Cyrus Bench

This is a cardboard pattern for a bench for the Johnson family of southern Illinois. I will be casting this in bronze, after making a few refinements.

New Web Site

Sometimes in the business of art making one needs to pay more attention to the business rather than the making. This past week I have launched a new web site for my work. www.tcsculpture.com is the new place to find my work. www.lastchancefab.com is still up and running. We have plans to revamp that site which will be the place to see what is going on at the gallery and the studio. When I say I have launched a new site I should really say Melanie has launched a new site. Melanie Lundheim of Good Copy Fast in Minnetonka put the new site up very quickly from the content I sent her. Melanie also is a terrific copy writer and editor. I should also mention she is my daughter.

Please check out the new site and stay tuned for more updates. I hope to be learning soon about the Children's Hospital Project and I will be updating about the Cyrus Bench, the St. Frank Birdbath and a new project I just got, The Peace Church Project, Duluth, MN.

Jeremy Raverty and Rita Sloane picked up their matching bronze sinks yesterday. They look like the one pictured here. I took photos of the new ones but can't seem to get them to copy correctly. It amazes me how well new technology works most of the time and how surprised I am when it doesn't. I think it should be the opposite, amazed that it works at all.

Now I am putting together a proposal for Children's Hospital in the Twin Cities. They are spending a great deal of money on art for both the Minneapolis and St. Paul campuses. Children's is limiting art work to Minnesota artists. This doesn't happen often and I think it is just great they have the confidence in Minnesota artists to fill their needs.

I have just finished a baptismal for First Lutheran Church of Duluth. They are refurbishing the sanctuary and have a new pipe organ in process. My part is the bronze basin for the baptismal, the base is wood from Rob's Mill Work in Superior WI. The design is by Steve Edwins of SMSQ Architects in Northfield MN.

Memorial for Myrtle

Nancy Hansen came to me with a little sketch on a piece of scratch paper. This is the finished memorial to her mother. This memorial is hollow, to allow Nancy to plant flowers inside it this spring.

The Glamour of Art Making

While working in the foundry this week my bridge crane collapsed, missing crushing my arm by an inch. The thing is I could have predicted this happening because I had never really finished welding the thing together 8 years ago, but heck, it worked OK all that time. So my glamourus work was rebuilding this big heavy tool the last two days.

There was some art work going on as well. The piece I'm working on is "Angeles Everywhere if You Know How to Look". Here are a couple of my angles helping me roll 3/16" steel plate. Stan and Dean seem to show up just when I need the help.

Response to the Financial Follies

An advantage someone like me has while listening to the news is to do something about it immediately. The bad news kept coming on the radio and I was getting more depressed each day. Finally I grabbed my trusty stack of cardboard and created the "Tycoon" series. The "One Armed Bandits" almost became the "Big Three" but I felt that was getting a little too specific. This way you can decide if these cardboard execs are bankers, politicians or what have you.