Artistic Background...

As a child, I enjoyed working with clay. One of my first memories was of creating various dinosaurs and human figures. But, it wasn’t until I started school that I realized that I might have exceptional talent as an artist. I found that during our art periods in grade school, the other kids would gravitate to my area and remark, “How can you do that?” or “Wow, that is cool!”

In the 7th grade, my art teacher told me that she expected me to be a great artist some day. She kept several of my pieces and claimed that she we probably be able to retire on their value. In high school, I had a class where the teacher would allow me to do what ever I wanted to do. While he would give the other students assignments he would turn to me and say, “What are you going to do now?” Other kids, who were not in art classes would come by the class to see what I was working on.

When I got out of high school, I entered college to study art. However, I was woefully prepared for scholastics on a college level and I had a bad experience with an art professor—my oldest son, Jesse, had him also when he was at the same university and disliked him as well—and I became disillusioned with the idea of becoming a sculptor. By this time, my interest had turned almost completely to songwriting and a music career, so I set my sculpting aside and concentrated on music.

At about age 50, my interest in sculpture returned. I had gone back to school and had gotten a Bachelor of Arts degree in History and a Master of Science degree in occupational safety and health. After working full time, pursuing my music interests, serving as lay minister for my church and taking 9 hours a semester of under graduate and graduates classes for about 5 years steady, I graduated and felt like I had a lot of free time. I did not know what to do with it. My wife suggested that I could do some sculpting.

It had been about 30 years since I had tried it, but I thought it might be fun. So, I bought some clay and started in. I found that I still had the knack and I have rekindled my love for the medium. Since then I had done numerous pieces and have been commissioned to do work for businesses and individuals, including a bust of Ichabod Washburn which is displayed at the endowment offices at Washburn University in Topeka Kansas.

Sculptures

Smiling Christ

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Ichabod Washburn

Abraham Lincoln

George Washington

John Lennon