National Horse Show main overall prize for three years. This is the first of the two horses I have made. The first casting was awarded to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The Museum had recently devoted an exhibit hall to a show about the history of the National Horse Show. This was meant as a thank you token. Just at the time I was putting the finishing touches on the original clay carving, an official of the Show invited me to attend the show for some close ups of perfect animals in the flesh. They set me down in front of the judges stand!! Best seat in the house—WOW! One of the judges pulled me aside at the end of the day and whispered to me that she had watched me carving more than the contests. I now have a piece in the back offices. But it is a ‘piece in the Met’.
‘Golden Boy’— This sculpture I made for AT&T before the company broke up. It was called the Arthur Page Award, and was given to subsidiary companies for excellence in matters that were important to the parent company. I made almost fifty of them before ‘Ma Bell’ was broken up by our federal government and this trophy was no longer relevant. An advertising account executive for AT&T was at my studio one day and saw the female legs that I did on the ‘Leaping Vulva’ piece. He said to me that “anyone who can do legs like that, can certainly do the Ma Bell piece.” After securing the contract I was later told that the issue of whether the sculpture would have genitals was brought up at a board meeting. After some debate the story goes that the Chairman ended the conversation with this quote: “I’ll be damned if anyone will accuse AT&T of having no balls.” Luckily the sculpture is now not an eunuch.‘Bull Eagle’—Made for a land owner in Colorado where I stayed after my 4 years at the Bricklin Ranch, in exchange for a couple of years’ rent. This ranch was 9,000 acres! Nan and I lived there alone for the duration. It was the site of a massive elk herd. The horns on this sculpture were faithfully copied from a photo of the worlds’ largest American Elk rack. The only difference between the real set and mine, is that my, over 8 feet wide set, is a couple of inches wider than the real ones. Carved from dead Rocky Mountain High Altitude Pine branches and stump, with a composite inlay. My biggest completed sculpture to date. I did not use a live stump or branches.The side view shows how the over 4 foot distance, from the wall, to the tip of the beak, makes this piece very, very imposing.A woman came into my studio and described this piece one day, gave me a photo and a deposit. She came by a couple of months later, gave me the rest of the money and I gave her the clay. She said it was great and all I have is a picture.‘Excellence’—A portrait of Malcolm Bricklin in stainless steel. About 4 feet from the tip of the forward hoof to the tip of the tail.The first casting in cold poured composite, airbrushed silver and black, of ‘Excellence’ looking out on the beautiful high mountains of Colorado. Flat topped 10,000 ft. high peaks could be seen on the 5,500 acre property, off camera to the right of this shot.‘Excellence’— This shot of the first unfinished clay was conceived in my studio, at Spring Street, New York City. Malcolm altered the concept and I finished it in Colorado at his ranch.This scene in Colorado is in front of my vinyl collection of Rock music. This clay is the second iteration of ‘Excellence’ with Malcolm’s Colorado dog. The dog mascot is a portrait of ‘Bear’, Malcolm’s gentle giant St. Bernard watchdog in Colorado. This magnificent animal would chase away the local resident brown bears. I wish that I could have preserved this clay original; it was the most expressive and closest to my vision.This version of a rough-draft eagle on Malcolm’s arm gives the whole portrait a majestic feel and dynamic presence. The eagle will be proportionally made somewhat larger than is shown in this model.‘Excellence’—These shots were taken at the foundry while the over 3,000 degree stainless steel was being poured into the ceramic shell molds. The top shot is the pouring, and in the bottom picture, are the glowing castings immediately after being poured. That color is really intense!!! I could really feel the scorching heat when I got close enough to get this shot. Wow what a day!!!! I am grateful to the Excalibur Foundry in Colorado for giving me the privilege to be present and take pics while they poured my piece.
This picture was taken at the foundry about a half an hour after the stainless pouring shots were taken. Here they are cracking away the ceramic shell from the grey unpolished metal. (You can see the blurry hammer coming down towards the piece at the top of the picture.)This shot was taken in the log cabin that was my residence during much of my stay at the ‘Bricklin Ranch’. Malcolm Bricklin is posing behind the finished original clay sculpture, ‘Excellence’. His assistant-copywriter Paul Lambert looks on. This was my dream home realized! Right out the back door was the spectacular White River—50 feet away.A close up shot of the White River. It ran through the over 7,200 ft. in altitude ranch. A truly magnificent setting. Home to many Bald Eagles, American Elk, Large Brown Bear and Native Golden Trout.
The Buford, Colorado, finished ‘Kravis Map’ This was commissioned by Henry Kravis of KKR fame. Mr. Kravis bought the ‘Bricklin Ranch’ (formerly owned by non other than Eleanor Roosevelt and then the Bell family) property from Malcolm Bricklin. Henry Kravis then commissioned me to make a map of the general area and the the second acreage he purchased nearby. The Roosevelt property is most of the area between the ‘Y’ formed by the North and South branches of the White River. The site of the oldest and largest aspen tree in the world is above the river at the extreme left of the map. I used very detailed Arial photos of the region and faithfully placed the streams, paths, roads and just about every individual tree. I also color coded the main four types of tree species found there. Lake Avery, the water reservoir for the town of Meeker is also shown with transparent imitation water, color coded for depth. This property is magnificent to say the least; Eleanor and Malcolm chose well!!!. I stayed there for about 4 years.This shows the steel weights , holding the freshly glued contours to the next layer.This is showing the construction technique of the Kravis Map. That is my wife, Nan, gluing a mountain top to a section of the suspended map. Notice that the semi-finished wooden layered contour section is suspended above a printed version. The table part that Nan is sitting on moves up and down. The layered section is anchored to a framework above the map. We placed each pre-cut (I used a specialized very accurate saber saw) thin successive plywood cutout of the next elevation to rest on the corresponding elevation on the paper map. We then put glue on the underside of the suspended map and raised the lower table to meet the upper semi finished piece, thereby fastening it to the upper stack. There are 85 layers and I calculated well over a mile of accurately cut contour edges. It took 9 tedious months for the two of us to complete it.
Top photo shows the next wooden contour cut-out, set on the appropriate geological survey map contour line just before it will be lifted and glued to the above model. Bottom shot is a view of the ‘Kravis Map’, showing the framework of the 7 foot by 14 foot finished map.These ‘Figurehead Portraits’ were installed in Malcolm Bricklin’s bedroom in NYC. They are 24 carat gold and hard chrome plated, set in the middle of a pink mirror over the fireplace.A front view of the ‘Figurehead Portraits’. The room was completely surrounded by pink mirrors, including the ceiling. A stunning setting for my work!One of the ‘Figurehead Portraits’ before polishing and plating.
The first of two Mega-car dealership models for Malcolm Bricklin. Malcolm designed this one and I, the other. This one has separate departments, each with specialized sales staff; I told him that I had a different vision, hence the one below.
My idea for this one is to have the vehicles stored together with surrounding test track and a centralized location of all personnel.Close up of car shaped central sales center, all my idea!This was made for one of Malcolm’s car ventures. Too bad it was never used.A row of skis in front of the bar. The owner asked me if I could bring his idea to life. He said that he was happy with my interpretation. In reality that is all that counts. It was a fun job, but cold!!!
A snow sculpture in front of a PJ’S Bar in Steamboat Springs. A couple frolicking in a very large cocktail.‘Donald T. Regan Commemorative Award’—Commissioned by Merrill Lynch, 1980. The medallion was awarded to MLPF&S Chairman Mr. Regan, at a farewell going away party upon his appointment to Secretary of the Treasury by Ronald Reagan. They are 2.75″ in diameter; 3 were cast in bronze, 150 in pewter. He was given one bronze; I have the other two. It was a rush job and I had to make the original in three days. I happily didn’t get much sleep in those three days.
