Orion

This sculpture is a continuation of the mythological, symbolic, and figurative work of my sculptures in the early 90’s. This is an important piece in an important developmental stage in my life as I was a young working artist struggling through the pressure of living off the sales of my art work and trying to find my own voice as an artist. As I look back I can see that I already had a fully developed a vision for my art and I did indeed sell most of the sculptures from this period. I distinctly remember a sensation of ascending in terms of my career and I knew that if I was going to have a shot at the ‘big time” I was going to have to make a bold gesture. Historically a move to New York or L.A. would have been in order but I never liked the whole “Hollywood” thing even though I fundamentally knew that my work would go over very well there. New York had been the center of the art world forever but a move to there from Chicago would have forced me to relegate my home town to “Second City” status and I wasn’t prepared to do that. So I went to Europe!

I registered for a marble carving school in Pietresanta, Italy, smack dab in the middle of Tuscany, and I flew overseas for the first time to study the works of Michaelangelo and DaVinci. I very much enjoyed visiting Florence, Pisa, Lucca, and Sienna. I probably shot my career in the foot and set myself back twenty years in the process but I really needed the change and the Italians were exceedingly generous with me in sharing their wealth of knowledge, skill, technique, and most importantly; lifestyle. It was a humbling experience. Ordinarily it takes seven years for an apprentice to achieve Master status in Europe. Because of my training in Chicago under Tom Scarff, John Adduci, Jerry Peart, and Ted Garner; I was able to achieve that in only two years and was awarded the ability to wear the coveted daily newspaper hats of the Italian Masters.