Animals (1982-1990)

Preface

I don’t remember being in awe of animals in the same way my father was. They were cool and fun, warm and comforting. I loved accompanying my artist father on trips to the zoo or spending our family vacations at reptile farms, instead of places like Disney World with their anthropomorphic mice. My father seemed to have a sort of spiritual relationship to the natural world unlike anyone else I knew.

I was looking through my father’s old photo albums a couple of years ago when it occurred to me: Were these albums originally intended to be family photo albums or scrapbooks for his research? Sometimes childhood photos of me were tucked into pages he ripped out of natural history magazines or other photos he’d taken at zoos or sanctuaries. Other times, clippings from newspapers were slid behind photos of me riding a horse or standing in front of a sculpture at a museum. I was like a little bear cub or fawn in his kingdom of cutout wildlife pictures.

During the ‘80s, he experimented with all sorts of animal creations, incorporating different sizes and shapes. He made true-to-size paper mache animal heads, mini plaster bears, murals of landscapes with animals in the background, and his first experiments with lifesize concrete sculptures.

In the ‘90s, he started making wildlife sculptures full time (he went on to make more than 500 over the years). He fulfilled many commissions for zoos, resorts, colleges, etc., all over the country. One of his earliest creations was a lifesize mastodon. I remember pretending to ride it like a horse in my backyard when the local news came to report on it. It’s since moved to a field a few towns away and has been included in several quirky roadside attraction lists. He made these sculptures in his studio in our backyard. Sometimes our driveway had a horse standing in it, or a gorilla crouched in the bushes. He still sculpts several creatures a year: tigers, snow leopards, wolves, komodo dragons, etc. – although his new passion is photographing the insect world. 

I had a dream recently that a giraffe walked out of a field into the road and laid down next to me where I was standing. As I pet its forehead I was filled with an overwhelming sense of love. As I look over at my now growing collection of miniature giraffe sculptures, I think of my father.