Inspiration to sculpt great Italians

In 2004, after I returned home from a trip to Italy I decided I wanted to give myself a HUGE challenge and create a series of life size bronze sculptures of influential and great Italians, from any era in history through today. Niccolo Paganini was the first life size cast in bronze. And this of Alberta Brianti was the second one finished in bronze. Why Italians? My grandpa Betti’s family came from Lucca which is a small city in the Tuscany region. On this trip I visited the small city of Lucca and went to a phone book just for the heck of it and saw several pages of Betti’s listed. I never felt so at home seeing Betti after Betti listed! I wanted to call each and every one of them and express the joy I felt and make a complete fool of myself. “Hi I’m a Betti too!!”. But I didn’t. As an American I was always “Betty” first then Sutton. It used to make me so frustrated as a kid, but when i saw how common of a name it was not only in Lucca, but in much of Tuscany I connected more to my roots then I had before.… this idea was born from that experience and its one I’ll never forget; sculpt Italians and do it just because. Hoping to one day return to this series with a new sculpture.

Every so often I’ll post “A Day in the Life”. For you, the reader. And for my mom, so she knows I’m working. 

A Day in the Life of a Sculptor; November 6, 2022

Day 1 of 2; I got out of bed at 4:30 am, mostly wide awake because I couldn’t sleep. That tends to be my normal before I leave for an install. I had decided a couple of days before leaving that I’d load up the sculptures first thing in the morning rather than the day before. The ten sculptures I took to West Point, Nebraska were seven battlefield crosses, one saluting US Navy and two Vietnam medals.

The night before Jessica suggested I try to fit all ten bronze sculptures in my truck and not haul a trailer. I quickly reacted with “do you know what I’m hauling???”  And afterwards said to her “I’ll think about it”. Well it turns out she was right; all 900 pounds of bronze sculptures fit in my truck. And therefore no trailer was needed (Thank you, Jessica!)

The eight hour drive was very peaceful. These drives across state lines usually are for me. Especially going to a familiar place in West Point, where I can look forward to visiting my client and friend Earl. Earl has continuously bought sculptures from me for the past ten or so years. I was fortunate to have a pair of Bluetooth headphones with me so I listened to a good amount of Bruce Springsteen and a podcast called Artholes that delves into the crazy lives of famous artists. With the earbuds in and mind-wandering the drive went fast.

Bohemian Duck!

When I arrived Earl invited me to dinner at a wonderful restaurant; the Bohemian Duck. His daughter, grandson and an employee Casey met us. Bohemian Duck is in downtown West Point. Although I had heard of their food from Earl I wouldn’t have guessed it would turn out to be anything comparable to a cafe in Paris or a small restaurant in SF. This was a small town after all. Boy, was I wrong! The salmon was the best. Since I love to cook I had to find out what went into this delicious meal. However, I was stopped short as the waitress wouldn’t share the chefs secret ingredient. She did say the fish is flown in weekly. And… they don’t freeze the fish. So what you get is as fresh as it comes. For the eleven years I’ve been coming to West Point this was my first great meal.

A Day in the Life; November 7, 2022

Installation and Military Memorabilia

Delta Force, work in progress

For the past couple of months my team and I have been working hard on this special ops soldier. The 74 inch clay sculpture will be cast in bronze this year and installed in a beautiful Veterans Memorial park near the Eau Claire river in Wisconsin. The life size sculpture is one of several that will be installed in this large park that will honor thirteen American wars starting with the American Revolution and ending with this sculpture representing the Global War on Terror.

The soldier that it captures is Delta Force from the early 2000’s. With all of the details involved in the sculpture I worked closely with a military historian for accuracy. The sculpture will be installed in 2023.

New sculpting studio

Last month I moved into a new sculpture studio. This new 2200 square foot studio space is being used entirely for clay sculpting. The other two studios (located 3 miles away) are used for the labor intensive steps of turning clay into bronze.

Although it has been many years since I’ve had my own sculpture studio that wasn’t a shared space (17 years to be exact) I immediately felt at home in this new space. Of course, it helps that the area is still used for artists studios and that my new space is right next door to a now closed bronze foundry. Although the Loveland Sculpture Works Foundry has been closed since 2003, the area still has labeled awnings and signs designating this area as an arts community. And this, of course, helps me connect with my creative side.

Portrait bust of Mother Teresa

In this new creative space I decided to take a rare day off from commissioned work to start a sculpture bust. Sculpture busts give me great, great joy! They are relatively quick to create and include all of the techniques I use on a full figure condensed into a small area. Since I can usually get a bust sculpted in one or two 5-6 hour sessions, they are a great way to break up the time consuming full figure sculptures which take much longer.

On Friday morning over warm tea, I decided on making this portrait bust of Mother Teresa. After gathering all of the reference material and composing the bust I began work. With ear buds in I listened to podcasts of her life story, which often times had me in tears. I worked on the bust for seven hours and called it done when I felt it could be overworked. 

Essence

Mother Teresa’s devotion to the Catholic Church and reaching into the hearts of the slums of India (Calcutta) is astonishing. But what captured my attention more than this are stories of how she felt abandoned by God for 50 years. I think most of us can, at some point, connect with this feeling of silence. I have certainly felt this. But feeling disconnected from God doing the exhaustive work she did must have been incredibly difficult. 

In the bust, Mother Teresa’s head is turned to her left side and her eyes glance slightly upwards to God. With her mouth parted only slightly she speaks; Why have you distanced yourself from me? Is my life’s work and love for humanity not worthy of your LOVE?

It’s hard to imagine a life like hers whose devotion and care was so public. Yet she stayed the course and persevered for decades which earned her being canonized in 2016. For all she did and went through I hope my portrait bust does her justice.

This past week I have been busy putting on the finishing touches of this life size female Navy Officer saluting the flag. The clay original measures 68 1/2 inches tall and will be cast in bronze over the next few months. The life size sculpture is designed to be installed near an American flag. The sculpture is the second saluting soldier I’ve made, the first being an Air Force Sergeant that was originally sculpted in 2018.

A day to Remember and Honor

Memorial Day; a day to remember those who paid the ultimate sacrifice while serving our country. We should always remember this day as that and not how I remember it growing up as a kid with a day off from school or work, backyard bbq’s, poolside activities and music. It’s a day to honor the lives lost fighting for our freedoms. Not a happy day by any means.

Over the past ten years I’ve been honored to have many of my sculptures take center stage during the Memorial Day weekend, as well as other major holidays that honor our service members. While it gives me joy (for lack of a better word) that my sculptures can help people heal from their loss, on the flip side of the coin it helps me see that there are so many families that have lost loves ones during battle.

Making military themed sculptures creates a yin and yang of emotions in me, it has to. As an artist, you have to create something powerful and real so the viewer can connect with the artwork. This requires a lot of hard work as well as passion for what one does. Good anatomy, movement and strong composition are some of the elements that make for great art. But as an artist you also need to connect with your subject and what it feels like, for example, if you are in battle or lost a friend during battle. Without connecting deeply to what the subject is doing the artwork fails. I am fortunate to know quite a few Veterans who, like my late father, have shared with me their feelings of loss and war that they hold deep inside their heart. The yin is in the strength and power of the sculpture. The yang is the emotions it evokes in the viewer.

Memorial Day; a day to remember and never forget.

I take pride when I can create a sculpture that evokes an emotional response in people. It means I’ve done my job well. Below are photos of various monuments during Memorial Day 2022.

All Schools Day-May pole dance

The May pole dance sculpture located outside the McPherson Community Building’s north-west plaza in McPherson, Kansas was installed on April 26-27, 2022. 

The monument consists of five life size bronze children dancing around a twelve foot tall aluminum May pole, two granite tablets and two granite benches. Each of the playful bronze kids are gripping colored streamers in which they crisscross around the pole. The children, ages 8-13 are the central design within the plaza. Two seven foot tall black granite tablets have images and text that highlight past events. Today, the annual event gathers up to 30,000 people from neighboring communities. Each of the two benches holds a six inch diameter porcelain tile that illustrates the All Schools Day button designs; one from 2002 and one from 2022. 

Brief history

The community celebrated its first graduation ceremony with an event that honored 8th graders in 1914. Since then, it has grown into the largest annual celebration in the state of Kansas that recognizes high school and college graduates from McPherson and neighboring communities.

McPherson Mayor Tom Brown spearheaded the project in order to preserve some of the rich and unique history of McPherson. The May pole dance sculpture is installed in the opposite plaza of the Globe Refiners outside the community building where the first Olympic Gold medal winning basketball team used to practice in the mid-1930s.

Portrait sculpture is more demanding then other type of sculpture. Not only do you have to have proportions and composition spot on, 50% of the time is usually spent on the face. It is demanding work, but it’s rewards are great. With more time spent on the face, I usually ask for an additional 2 or 3 months when dealing with likenesses compared with regular life size sculptural works. This life size portrait sculpture of Allen Ginsborg is a case in point.

Portrait sculpture of Allen Ginsborg

The sculpture of Allen holding a fish is a project that honors a local business man and developer Allen Ginsborg who passed away in July 2020. I have been working with his family and friends as well as an art representative out of California to create the life size likeness of Allen in doing what he loved most; fishing. When completed the bronze sculpture will be installed in a large fountain at the shopping mall he built; Village at the Peaks in Longmont, Colorado.

Cherish those small moments with those you love. Accept others faults and always be there if someone needs to talk.

This project has made me realize the importance of holding those you love closer then ever. Never take for granted those that are in your life. One day they will not be with you. Working with the people that knew him the most and seeing interviews, photos and hearing stories has made it clear to me that Allen was a well-loved, intelligent, kind business leader who gave back to his community in many ways.

For the past few months I’ve been working on a 31” tall clay model of Theodore Roosevelt in the Dakota Territory. I don’t get many opportunities to sculpt maquettes for large projects mainly because of tight deadlines. With no given timeline on a life size version there was time to create a detailed maquette. 

The maquette was designed from an old photo from the 1880s. From around the time he first visited the Dakota Territory to experience the American West. The experiences he had in what is now North Dakota shaped him into the man we know of as our 26th President. For more information about Teddy in the American West, click here.

Although the primary inspiration for the clay work was the photo of Teddy, there were some things that I changed. It was important to incorporate the feel of the future Presidents’ larger than life personality and confidence. Putting his foot on a rock, adding a few more years and squinting his eyes were a few of these minor changes.

The project, if it happens, will be my first monument to a President. More details at a later date…stay tuned.