RD's Art - Sculpture

 

RD has done quite a lot of sculpting over the years. I remember back in the 1970s when he and friends would sit around talking, listening to music, each with a small ball of beeswax in his hands, warming it until it was malleable then shaping it into small critters, laughing at their efforts, wadding up the wax and starting again.

 

 

His subjects were mostly animals and pretty women, and some he gave away without photographing them but I do have enough photos to know he was prolific with this medium. And so I asked him once, “you must really enjoy sculpting?” and he told me he did enjoy working with wax, the feel, the scent of warm wax, and the immediacy of creating something out of nothing, but it was not his preferred artistic endeavor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

My favorite piece was a buffalo, and it might be his favorite, also, for it was the only wax sculpture he had cast in bronze. RD had a friend, Rev. Dr. Alton Tomlin, who was a big game hunter with a beautiful buffalo head in his collection of taxidermied trophies. He invited RD to study it closely as RD created his proud American Bison of the old west in wax.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once he was satisfied that the sculpture was complete he took it to a Fort Collins foundry, Joseph Studios, where he worked closely with the owner, Tim Joseph, who used the “lost wax method” of converting a wax sculpture to a fine bronze piece of long-lasting beauty. If you know RD you know he throws his heart and soul into projects, becomes friends with the people he’s working with, participates in each step of the process and that’s just what he did with Tim and his foundry. He came to know Tim’s employees, his family, and other artists who preferred Tim Joseph’s work with their art.

 

 

 

 

Because the cost of bronze is expensive RD only ordered three bronzed buffalo from Tim. He gave one to his UDTRA boat crew officer and western art collector, William T. White, one to his brother, Kenneth C. Russell, and kept one for himself. Tim Joseph saved the mould for many years and I remember when he called RD to ask if he would like to order more before the mould was destroyed. RD declined.