 1, 2022 | by

Artists often have interesting backgrounds most of us never hear about or read about. Erik Petersen is one of them. Many notable sculptors—such as Susan Kliewer and Kim Kori—started out working at bronze foundries. Deborah Copenhaver Fellows started her own foundry, while Kim Obrzut did much of her own foundry work when she first began to cast bronzes. Ken Rowe, a well-known taxidermist, is very hands-on during the bronze process as is John Coleman who even did his own patinas. Read the full article in the March/April 2022 issue. Photo courtesy of Willie Petersen
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‘This is My Life’

‘This is My Life’

January 1, 2022 | by

Sculptor Chris Hunt has dislocated each of his shoulders at least four times and broken both clavicles, both scapulae, and a couple of ribs. The Texas-born artist and former Air Force senior airman has always jumped feet first into new things, be it riding in rodeos or introducing a new medium to his repertoire. “‘No fear’ was my mantra, and still is to this day,” he says. Hunt grew up in Damon, Texas, on a ranch on the Brazos River, where he was raised by his father Maurice and had no problem amusing himself by drawing, fishing, hunting, and riding
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