I grew up in a small town in Indiana and attended High School in a town known as “Little Italy”.  It has only been in recent years that I realized just how much of an influence “Little Italy” was with the vineyards, statues, fountains and the general culture had on my sculpting.
I am married with two children and two step children and four grandchildren.  My first career was as an accountant. It wasn’t until my children were grown and married that I discovered that I had been given a talent to sculpt.  My daughter graduated from Ringling School of Art and a very gifted artist from the age of about six.  The only art talent I had was in picking out frames for her beautiful paintings.  I remember asking why she didn’t paint portraits or the human figure.  To me that seemed so fascinating but that was not her area of interest.  Consequently, that is exactly where my joy of sculpting is.  I think the human body is a beautiful form shows such motion and emotion.  The possibilities are endless.
After my children were grown, I took a trip to Europe and visited Italy, France, Spain, Germany and Switzerland.  I visited many museums and public fountains and town squares, taking in all the sculptures and architecture (what a sight).  I especially enjoyed seeing Michelangelo’s works as well as many other works.   It would still be another fifteen years before I discovered my talent in sculpting.
Retirement from accounting left me with time on my hands so I took a course at a local college in sculpting with the intentions of sculpting original dolls.  I had enjoyed a hobby of making reproduction porcelain dolls and felt this would occupy my time in the retirement years.  I was so hooked on sculpting after doing three sculptures that I knew this was my true calling and the road ahead would not be an easy one but one I had to follow.  I worked in water based clay at first but I wanted to go for bronze but HOW do I get there?  The journey started.  It has been a hard journey but the results are very much worth it.  I now can complete a sculpture from “clay to bronze” and every process in the middle.
I have a studio where I can create my sculptures and all processes except actually casting the bronze.   I attend a local college that has a foundry in the art department where I can cast the bronze.  Many of my pieces have been cast at professional foundries but I can also do them myself.
I enjoy capturing motion and movement in my subjects and strive to invoke an emotion from those that view my sculptures.  I know my sculptures have met my criteria when people respond to a sculpture.  I had entered a juried art show with a mother and child sculpture in porcelain clay and the following day after the opening exhibit I received a telephone call from a lady who related just how much she enjoyed my sculpture.  She said she started crying when she viewed it.  She had just that day found out she was pregnant with her first child and really connected with the sculpture.
For me, sculpting is a journey and I don’t know where the journey will take me or when it will stop, I just know there are so many figurative pieces that keep coming into my head that I just have to sculpt them.  I truly feel that sculpting has become a life passion.    I hope others will enjoy viewing and collecting my sculptures as much as I enjoy creating them.