In Process...

Brain Storm

Ready for Production

Draw, draw, draw...

From Imagination

From Life

From Masters

Validation...

Intelligent Design

I was inspired to sculpt this piece during a trip to the LA Zoo. I was at the Gorilla exhibit, and all the people around me were acting like monkeys. Literally. One of the gorillas was sitting on a rock observing the strange life form on the other side of the moat -- his gesture reminded me of August Rodin's The Thinker. It was so ironic to see the tables turned like this. Gorillas are intriguing to me -- seemingly brutish beasts, yet gentle and intelligent vegetarians... I love the irony.

Secondhand Lion

Secondhand Lions, directed by Tim McCanlies, and featuring Academy Award winning actors Robert Duvall, Michael Caine, nominee Haley Joel Osment, and Kyra Sedgwick, is a coming of age story that follows the comedic adventures of an introverted 14 year-old boy (Haley Joel Osment), and his cranky, eccentric great-uncles. Although Haley wanted to act with the real lion, the producers decided it was too dangerous, so he had to make do with a puppet. That's where I came in...twenty four hours and hundreds of pounds of refined mud later, this was the result. Not bad for working a second shift until 2 AM. A friend of mine, Matt Jordan (multi-talented salt-of-the-earth guy) got me together with Tony Gardner, owner of Alterian Inc. for the project. (Matt has worked with Tony for years in a multitude of capacities.) Tony and I both lived up in Lake Arrowhead at the time, but never met until Matt. After a talk over dinner, and a look at my portfolio (and liking another lion sculpture of mine), Tony invited me to join his crew and lead sculpt on this project. When looking at the sculpture, keep in mind that, while you may think the anatomy looks exaggerated, it has to show through the fur and backing (like muscles under skin and fur would). Alterian is a great shop, and Tony is par excellence -- one of the best people I've worked for. I found one cynical critic who posted a review on the web about the puppet, but most people don't even notice it when watching the show, so it must have been good enough for the purpose it was designed. Others have commented on the neutrality of the position, but again, there's a specific purpose the sculpture was designed for. The rig and puppeteer bring the lion to life. Had the sculpture been posed, it would have made the puppet susceptible to tearing at the extreme movements. I've done some other work with Alterian, and would have done more, but our schedules were generally unsynchronized. To see a pic of the puppet with Haley Joel and the puppeteer click: http://www.comeawayohumanchild.net/SecondHandLions/DVDontheset.htm

Arich in...

You've got to love the Internet. I Googled Arich's name not too long ago to see what might pop up, and this (see link below) was among what I found. When you put your stuff online, you're sending it on a journey through a winding universe of virtual wormholes, and you never know from which of these holes it might peek out. (Some mysterious wormhole is the only way images of Arich's work could've ended up in eBaum's World.) We aren't really sure who posted the eight pictures there, but the site ranks in the Internet's top 1000 according to Alexa, so we're not complaining. Just be sure to proceed with caution if you do check it out... the site is controversial for good reason. But any publicity is good publicity, right?

Visit the link at http://www.ebaumsworld.com/pictures/view/164832/

A 'Finished' Work in Progress

Randall David Johnson (born September 10, 1963), nicknamed "the Big Unit," is a left-handed, six-foot-ten starting pitcher who currently plays for the Arizona Diamondbacks. Johnson has been internationally recognized for having one of the most dominant fastballs in Major League Baseball. In his prime, the five-time Cy Young Award winner regularly approached (and even exceeded) 100 miles per hour with his signature pitch, a biting slider. Ironically, Arich isn't a big baseball fan. Though, like most American boys, he had baseball fever as a kid, and, having pitched in Little League, has experiential understanding. Arich sculpted this piece (which is only a rough-out, preliminary, or prototype) for McFarlane Design Group (MDG). At the time the piece was composed, it was part of MDG's proprietary process to first create a rough or prototype. Then, through a series of molds and casts, the piece would be enlarged and shrunk, with details added along the way. MDG's process is collaborative, so unfortunately, Arich didn't handle the final details you see on the marketed piece. But what a set-up! In the words of Dev Gilmore, Vice President of Product Development for Gentle Giant Studios, Arich's roughs are more dynamic than most peoples' finished work. So true a statement, so gracefully demonstrated in this piece, captured as a "work in progress."