Dennis Baker ("Star Formation")
The City of Sculpture's first artist-in-residence
is Dennis C. Baker, who is working at Hamilton Scrap Processors each
weekend. Dennis grew up
in Northern Indiana and attended Manchester College.
He graduated with a degree in biology and biochemistry. During
college years, he took classes in art, specifically painting. In
1979, Dennis moved to Cincinnati where he works for a cardiovascular
device company, Medtronic, Inc. Now
a consultant for them, Dennis spends his time in operating rooms.
"I have always enjoyed working with my hands as a stress
reliever." Dennis
says. " Over the
years I constantly tried new things - one of which was welding, which
I absolutely fell in love with."
Dennis graduated in 1996 from a vocational school's
welding class and has taken several advanced courses since on welding,
painting, and applying gold leaf & patina's to his artwork.
He considers himself to essentially be self-taught and is proud
of his development. e-mail
Fred X. Brownstein ("Shared
Vision")
Mississippi native, Fred X. Brownstein, received a bachelor of fine
arts degree at the San Francisco Art Institute following four years at
Tulane University. He then studied for a ten-year period in Italy,
first apprenticed in the late 1970's as a marble sculptor with the
Pasquine Studio in Querceta, Italy.
Beginning in 1980, he studied the figure with Professor Nerina
Simi in Florence. He has
been an artist-in-residence at Brookhaven College, The Taft School,
and Karolyi Foundation in France. Brownstein is a guest lecturer at
Smith College and the Chesterwood Museum in Stockbridge, MA.
He has received numerous awards, and his work has been
exhibited widely in the United States in public and private
collections including the Museum of Southern Jewish Experience and the
University of Connecticut.
Rosalind Cook ("Legacy
of Literature", "Someday" & "Come Unto
Me")
Rosalind Cook's life size and monumental works can be seen across
the country in places such as Ronald McDonald Houses, churches,
libraries and hospitals. Perhaps her best-known monument depicts
Christ with the children of the world at the World Vision Headquarters
in Washington. Her work
has been exhibited in shows in New York, at the Gilcrease Museum,
Albuquerque Museum, Palm Desert, Scottsdale, Jackson Hole and in
select gallery shows throughout the United States and at the Sculpture
in the Park show in Loveland, Colorado. Rosalind Cook attributes
consistent growth to study and to teaching sculpture classes. She
teaches at the Loveland Academy of Art, Philbrook Museum of Art in
Tulsa, the Fechin Institute in Taos, and Scottsdale Artists' School in
Arizona. Rosalind's sculptures have been shown in Southwest Art,
Art and Antiques, Oklahoma Today, Virtue, and Tulsa
People magazines. www.rosalindcook.com/
George Danhires ("Firefighter
Memorial")
George Danhires of Kent, Ohio is both a sculptor and oil-based
artist. His sculptures
have been commissioned by numerous public and private institutions and
are on display in four states. Much
of his engaging works of art symbolize and pay tribute to the vitality
of people and highlight facets of community life.
Other works of Danhires include "Education", "Claudia
in Striped Dress", and the bronze figure "James
Bradley", who as both a slave and free man symbolizes the
Underground Railroad. The
latter figure is seated on an actual park bench overlooking the Ohio
River.
Jane DeDecker ("Snapshot")
Family is the focus of Jane DeDecker's life and art.
Childhood innocence is DeDecker's bread and butter theme. A
Loveland, Colorado artist, her portfolio typically includes subjects
such as a group of kids playing on monkey bars, two boys pushing off
on a bike, or a trio of girls huddled under an umbrella. DeDecker's
style also leaves room for interpretation.
"The finished piece isn't the end," she says.
"The sculpture lives beyond me, my studio and the foundry.
I want viewers to see themselves and their lives in my
sculpture". Jane
DeDecker's commissions include "Over There" for
President George Bush and the President's Committee for the
Handicapped and "Albert Gallatin" for the U.S.
National Park Service. She
sculpts in monumental as well as miniature scale.
www.dedeckersculpture.com
Don Drumm ("Kitty
Bench")
Perhaps one of America’s most versatile
metal-workers, Don Drumm has been been creating functional pewter and
decorative sculpture for over forty years. His work includes
everything from large pieces of public art, to garden sculpture and
exquisite serving pieces.
www.dondrummstudios.com
Stuart Fink ("Community")
Stuart Fink is a resident of Cincinnati and a consultant to the DAAP
Galleries and the University of Cincinnati.
Fink designed "Community" at Miami University
Hamilton to be interactive as benches and decorative with plantings of
ornamental grasses and perennials.
Glenna
Goodacre
("Park Place")
"Glenna Goodacre has contributed more to
the figurative sculpture landscape in America than any other artist,
certainly more than any other woman in the arts. Her special style of
expression, emotion, movement and design make her works the favorites
of countless collectors in the U.S. and in many foreign countries. Her
public sculptures are the pride of city and corporate collections in
nearly all 50 states. She is the master of every scale, from the tiny
bas-relief of Sacagawea on the U.S. dollar to the 40' long Irish
Memorial in Philadelphia and the towering twice-life-size General Hap
Arnold at the Air Force Academy, with every size work in-between from
small head studies to complete figures. For the beginning
collector or for avid repeat buyers there is a wide range of possible
pieces available." ---Daniel Anthony, manager, Glenna Goodacre
Ltd---
www.GlennaGoodacre.com
Jarrett
Hawkins ("Pioneer Family" & "No Child Left Behind")
Jarrett Hawkins lives and works in Deer
Park, OH. He received his sculpture education at Miami
University. Jarrett has supported himself both as a sculptor and
as a furniture and cabinetmaker. He has executed a variety of public
and private commissions, both figurative and abstract.
www.hawkinsandhawkins.biz
Daryl
Johns ("Keeper of the Garden")
Johns
grew up in rural
Ohio
and developed an early interest in making things with his hands. Johns
explains, “At age thirteen, I completed my first carving of a pig
with a very dull pocketknife and a piece of buckeye. Over the years, I
gained experience by endlessly experimenting with many types of wood
and subject matter. As an artist, I am largely self-taught.”
Carving stone has also been a natural curiosity for him. Using
Indiana
limestone, his indoor and outdoor sculptures are both large and
small-scale, and include personalized commissions. Johns’ subject
matter ranges from people and animals to abstract creations and
organic garden designs. Sculptures by Johns are in private collections
from coast to coast, in addition to three pieces in
Wales
. His first piece in a public setting has been installed in “The
City of Sculpture” –
Hamilton
,
Ohio
.
Seward Johnson ("Spring"
and "First Ride")
In 1968, after a lifetime as a painter, J. Seward Johnson, Jr., turned
his talents to the medium of sculpture. Since then, more than 200 of
Johnson's life-size cast bronze figures have been featured in private
collections in the United States, Canada, Europe and Asia, as well as
prominent places in the public realm.
Each of his sculptures is entirely bronze.
The realism of the textures and details is the hallmark of
Johnson's art, achieved with hours of intense labor.
Seward Johnson has been developing unique chemistry for the
colors of his sculptures for years.
His sculptures have been highlighted in Architectural Digest,
New Yorker Magazine, The New York Times, The Boston
Globe, Life Magazine, and others.
www.sewardjohnson.com
Robert McCloskey ("Municipal
Building Bas-Relief Sculpture Carvings")
Robert McCloskey, a native of Hamilton, Ohio, created the
bas-relief images found on the former Hamilton Municipal Building on
High Street. After
graduating from Hamilton High School in 1932, McCloskey attended
Boston's Vesper George Art School and New York's National Academy of
Design. McCloskey returned to Hamilton, began drawing and painting
everyday things around him, and produced his first children's book, Lentil.
McCloskey won the Caldicott Medal twice, in 1958 for Time of
Wonder and in 1942 for Make Way for Ducklings.
Three of his books have also been honored by the American
Library Association as Caldicott Honor Books.
Although he spent most of his adult life elsewhere, he is still
known as one of Hamilton's favorite sons.
In the six stories in Homer Price, McCloskey looks back
with humor and affection at his Hamilton childhood.
Andrea Myklebust and Stanton G. Sears ("Hamilton
Gateway" & "Butler County Peace Memorial")
Andrea Myklebust and Stanton Gray Sears were the design team chosen to
execute a gateway structure and monumental lantern for the new
Government Services Center. Completed
in summer of 2000, it was at the dedication of "Hamilton
Gateway" that Governor Bob Taft signed a proclamation
designating Hamilton as the “City of Sculpture”.
Other public and civic artwork of Myklebust and Sears include
the sculptural seating area for the Florida State Department of
Health, a 63-foot sculptural tower for the 25-foot North Hennepin
Community College Carillon, and the Minnesota Vietnam Veterans
Memorial in St. Paul Minnesota. "It
is our strong belief that the best civic artwork forges connections
between people and their physical environment."
www.myklebust-sears.com/index.html
Nancy Schon ("Lentil")
Nancy Schon’s commissioned work found in Boston, MA include
Friends of the Public Garden - "Make Way for Ducklings"
sculpture, the "Gateway to Beacon Hill", and "Tortoise
and Hare” at Copley Square.
In 1991, Mrs. Barbara Bush gave Mrs. Raisa Gorbachev a copy of
the "Make Way for Ducklings" sculpture placed in
Novodevichy Park, Moscow on behalf of 'the children of the U.S.A. to
the children of the USSR'. Awards
and recognitions include the Governor's Council on Arts and Humanities
(MA), Governor's Task Force on Accessibility of the Arts, Honorary
Chair - Copley Society, and many others.
According to Ms. Schon, "When I first started doing Public
Art, I noticed that people from ages 2 to 92 look at sculptures in
parks rather casually, and then go on their way. One day, I saw a
sculpture of a child with a cat. The child was not noticed, but the
cat was patted, hugged, and smiled at. This gave me a profound
insight. I decided, from
that event, that I wanted my sculpture to be interactive and
touched." www.schon.com
Dennis Sohocki ("Double Dancer")
Dennis Sohocki has created and installed
numerous monuments ranging in height from 6 to 20 feet. He has over
25 years of sculptural experience in Bronze, Stainless Steel, Marble
and Hardwood. Prestigious national and international shows that
have invited him to exhibit include The National Academy of Design,
Marmol Sol VI International Sculpture Symposium, North American
Sculpture Exhibition, both the Kennedy and Denver Centers for the
Performing Arts, the Cleveland Art Museum, and more. His sculptures
are in numerous public and private collections such as General
Motors, Michigan Bell, Microsoft, and many others. Dennis has
lectured on and taught sculpture in the United States as well as
abroad. He is a craftsman as well as an artist who prides himself in
creating the highest quality sculptures possible.
Edgar Tafur ("Space
Tower")
Edgar Tafur, a former Hamilton resident, created "Space
Tower" for the Cincinnati Playhouse in the Park. It was
purchased by Hamilton physician Dr. Richard Glins in 1980 and
installed in the Peter R. Rentschler Park on the west bank of the
Great Miami River near the High-Main Street Bridge.
The bicentennial Gift to the City of Hamilton from Historic
Hamilton, Inc. in 1991 was the restoration of "Symmes
Monument", which was completed by Mr. Tafur.
Additionally, Tafur was commissioned for a piece at the Lewis
Center Chapel in Cincinnati.
Rudolph F. Thiem ("Victory,
the Jewel of the Soul" aka Billy Yank)
Rudolph Thiem, born in 1859, studied sculpture making in Berlin,
Germany before immigrating to Hamilton in 1887. Thiem’s work at the
Estate Stove Company in Hamilton included the art that adorned the
nationally recognized Estate stoves. His design for "Victory",
a 3,500 pound, 14 foot, bronze statue of a young Civil War
soldier, was selected in a
national competition in 1906. Details on the statue are so exact that
coat buttons on the bronze soldier include the letters USA.
Mr. Thiem modeled the soldier's face after his own.
The statue is waving his cap victoriously in the air while
standing on an exploded shell.
Alfred Tibor (Fort
Hamilton Hospital)
Mr. Alfred Tibor of Columbus was chosen as the artist for a special
piece of artwork in honor of the hospital’s 75th
anniversary because his design truly matched Fort Hamilton’s
premise that everyone at Fort Hamilton, from the physicians to the
custodians, is working to provide our families with the best care
available, their “dedication and knowledge celebrate life”. Mr.
Tibor was born in Konyar, Hungary in 1920.
He was subjected to the brutality of the Nazi regime, enslaved
by the Germans and eventually taken prisoner by the Russians.
Alfred survived the inhumanity he experienced through his
strong will and determination. After
World War II Alfred returned to Budapest.
In 1957, Alfred, his wife and two small children arrived
penniless but free in the United States.
Eventually, Mr. Tibor came to Columbus, Ohio.
In 1974 he began doing sculptures in a variety of materials
determined to show man’s humanity through his art. www.alfredtibor.net
This
beautiful, life sized, bronze sculpture by Alfred Tibor was installed near the front entrance to Fort Hamilton Hospital.
Commemorative bricks are available to honor or remember loved
ones. For
more information you can contact the Fort Hamilton Healthcare
Foundation @
513-785-4787.
L'Deane Trueblood ("Hanna")
Born in Norman Okalahoma, L'Deane Trueblood resides in St. George Utah
among the most spectacular redrock country in the southwest. Proud
mother and grandmother, she has lived and traveled across the United
States as well as in Europe and the Middle East. Her sculptures and
paintings are found in public and private collections throughout the
United States and internationally. Working mostly with children as
subjects, she has created a series of highly sought-after life-size
bronzes. The poses are subtle, the motion implied, understated.
With just a turn of a shoulder or the graceful gesture of a hand,
L'Deane masterfully conveys a dynamism that few modern sculptors can
match. Recently, she has also been commissioned to produce
several larger-than-life monuments which now stand in prominent public
spaces in several states.
www.truebloodstudios.com
Ronnie Wells
("Riverside Mallards")
Mr. Wells
specializes in wildlife and sporting bronzes, original paintings and
limited edition prints. His award-winning artwork has endeared
sporting, wildlife, hunting and flyfishing art enthusiasts worldwide.
After becoming the 2000 Sculptor of the Year for the Southeastern
Wildlife Expo, Mr. Wells has continued to build on the his reputation
as one of North America's premiere wildlife art talents.
www.ronniewells.com
Lyman Whitaker ("Wind
Forest")
Lyman Whitaker is a native of Utah. He received his Bachelor degree in
sculpture from the University of Utah where he studied classical and
contemporary sculpture. Lyman has always kept art as a primary focus.
To support the pursuit of his art in the early days, he has been a
laborer, a carpenter, a mechanic, a student, a teacher, a traveler,
and a designer. His diverse style is evident in his art. He works with
a multitude of materials and processes and enjoys making connections
through his art. His current focus involves wind sculptures, but his
larger body of work is varied and ranges from traditional bronzes to
fabricated metal sculptures to fountains. Lyman's working knowledge of
building and mechanical processes is evident in his art.
www.envisiongallery.net/artist/whitaker/wl-401.html
Kristen
Visbal ("The American Cape")
Visbal
is a graduate of the prestigious Lost Wax Casting apprentice program
at the Johnson Atelier art casting foundry in Mercerville, NJ, who
established a private modeling studio on a vineyard in Lewes, DE six
years ago. The artist’s other public works include a life-size
sculpture of Olympic gold medallist Bob Hayes running with the 1964
Japanese torch, the 10-foot Sea Express composition of a boy riding a
dolphin on a wave, both in parks in Florida, and Girl Chasing
Butterflies currently on site at the Merrill Lynch corporate
headquarters in Plainsboro, NJ. Visbal
is an active member of the National Sculpture Society, The Catharine
Lorillard Wolfe Arts Club and the Pen and Brush Club, all in New York
City and is a regular participant in the annual Brookgreen Gardens
Sculpture Park Curator's Auction, the oldest and largest sculpture
park in America. http://visbalsculpture.com/
Miles
Metzger ("When it Rains It Pours")
Mr. Miles Metzger’s career began in San
Miguel de Allende, Mexico, where he studied sculpture. There he
learned the Spanish language and received acclamations for his
talent. After returning to the United States, Metzger pioneered the
mining and use of soapstone upon discovering large deposits of
carving quality Steatite in the California Sierra Nevada Mountain
range in 1973. Metzger began showing his sculpture at fine art
galleries in mid 1974. In 1989, Metzger opened a 7,000 sq. foot
studio and showroom in Angels Camp, California. Today Metzger
sculpts in stone, bronze, wood, clay, steel, and synthetics. He also
contracts the reproduction of his designs through the use of molds
and multi-carvers in China, Mexico, and Brazil. He has trained many
carvers in past years; some of these craftsmen now have successful
careers in sculpture. Metzger’s studio and gallery, located in St.
Helena, California, opened in 2000.
www.milesmetzger.com
Mallory Feltz
("Complexity")
Mallory Feltz, a graduating art
student at the University of Cincinnati, has donated a cast bronze
piece to be the next installation for the City of Sculpture.
Originally from Dayton, Feltz moved to Cincinnati to attend UC’s DAAP
(Design, Architecture, Art and Planning) program. She is now
looking at grad schools and is considering Miami University. Mallory
states: “I was always creating art for as long as I can remember.
Building, painting, drawing, dancing, anything creative was ‘my cup
o’ tea.’ Why sculpture: “Really it’s my love of actively creating
something tangible. I feel most comfortable, and yet still
challenged, when I am up, running around, building and moving. All
I know is that art is an extension of my life and sculpture is an
extension of my body.”
www.uc.edu/profiles
Thomas
Tsuchiya
("High-Main Bridge Bas-Relief
Medallions")
Thomas
Tsuchiya also known as Norikazu is a Japanese-American artist
who specializes in public sculpture. He is best known for the
bronze statues Reds Legends (2003-04) at Great American
Ball Park in Cincinnati, Ohio U.S.A. These sculptures located
at the main entrance to the ball park, honor four Reds
players: Ted Kluszewski, Joe Nuxhall, Frank Robinson and Ernie
Lombardi. The statues are cleverly depicted playing in an
imaginary ball game.
www.essexstudios.net/TomTsuchiya
John Leon
("Learn and Grow Together")
John works in bronze, stone, wood and
ceramics on scales from intimate table top sizes to monumental. His
sculpture is figurative and ranges from the exacting realism of
portrait busts to very loose abstractions concerned with concepts
but rooted in subject matter. John has work in collections in Saudi
Arabia, England, Costa Rica and throughout the United States and
Canada.
www.johnleon.com
Michael
Bigger ("Helios Guardian")
Mr. Bigger is a Professor at the
Minneapolis College of Art and Design. Michael Bigger's sculpture
has been exhibited widely throughout the United States, in Canada,
and in Guatemala City. His work is represented in numerous private
and corporate collections. Selected collections include: Oakland
Museum of Art, San Antonio Museum of Art, Vassar College, Univ. of
Hartford, Cincinnati Zoological Society, University of Maine at
Augusta, Embarcadero Center in San Francisco, Atlantic Richfield
Collection, and the Lutheran Brotherhood in Minneapolis. Michael
Bigger's work is represented in THE GUILD, the industry standard in
Artist's sourcebooks.
www.michaelbigger.com
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