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Scott - Sculptor
66 Plays1 year ago
Scott is a sculptor out of the great state of Utah. His bronze statues adorn homes and businesses alike. From the small table tops sculptures of an Apache Warrior, to a 1700 pound Bison, his talent is evident the moment you lay eyes on his work. As we chat with Scott, we dive into what motivates him to create his art, the connections and relationships he has developed with his customers, and that sculpting is more than just shaping clay and forming metal, It's creating a story thats different to each person that sees it.
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Music by: SnoozyBeats - Song Title - "Keep It Calm". Please check out SnoozyBeats on PixaBay for a ton of awesome content! - LINK
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Transcript
Introduction and Guest Introduction
00:00:11
Speaker
Hey folks, you're listening to the jobs podcast. I am your host, Tim Hendricks. Your time is valuable. I'm not going to waste it. Let's get right to the interview. Hey folks, thanks for joining me today. We have a great guest. This gentleman is an expert in sculpture and art. He's got an impressive catalog of statues and sculptures that he's made. And I want to welcome Scott to the show. Scott, thanks for taking the time to speak with me today.
Scott's Early Life and Inspirations
00:00:40
Speaker
Thank you, Tim. I am excited to be here. I, um, love my passion of sculpting and when I can find a listening ear to share what I know, it really touches my heart to have this opportunity. So thank you for having me. Oh, you bet. Let's get some backstory on Scott about where you were born and did you grow up in a home that had an art influence or anybody in your life that was in that line of work and just kind of walk us through the early days of Scott?
00:01:13
Speaker
okay I was born in 1961 in Mesa, Arizona and ended up the second child of seven. and My parents moved quite a bit um with dad's work.
00:01:32
Speaker
and so i um was able to experience about living in six different states growing up, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, Texas, Arizona. um It just goes on, but mostly out West. And growing up, I always had a fondness for the old West. it it's It's just like seeing the cowboy shows, just something resonated there. It's almost like I lived a past life there or something. and
00:02:06
Speaker
One of the things that I remember when I was a child and being able to read a little bit, I started seeing Louis Lamour books around the house, just finding them on the couch, on pad's reading chair. and and I always wondered if mom did this on purpose.
00:02:28
Speaker
You know, how parents can do things very subtle, not, you know, if she asked me to read, I probably wouldn't, but if she just left it laying around and I finally got nosy and picked it up, I know I ended up reading probably every single Louis Lamore.
00:02:45
Speaker
Uh, that he'd ever written up until about the late seventies, everything that he'd written that point. And, and so what I, what I didn't realize is that I was actually doing research on my future career. That that's fascinating because what I've learned, what I've learned is a true artist will create feelings from within and growing up.
00:03:14
Speaker
My parents provided so many opportunities for us children to experience life. ah One of the things that they would do is farm us out during the summers to other family members and even friends of the family.
00:03:34
Speaker
I remember spending summer in a cotton field, ah summer on a cattle ranch with people I didn't even know. and Can't do that nowadays, can you? No, it's like, I didn't know that mom knew these people, but I didn't
Career Path and Artistic Discovery
00:03:51
Speaker
know them. you know And so all of a sudden I pull up to this farm and I'm 12 years old and theirre their pull My very first experience of a ranch was, you know, ah a cow had got and i yeah stuck in a bog, a water hole that was trying to get a sip of water. And to get this cow out, they literally put a rope around their neck and drug it out and snap the neck and killed the cow.
00:04:18
Speaker
I'm not in Kansas anymore. I'm not running a little home. And then one summer I'm off to the races. I worked at a muffler shop and they raced on the weekends, stock cars, super modified. They ended up racing in the Indianapolis 500, you know? and And so we would be farmed out to different family members. And then there's one, when I was going to school,
00:04:47
Speaker
um I went to BYU for an undergraduate degree, and my degree is in finance and accounting. I never went to art school and actually graduated with a degree in finance and accounting. But when I would come to Utah from Texas,
00:05:09
Speaker
Um, I would live with my uncle Grant and what I did not know. I don't know that the family really did not know how good he was, but he was one of the greatest Western artists that ever lived. Uh, you look up UG speed or Grant speed. Uh, his name is actually Ulysses Grant speed, but he went by Grant is Grant speed. And if you looked him up, Oh.
00:05:38
Speaker
It doesn't get better than that. And I would live with him for about two weeks at the beginning of a semester until I found an apartment and then kind of the last week or two of the school year as my contract for my apartment ran out. And I would get to see how he lived. And I got to experience his art. I'm kind of rambling here, but I pray that's okay. And it just, I marveled at how this man,
00:06:10
Speaker
lived and I'd see him go to work in his pajamas you know because his studio was in his house and he'd sit there in front of clay. Anyway, one one one year when I was there in 1982, it would have been my freshman or sophomore year at BYU, I saw this piece that he was ah packaging up to ship.
Personal Struggles and Artistic Evolution
00:06:35
Speaker
And it was a piece called rough string and i looked at that piece in something left in my heart and it's like i want that piece when i'm starving college student i didn't have a nickel to my name hardly other than the.
00:06:53
Speaker
pay for school and room and board and drive home on. I saw this piece and it's like, I want that piece. I want that piece. And that kind of lived in my heart for years. And when I finally got out of school,
00:07:13
Speaker
I got married and then had a child. I was working with my father in the oil and gas industry where we would um raise venture capital for drilling programs in down around Austin, Texas and up in Osage County in Oklahoma.
00:07:36
Speaker
On the indian reservation and finally he was able to make some money and first time i'd ever had any what i'd call money in my life and i used to think that. Make ten grand and live in a trailer and i'd be fine and that was my year and it's like you know how do people make money to actually live and and so i finally had a little bit of money and.
00:08:01
Speaker
I called Uncle Grant and I said, I'd like to buy that piece, rough string. And he said, Scott, it's sold out. I don't have it. And I was just broke my heart. Anyway, we hung up and about... um A week or two later, he called me and he said, there's an art dealer in Texas that I deal with his name's Bill Burford. He runs Texas Art Gallery. He has found one for you that's coming available at an estate sale.
00:08:32
Speaker
Would you like him to bid on it for you? And I said, please do. And anyway, um, I was able to acquire that piece for $10,000 and, and that's something I've always been grateful for. I've always been grateful that I was a collector before I was a sculptor. You know what I mean? That means a lot to me because I know what it's like now to let go of money.
00:09:02
Speaker
for a piece of art that just sits in a home. That's a different level of consciousness to go to. It's a threshold to cross. And I'm always proud of people because I see people struggling sometimes if they're going to buy a piece. And oftentimes it's that financial threshold that they've got to cross to let go of money in order to have a piece. ah And so I had that piece. I took it home.
00:09:27
Speaker
and put it on my floor is a big piece it's about three feet tall most people when they buy a work of art their first work of art it's a small little painting six by six or little tiny bronze mine was three feet tall you know and took it home put it on the floor and i just just literally pinching myself that i've got one of his this this piece specifically.
00:09:56
Speaker
And then something magical happened. I i believe in the divine. Anyway, I was really ah something personal. I was really struggling in a marriage. Big time. Struggling huge in a marriage.
00:10:14
Speaker
Do I want to stay in this marriage? Do I not? We've got a child, and it's just like I hang in there. I'm not a failure, you know? And I literally remember saying a prayer to God. I've got to have some relief. I can't do this.
00:10:33
Speaker
And I'd really love to know, I can't remember exactly, but when I said that prayer to when the next thing happened and as close as I can pin it down, it was October 4th of 1990. I was 29 years old and I come home from work.
00:10:52
Speaker
And my hands on the doorknob, 505 North Church, McKinney, Texas, beautiful little house built in 1917. My hands on the doorknob, I open the door and briefcase in my hand and I turn to the left and I see that sculpture. And out of the ether, I hear an audible voice and the voice said, I can do that.
00:11:22
Speaker
Yeah. What do you make of that? and then I don't know. We'll go ahead. Well, sometimes things happen and it just gets your attention and there's no explanation behind it. and Yeah. you can't You can't ignore it. You can't explain it, but you feel an obligation to act on it. so Yeah. and What I'm most proud of is I didn't wait. i am With literally my hands still on the doorknob, I closed the door.
00:11:48
Speaker
Got back in my vehicle and drove to Westgate Shopping Center in McKinney, Texas. I went to Ben Franklin Craft Store, didn't even know if they had any clay, and walked in and bought every bit of clay they had on the shelf. And I started sculpting that night. yeah um And then four years later, I was making my living at it. What was the first thing that you sculpted when you bought that clay?
00:12:14
Speaker
ah funny you'd ask, you know. I sculpted what I knew. I'd always heard, I'd always heard, you know, sculpt what you know or paint what you know. Artists, you know, write what you know about. And I attempted to For two years, I rode bulls there in Texas when I was in high school. I was on the high school rodeo team. Got on about 160 plus head of bulls and and I know what it's like to come off a bull and break your back. I know what it's like to be stepped on. I know what it's like to be hung up on a bull. One of the most eventful moments of my life is in Colbert, Oklahoma.
00:13:04
Speaker
Charlie when it's buck out and I came off a bull by the name of Harry is a Scottish Highland and I got hung up and he rode me my face right into a yeah Shoot post and shattered one of my teeth in my mouth. You know, I know what that's like and and so I was going to sculpt and a cowboy hung up on a bull, you know, and I was going to call it too much rosin. And so I sculpted that. And then the second piece I did was also a rodeo piece, it's called Tough into a Hard Ride.
00:13:45
Speaker
and it was a cowboy on his back and a bull is about to hit him with his horns and the clown is in the arena and he's got his hand on the bull's horn trying to distract the bull. so Those were the first two pieces that I ah sculpted. And speaking of that, just before I went full time with my sculpting, I was in so much pain in a marriage, so much pain.
00:14:21
Speaker
literally like, do I even want to live? It's like my life was messed up. And there's a piece that came to me in my mind. And if you could envision, so I was still married at the time. And this was probably about the 1st of April and we were divorced, I think May 4th of 1994.
00:14:46
Speaker
But this vision of this sculpture came to me and it was visualize a cavalry charge Going into battle and there's the guy at the very front Leading the charge. He's got a rifle in his hand and all of a sudden he is shot and as he's shot he yanks on the reins, and in doing so, the horse tucks its head between its front legs, and they are just going, you know, end over end, like in this giant circle, you know? Just the the guy is being yanked out of his seat, and now he's on the rump of the horse, and he's in his death throw, and he's about to be pancaked right into the ground.
00:15:40
Speaker
And so i i it's like I had to sculpt it. i I knew nobody would buy it, but I had to sculpt it. And um you can look it up on the internet. It's called As the Battle Rages.
00:15:56
Speaker
And so I finished it knowing nobody would buy it, but I had to get it out of my system. I had to get that energy out into the clay, but I kind of didn't even realize that it. that's kind I wasn't there yet, but looking back on it, I had to sculpt that piece.
Art as Healing and Emotional Expression
00:16:15
Speaker
And what was fascinating to me, and this was a change that altered my complete career. So I'd been sculpting about four years, hadn't gone full time yet.
00:16:26
Speaker
And mom and dad wanted to put together a little art show for me to show off my, you know, eight to 10 bronzes to the community and their friends. And so we put up pedestals in their house, put things on the kitchen table on the, ah you know, the fireplace ah mantle and what have you around the house. And people came to the show and there were two, there was two people that walked up to me after looking at the show.
00:16:55
Speaker
And this as the battle rages was part of the show and probably my latest piece there and they came up to me. I don't remember the wife's name. It was Michael Smith and his wife and Michael said we want to buy that piece. It reminds us of our divorce.
00:17:15
Speaker
Yeah. Boy, that hits. Yeah. and i and and as like Seriously? and Then about an hour later, there was another couple that came ah in that um had driven down or up from Dallas, Bob and Shirley Madaris, and they said, Scott, we want to buy that piece. It reminds us of our divorce.
00:17:41
Speaker
two times in the same night. Now, I wasn't going around sharing that story, you know? And right then, it all of a sudden dawned on me that there's a ah connection that I can make with people through pain, through telling my truth, ah sharing my intimate the intimate part of me through sculpture. Do you know what I mean? yeah And it gave me permission.
00:18:12
Speaker
As I listen to you speak, you said something a minute ago when you were talking about that sculpture that you had to get it out of your system. You just had to do it. yeah Do you find that most of your sculptures and whatever emotion or drive is behind it is probably different depending on the sculpture, but do you find that most of them are it's a cathartic kind of a thing where I'm just This is front and center in my mind. No matter what I try and do, I can't not see it. I have to do it so I can move on to something else. Is that how your mind typically operates when you're sculpting?
00:18:51
Speaker
Here's the thing. I did not know that the first 10 years of being a sculptor and sculpting 80 pieces. I didn't know that. okay it's only This dawned on me after I'd been sculpting about 10 years And all of a sudden I realized there's a part of me that is healing with every piece. When I'm able to go to that vulnerable place working on a sculpture, if I'm able to tell that truth in my DNA, and it may be even somebody's DNA that I've never even met before, like I know John Rogers was burned at the stake
00:19:33
Speaker
oh eight hundred I think it was in the 1600s. Anyway, whenever the first ah English Bibles were being translated, he was burned at the stake for being part of translating Bible into English, burned in front of his wife and 12 children. His DNA is inside me, you know? And so, is there some part of that that is aching to be healed, recognized, that courage. I ponder that. I ponder how much we are connected to the people in our past, and I like to feel in my heart that they are front and present in all of our lives. As I hear you talk, I'm reminded of a John Denver song and one of his lyrics is,
00:20:24
Speaker
you're coming home to a place you've never been before. Sometimes you don't quite know where you're going or where home is or who you want to be with or what you want to do. And all of a sudden, you just find yourself doing it and it feels right. And you can't explain it. You can't figure out. There's no logical path that you followed to get where you got, but you're there and it's it.
00:20:48
Speaker
yeah And it sounds, it's kind of like what, that sounds like what you just, all of a sudden you're, this is me, this is who I am, and this is what I have to do. And you just, you know, onward and upward. So. You know, I'll share this with you. there You know, there's a movie, Amadeus, I believe it's Amadeus, not Amadeus. um ah Amistad, that movie where the slave ship these slaves took over a ship and then they get into harbor and now they're being held in trial ah for taking over the ship you know to save their own lives.
00:21:25
Speaker
And this black man is standing in front of this tribunal and he says, you know, I call upon my ancestors and when I call them, but they must come because right now I'm the only reason for their existence, you know. And that just gave me chills. And so I feel we can't be any other way ah with, we are connected. um Yeah. I love that.
00:21:54
Speaker
Love that huge and that goes into what i said earlier. But there's a healing that takes place as I sculpt with each piece. And quite often I'll find myself sculpting ah one or two or three pieces kind of of the same ilk, the same theme to finally release that energy from me and exhaust it where, hey, I don't have to go back to that, you know?
Creating Impactful Art
00:22:25
Speaker
I do what you just said right there. I want to go down a little bit of a rabbit hole with your method because I am curious. I'm not very artistic when it comes to painting or music or whatever. I like to consume some of those things, but I could never do what you do. It's just not in my DNA and my skill sets different. Yeah. But um as I was looking at your website and looking at the different sculptures that you've done, the various sizes from a gigantic bison, which was unbelievably impressive to a smaller one that would be a table mount type size. I was curious, do you start out with just one sculpture? And I'm just going to do this one.
00:23:10
Speaker
until it's completed? Or do you have multiple different not different variations of the same one, but like the trooper and the bison? Were those would you do two of those at the same time where you're feeling this one for a while and then you need to step away from it and then move on to something else temporarily and come back to it? Or how do you so typically progress through one sculpture? When I very first started sculpting,
00:23:38
Speaker
of 35 years ago, I would start and finish one sculpture. That was how it worked. The longer I've become intuitive to realize when a piece is not ready that it can be better but I don't know what else to do. um I'm at the point where I'll sculpt it to the point where it's finished and then I've set it on the shelf. And right now I've got 30 pieces I'm looking at that I'm working on. And so it's no longer one and done. Now I'll have a piece
00:24:21
Speaker
that I'll look at. and In fact, there's a horse that I was working on for nine years. It's called Commander. and it I worked on it off and on. and Sometimes it sat for three years without me touching it. There's a piece I did. It's a passed-out drunk with a bottle.
00:24:41
Speaker
I had to sculpt it. I had to sculpt it. This was a fascinating one. Here's the thing. I'd never taken a drink in my life, but here I ain't sculpting a passed-out drunk with a bottle. It's called Nada Sparrow Falls. and This is one of the greatest experiences of my life.
00:25:03
Speaker
and and So I sculpted this piece. I'm at an art show in Oklahoma City, probably less than a mile from where the A.P. Murrah Building blew up there in Oklahoma City. Disaster. It's an outdoor art festival. My booth is set up and right in the front I've got this drunk, passed out sculpture on a pedestal with a little piece description.
00:25:30
Speaker
And there's my booth, and I'm sitting off in my little art chair. And this mountain of a man, ah it was, you know, just gigantic. He was at least six-six. Beard, tattoos, leather vest, the chain, the wallet, you know, greasy pants. And he walks up with his halter top girlfriend, you know, just the classic Harley Davidson, you know.
00:25:59
Speaker
And he walks right up to this sculpture and he bends. He kind of doesn't bend down, but he looks down and I can tell he's reading my piece description and looking at this sculpture. And right in front of my eyes, this man starts to shake and he starts to tremble.
00:26:21
Speaker
isn't I see his knees go weak and he grabs a hold of the shoulders of his girlfriend to his right and it's like he just holding on.
00:26:34
Speaker
And there's something happening to him. ah It was like God was entering his life for the first time, or something yeah some healing. And it lasted for a while, and then he stops shaking, and he's able to gather himself and straighten up.
00:26:53
Speaker
And then for the first time, he turns to his left and we lock eyes. And I thought, Oh dear God, what's going to happen now? And he walks over to me and these two oven mitts come at me in the most genteel way. And I know what he wants. He wants to put my, he wants me to put my hand between his, you know,
00:27:20
Speaker
And I put my hand between his and he gently encompasses my hand in these two mittens. And he looks at me and then the most gentle voice, he says, thank you.
00:27:36
Speaker
And he walks away and I've told myself if that's the one thing that my sculpting accomplished in my life it would be worth it. ah Whatever happened to that man looking at that sculpture and I know that the art can heal.
00:27:56
Speaker
If you Google Bill Murray, Bill Murray being saved by a painting. there's ah The painting is actually called Song of the Lark, but there was a point in Bill Murray's career, he was going to commit suicide. The life was over. He had come out of a play, it had bombed, he had complete failure. this was in I want to say it was in Chicago, Illinois.
00:28:21
Speaker
And he's just wandering the streets what am i gonna do with my life i'm a failure and he was contemplating suicide it was over and just by accident he wanders into the chicago art institute.
00:28:37
Speaker
And there on the wall is a painting called Song of the Lark. And yeah go on YouTube and find that. It's worth listening to because Bill Murray tells this experience. I've listened to it probably half a dozen times. It it really touches me. And it's not funny Bill Murray telling the story. It's real Bill Murray from his heart telling the story.
00:29:02
Speaker
And I've seen and art change people's lives. David Hawkins, a spiritual teacher, once said, beauty is a pathway to God. And it could be the beauty of looking at a child's smile, or hearing a lover's whisper, or the beauty of nature in all its glory, or it could be ah a beautiful piece of art that somebody created in a painting or sculpture or a piece of music, you know.
00:29:28
Speaker
Yeah, so there's things that that's the thing. Humans are so unique and different and we all express who we are in different forms. But then you have Mother Nature around us. And I'm not by no means an expert on art. I don't have, you know, any high end art or paintings.
00:29:50
Speaker
I've been in some places in my life. I remember a vacation we took to Yellowstone a number of years ago and then we the next year went up to Glacier and then we went up into Canada to Banff. I saw a picture of Banff and I think it was Lake Louise or Lake Marine. I forget which one it was. I saw that picture probably a decade ago yeah and I said I have to go there. I just I want to see that with my own eyes because I don't believe the picture does it justice.
00:30:18
Speaker
yeah and I remember getting there and walking up a little pathway up onto the hill where you can kind of overlook the lake. and It's like the Caribbean lake in the middle of the Swiss Alps. I get frustrated at my lack of vocabulary to be able to describe what I felt when I see that. and When I look at something like that,
00:30:39
Speaker
I think it turns into art. yeah And that's where you can take somebody who can paint something and that's great. Then when someone comes along and looks at that and then they stop,
00:30:51
Speaker
and then you can see them absorbing it. They're soaking it up. They're looking at every line. Then it's transitioned into art and you, the artist and the recipient that sees that, they kind of have a conversation without any words at all. yeah and That's what's really cool is that there's art out there for everybody. I see some abstract stuff and I don't really get it. Maybe I'm just not levitating on their plane. And then I see a sculpture like your,
00:31:22
Speaker
the trooper. And there was a picture on your website that showed it in it was almost like a snowy foggy day. Yeah, yeah. And it's one of those ones where I stopped that the, you know, was playing the picture slowly, I stopped it. And I just stared at that picture and looked at every line all around. And I thought, there's there's this, a sense of security as odd as it sounds, because it's not a real trooper. But there's also, there's just this sliver of tension.
00:31:54
Speaker
as he sits there just scanning. And it sounds odd to say that it almost makes you feel a little bit more secure or safe. The statue is sitting right there. It doesn't make any logical sense at all, but art is not always logical.
Learning and Relationships in Art
00:32:08
Speaker
Let me share this with you.
00:32:11
Speaker
There's a man, his name was Kenneth Wapnick, and he gave a talk about art ah one time. I've i got it on file. I want to hang on to it for the rest of my life. He talks about the journey of somebody looking at a piece of art. And he said that you When you start looking at a piece of art, you start out in the linear world, the the linear 3D world, the world that you can see, the world that you can touch, the world that you can hear yeah with music, the world that you can taste. You start out with this linear world.
00:33:02
Speaker
When I say taste, I mean food, food being an art form, you know? but Sure. um You start out in the linear world, and then, so you're standing in front of a painting, you're standing in front of a sculpture, and then there's something, to me, if the artist has done a great job and then if the viewer is willing to go to this vulnerable place within them, they can transcend that linear world and go into the non-linear, the world of feeling. And it's in that space that the viewer can have something shift within themselves and and have an opportunity for healing. And the artist in creating it can as well.
00:33:52
Speaker
And so, to me, it's almost sometimes I feel like I might be sculpting a piece for just one person out there, you know? Sure. Because I'll just sell one, you know? I'll sculpt the piece just for me or it may be just one person.
00:34:11
Speaker
and that's okay. I would imagine what that means to that one person though. I think that's where you get that connection is it could be 10 people, it could be 100, it could be one, but the value to the recipient is still there for sure. Yeah, yeah. I want to get into kind of the nuts and bolts of your process. here I was looking at some of the videos that you had on your website that showed a few different processes with the patina and the foundry work and specifically referring to that bison sculpture which once you go to Yellowstone you'll fall in love with bison. I had a stampede run right in front of my vehicle.
00:34:50
Speaker
10 feet from these majestic animals. So they're really impressive. So I kind of got a soft spot for bison. When you start with a sculpture, you have the idea in your mind. We discussed earlier how it's this cathartic thing where I have to do it. There's an intensity and a pressure that builds and you start.
00:35:10
Speaker
Where do you get your clay? I mean, I'm assuming you have a supplier. Is there a specific type of clay that you use? I mean, I wouldn't even know what makes up a good clay for what you do. Here's the thing.
00:35:25
Speaker
if Somebody i can tell you what kind of clay to get it's you know jiff mccoffin to ab b classic medium tan it's a non sulfur clay it's a organic clay you know that's the big thing.
00:35:43
Speaker
with somebody just beginning to sculpt, just start. If somebody wanted to start sculpting, I say, right now, get off your rear end, go to the local craft store and buy whatever clay they have on the shelf and start making all the mistakes. Just start.
00:36:05
Speaker
Because I find that so many people just plan to death and they don't take action. Because the journey is the goal. The journey is what you're wanting. People think that they want the end result and they won't spend the time on the journey. The end result is not what you're after. It's the journey.
00:36:36
Speaker
And so, yeah, I can tell you what kind of clay, it's just to get a non-sulfur clay. And there's really two kinds that are out there right now that are the best, Chavant and JMac, which is JF McCauffin. And I get mine out of, there's two places, arizonasculpture.com or ah Sculpture Depot Net.
00:37:01
Speaker
And they will have all the tools, all the clay, all the wire, all the the sculpting stands, all the books. They'll have everything. Those are my two sources that I get everything from. But see, I didn't know that I first got hanger wire out of the closet.
00:37:21
Speaker
which is the worst wire that you can use. I went and bought Roma Plastilina, which has sulfur in it and burned your eyes and you can't sleep at night because you're smelling sulfur. You know, I didn't have a sculpting stand, so I got an old bookcase out of my garage and ah started sculpting on an old bookcase.
00:37:44
Speaker
You just start making the mistakes. I didn't know there was such a thing called workshops. I started sculpting, not knowing. how I was going to do this or what I was going to do. I just started sculpting. And it'd only been after I'd been sculpting for about nine or 10 months. And I took a piece to Shafer Art Bronze Foundry in Arlington, Texas, because I was living in McKinney at the time. And I took a piece to be cast into bronze. And there was a young man there. His name was Bobby. And he said, why don't you take a workshop?
00:38:22
Speaker
And I said, what's a workshop? I had no idea they even existed. I didn't could go someplace to learn about sculpting. And here I'd been sculpting close to a year, you know?
00:38:33
Speaker
And I said, what's a workshop? And he gave me a phone number, told me where to call, and there was an outfit five hours south in Kerrville, Texas. ah It was the Cowboy Artists of America Museum at the time. I think they changed their name since then. And long story short, in 15 years,
00:38:57
Speaker
15 years time, I took 21 professional workshops from other artists. These are classes that are given by professionals that made their living doing it. And that to me is the key.
00:39:15
Speaker
I've never known a professional sculptor that made it through an art school, ever. ah Painters do. Painters go to art school, but I've never known a sculptor that did it that was solely a sculptor. Sometimes there's painters that go through their paintings school and then become sculptors as well. But I've never known somebody that just sculpted that went to school to do it. They always learn from a professional head to head, like the French would say. you know and Why do you think that is?
00:39:51
Speaker
ah who
00:39:57
Speaker
Because if you're any good, You're probably going to be making a living doing it. If you're teaching, uh, and that's how you make your income. I feel like you're locked in to a mindset and and really not able. I really don't know. I don't want to downplay teachers.
00:40:23
Speaker
that might teach sculpting, but it might be very rudimentary. And if there's sculptors out there that are teaching from the universities that are making their living and doing the sculpture, ah share your work with me. I'd love to see it. But I find that most sculptors that are making their living at it.
00:40:42
Speaker
Because there's a lot of money to be made, huge, um but that's not why you do it. I sculpt and I make money and I make a good living, but when i whenever I feel like I'm going to do a piece for money, it's like I've solved my soul and I don't want to do it.
00:41:01
Speaker
um Yeah, that makes perfect sense. I can see when we were comparing just a second ago, the teaching people versus the folks that sculpt for a living. You're in this environment as a teacher that might stifle your creativity. It interrupts your flow.
00:41:21
Speaker
You may, you don't have the luxury of doing what you want, when you want and following feeling or a movement or an internal drive because you have deadlines or schedules. And I can see that just those two things, those tensions, butting heads. So I'm not saying that's the answer just as an outsider looking in at, see, I can see that being the reason why.
00:41:45
Speaker
I've got a brother who's a professor of international business at a major university, and he loves teaching and doing what he does creatively and blessing these kids' lives, changing lives. But he is constantly being held back.
00:42:07
Speaker
and what he wants to do with these ah young adults in a university setting because he's not toeing the party line, you know what I mean? yeah He has not toeing that line and it frustrates him to no end. And so, he's people ache to get in his class. There'd be people standing out in the halls wanting to listen to what he is teaching. And the other teachers don't even have kids show up because they're coming to his class, you know? And then they they shut down his class and lock the doors and you can only have this many students per class. And oh it frustrates him to no end. So yeah.
00:42:58
Speaker
If you were looking back on your career so far and your journey from all your experiences that brought you to where you are now, as human beings, we all make mistakes. We all choose wrong directions, different paths that we wish we could go back and redo.
00:43:16
Speaker
Sometimes those mistakes are what allow you to be successful. But is there anything when you look back, you think, you know, if I could go back and change one thing, even though I'm not meaning to live in the past, but what lesson could someone learn from you about I did this and I think a better choice would have been that?
00:43:37
Speaker
I've got a calligraphy on my wall. It's framed. I'm looking at it right now. My daughter gave it to me for Christmas about 10 years ago. And it says it's not about the business. It's about the relationship. I wished I would have known how important relationships were.
00:44:04
Speaker
way back in my life. I had relationships, friends, girlfriends, but how important relationships really are, trusting relationships. And that's what I wished I would have realized how important that aspect of life was. you know i just okay If you work hard, you know you're going to get somewhere. That's not true. For me, it's work smart. you know I can work hard shoveling a ditch
00:44:47
Speaker
you know, for 10 bucks an hour, 20 bucks an hour. Well, I can work hard for how many years, you know, or can I hire 10 people to work for 20 bucks an hour? And then I go hire their labor out at 25 bucks an hour and I'm making a hundred bucks an hour doing nothing.
00:45:12
Speaker
Right. And so there's working hard and there's working smart. And I got that from my dad. And so that would be the one thing is relationships with gallery owners, with clients. Because when somebody buys one of my pieces,
00:45:39
Speaker
I can guarantee you that given enough time, they're going to have two pieces, they're going to have three, they're going to have 10, they're going to have 25 of my pieces and they're going to have a monument. But if I just look at a ah client relationship as a one and done and to look at somebody as a dollar sign, I lose. And what I find is that I enrich a collector's life and boy, how do they enrich mine ah
00:46:10
Speaker
my I've i gone so many amazing places and met some of the most amazing people because of my career and they invite me into their homes.
Complex Creations and Inspirations
00:46:25
Speaker
ah And wherere we're friends. We go to ball games. We do things together. We travel together. We look forward to seeing each other and it's a symbiotic relationship. So that would be the number one is just realize how important relationships are. like Like right now, I feel like I've got to know you, so I've got this relationship, and now you're you're in my team, you know? Right. You're in my team. Well, thank you. I appreciate that. Life energies attract. I know they do. Well, one of the things that I have learned as I've gotten older is that
00:47:05
Speaker
I used to care if I showed somebody gratitude, or if I said, hey, thanks, or if I told another guy, hey, you did a good job. It used to be people would look at you kind of weird. But one of the benefits of getting older is that you just stop caring if other people think you're weird or whatever.
00:47:22
Speaker
If I think you did a good job, I'm going to tell you. If I'm grateful for something that you did, I'm going to tell you. Now, I'm not going to trip over myself, but it's going to be genuine, and it's going to be obvious that I mean it, yeah and I'm going to share my gratitude with you. ah yeah you know It's one of the things that we all can do for free.
00:47:39
Speaker
yeah And if you're genuinely grateful or if you share genuine emotion with someone, if they're not receptive to that, you don't need that person in your life. It's what it comes down to, in my opinion, anyway. so you know i've got I love holding my wife. we're We're walking down the street. We're holding hands. I've got my arm around her you know and somebody passes me and I don't care if it's a man or a woman.
00:48:03
Speaker
I'll say nice and if it catches nice pair of earrings, really like that. Love your hair, nice suit, you know? And I know that when I first started doing that when I was dating or when we were first married, my wife kind of bristled and I said, I'm going to compliment people if I if i feel it genuinely. And I love that part of my life because it's always genuine. I don't do it just because.
00:48:31
Speaker
Yeah. Well, in a world that's so superficial nowadays, I guarantee you that if you were walking through a mall and you saw a young girl who had a nice necklace on or a nice pair of shoes and you complimented that, she's going to remember that for a very long time because It was totally out of the blue. It was genuine. You didn't want anything from her. You should probably never see you again. And so it was real. And there's those little snapshots. And that's what I think that impresses people. So a couple of things that are coming to me ah regarding one of your questions you had earlier in beginning to sculpt and beginning to sculpt
00:49:14
Speaker
I didn't have all the answers and I wanted all the answers. I wanted to know everything. I was literally killing myself. I was hurting my health because I wanted it so badly.
00:49:28
Speaker
My uncle Grant, who's the sculptor, he called me one day and I called him in frustration. I can't remember how the call went. I remember one thing he said that changed my life. He said, Scott, if you're smart about this business, you'll realize you never arrive.
00:49:48
Speaker
And it's like, oh my gosh, it was like a pressure valve was just released and all the steam came out. And there's no place to arrive to. And I've held that close to my heart that I don't have to arrive anywhere, that it is the journey. And one other thing along with that Is i'm only given the answer that i'm ready for right now. Like starting out i remember starting out i'd sculpted you know half a dozen pieces i thought they were good i didn't realize how bad i was and i wrote every top drawer western art gallery in the united states and pictures just knowing that they were gonna take my work on and i was gonna be one of their in their stable about it you know.
00:50:41
Speaker
Right. well How many letters or calls did I get back? Zero. But I wasn't ready. I wasn't ready for that level yet. And so what I know is that it's like the universe, God, ah life, ah all of creation presents to you what you're ready for, that whisper, that one whisper that says, you know, go to the art store and buy clay. That's the whisper I was ready for.
00:51:16
Speaker
go to the foundry and cast this piece, and then I hear Bobby give me that little piece of coaching, take a workshop. That's what I was ready for. And as I act on the whisper that's given in that moment, then the next whispers brought forth. And that teacher is then brought forth. And um I'll never forget, my true mentor was not my Uncle Grant. My true mentor was a man by the name of Fritz White.
00:51:44
Speaker
lived out of Loveland, Colorado. And after I became his student and protege and took five classes from him, his ah wife ah came up to me and said, Fritz told me he's been waiting for you for 35 years to come into his life. He says, you're the only person that gets what he's trying to say.
00:52:08
Speaker
And we developed a mentor protégé relationship and he told me I was the only sculptor that he ever invited into his home to live with him, you know. the master will show when the student is ready. yeah But it's going to come in sips and will you act on the inspiration that you get right now? the Because your mind wants one thing, but the heart knows another thing. And are you going to be able to be honest with yourself? And um and I'd love to share ah an experience that I had with a piece that I did regarding that.
00:52:46
Speaker
where where people show up in a person's life at the perfect moment. So I'd been sculpting a number of years and I was kind of known for sculpting multiple multi-figured pieces. A 12-minute jury, lynch mobs, open casket funerals, poker games with five people. So I was kind of known for that. But in the back of my mind, I always knew that the ultimate multi-figured piece was the Last Supper.
00:53:17
Speaker
Oh, yeah. The Last Supper. Oh my gosh. Do I dare? Do I dare? Yeah, that seemed almost like I probably shouldn't do that. Or yeah was that one of those ones that you felt like you had to do? I felt like I had to do it. Okay. And so I started it. And when I started it, it's like, okay, I don't have enough knowledge to pull this off.
00:53:41
Speaker
And so I trashed the piece. Well, about five years later, okay. Am I ready? And, and I don't know. So I started it and and trashed it again.
00:53:54
Speaker
And so I gave it another five years, you know, and finally one day I'm at a gallery in Santa Fe, New Mexico, because I used to sculpt in Santa Fe four months every year for nine years. at Um, gallery called Christine of Santa Fe. I'm about a week from going home. I'd kind of wrapped up all the stuff that I was working on. What am I going to do? And I thought, well, I'm going to start the last supper. So I had a little round mold board about 12 inches in diameter. And I thought, okay, I'm going to put 13 heads in here, one for Christ and for the 12 disciples. And so I had little two inch heads and they were kind of in a ah little daisy chain all around there outside. Cause a lot of times I'll sculpt the heads first. And so, um,
00:54:43
Speaker
I'm working on these heads and they're just still pretty rough. And this lady walks in the door and she looks at me, she says, what are you doing? I said, these are the heads for the Christ and the 12 disciples. I'm going to sculpt the Last Supper.
00:55:01
Speaker
And she says, how long are you going to be here? And I says, gallery closes at six. I'll be here till then. and And it was about one o'clock in the afternoon and she leaves and I'm thinking, okay, I don't know what's going on. And she comes back and she says, I want to tell you something. She says, I'm from Dallas, Texas.
00:55:22
Speaker
and I tried to leave my house and i could not she said i was inspired to bring a book with me on this trip she said i didn't want to bring the book.
00:55:38
Speaker
I didn't want to read it. I didn't want to look at it. Had no interest in having that book, but I had to put it in my suitcase. She said, I actually was in my car trying to leave and I had to go back in the house, get that book and put it in my suitcase. I could not leave without bringing this book to Santa Fe. And we've been here for six days. We're going home tomorrow. She says, here, this is your book. And she gave me a little bag with this book in it.
00:56:07
Speaker
And I opened the bag, took it out, and it was a book on the disciples of Christ. And, ah you know, you gotta be kidding me.
00:56:18
Speaker
What does that say? I'm still, you know, how connected people are. They're the divine hand. I just love that aspect. And I could tell multiple experiences of people that come into my life, ranchers that, oh, oh I've got a good one. I've got a good one. I've got a good one. And this leads me into ask questions. Most people think they want to know something, but they won't ask questions. They want people to just spoon feed them.
Art's Impact and Personal Fulfillment
00:56:53
Speaker
And so I'm at a gallery working on a about a three-quarter life monument called Trail Boss. If you look at my website, you'll see Trail Boss. And I'm working on this at that gallery.
00:57:06
Speaker
And it's about 90% finished and this guy walks in and he's a rancher. He's got the big belt buckle, the jeans, you know, shirt, and he's standing behind the horse at the rear end looking at this. And so I did something. I said, do you know what you're looking at? And he said, yes.
00:57:29
Speaker
And he shut up. And I said, what are you looking at? And he said, I'm looking at the hips of your horse, son. And then he shut up. And I said, do you see anything wrong? And he said, your horse is weedy, son. And I says, okay. And then he shut up. He shut up. And then I said, what's weedy? And he said, the hips are too narrow.
00:57:56
Speaker
And he shut up. And I said, would you mind working with me to get it to where it's got good confirmation where it looks right? And he says, I'd love to. Do you see what happened there? I had to ask, but he didn't come in to the gallery and going to tell me what's what. Yes.
00:58:17
Speaker
I had to ask five freaking questions to get him to assist me to get to that point where he'd work with me to get it to look right. Well, if he just walked in and said, there's a problem with what you're doing over here, you're going to get defensive or some people would anyway get defensive and there's probably not going to be a constructive conversation. So he knew what he was doing and he kind of led you down that path and it worked out yeah perfect.
00:58:43
Speaker
five questions. yeah And what was wild, if you look at that piece, there's a rifle across the pommel of that horse that the cowboys hold him. And about a week later in that same gallery, this man comes in, he's about 35 years old, and he's looking at that rifle really close. And then I opened my mouth and I said, do you know what you're looking at?
00:59:12
Speaker
And he says, I do. I said, what are you looking at? And he says, that's a 72 Winchester. He said, do you know anything about them? And he says, I build them. And I said, do you see anything wrong? He says, yes, I do. Oh boy. Would you mind working with me for a few minutes and pointing them out? And he says, I'd love to. That's six questions I had to ask him.
00:59:35
Speaker
Right. That's the story of my life. These guys aren't sculptors, these guys aren't artists, but they're artists at their lives, at what they're doing and what they know. And that it's like the divine, the universe, however that works, people are brought into our lives to assist us to get to the next level.
00:59:57
Speaker
That's, I call those miracles and and miracles literally I know can be a way of life. Like you're probably a miracle coming into my life because who knows what's going to happen because of this podcast, you know? Well, I told my wife that I'm a miracle when I came into her life, but she hasn't bought it just yet. So oh that goes. Oh yeah. You know,
01:00:23
Speaker
One question that I always ask folks, but i I don't know if it necessarily applies to your line of work. It's what kind of person does well in your occupation, whether it's an introvert or an extrovert or mechanically inclined or etc. But as I hear you talk, I've come to possibly an incorrect conclusion that anybody can find satisfaction and have a cathartic outlet or try and put their emotions into some sort of medium. And they don't have to necessarily make a career out of it, but they could do it for the personal satisfaction and the joy that they get, whether it's painting or sculpting or woodworking or whatever.
01:01:10
Speaker
Yeah. Would you agree? Would you agree with that? Or is there another level that you're on where I have a skill set that I, I was born with or this just innate in me that allows me to be more successful than someone who just does this for fun.
01:01:27
Speaker
Great question. My wife is an artist at raising children. Oh, yeah. My dad was an artist at selling The man who built my studio was an artist is an artist at building you know i'm fortunate to have a couple of people a couple of builders of three three different builders that have come into my life that.
01:02:00
Speaker
they were artists, you know, enough said that they put their soul into a building. And I experienced that. And so to me, every person can find your art, find your art, find your art.
01:02:21
Speaker
And whether you make a living at it or not doesn't matter. You know, Beethoven was one of the greatest artists that ever lived. He wasn't discovered and until, I'm pretty sure I'm getting this story right, that he was dead when his work became famous. Somebody found it in the drawer of a dresser after he had died. You know, nobody knew who he was. Same thing with Van Gogh.
01:02:49
Speaker
The only person that ever bought his work was his brother and he's one of the greats. It's like you do it because you have to and if you can make a living at it, so much the better. If you weren't in your current career and obviously you're successful at it, your passion is evident as we talk.
01:03:12
Speaker
But is there another career that every now and again, if you glance, if you side glance your life, you thought, you know, I kind of, I wonder how it would have been if I did that. I think I would have been good at that. No, not at least other. Well, I take that back when I was a kid.
01:03:33
Speaker
I could be a NASCAR driver. ah ah Cool. you know i got a taste I got a taste of the smell of engines in the pits. I got a taste of that. and i've always you know felt I could be a NASCAR driver, so but that's but I've never been in a race car. I just felt that I could. That's you know neither here nor there. That would be fun.
01:04:02
Speaker
Not really. Once I got divorced in May of 1994 and went full-time with my art that October and never looked back.
01:04:14
Speaker
and My divorce, it it broke me financially, ah literally had nothing, zero, no money. I went to dad and said, can I borrow 10 grand to start sculpting? and He wrote me a check on the spot.
01:04:34
Speaker
and oh and what i was I've been very proud that within about a year and a half, I paid him back in full from from sales, from my art, with 10% interest, you know? And I've always been proud of that. I had two of the greatest parents, Del and Virgie Rogers, and when I started sculpting, you know, at age 29, never having done art in my life, zero,
01:05:11
Speaker
no background with art in my life and started sculpting. You know, guess who bought me my first sculpting stand? mom and dad. Guess who bought me my first book on Guns of the Old West, you know, and there's mom and dad. And it was in their in quiet way, you know, they were saying, go for it, son, go for it. And if they were still alive, um both of them have passed. If they were still alive and I decided, I'm not going to sculpt anymore. I'm going to, you know, play the flute and see if I can get in the New York Philharmonic.
01:05:52
Speaker
I know who would be one of the first people to buy me a book on flutes, sheet music, be mom and dad.
Future Projects and Techniques
01:06:01
Speaker
I was so blessed. When I grew up, before dad was in oil and gas, he had the fortune to be part of motivational speaking. He was actually the undercard for Zig Ziglar back in the day.
01:06:17
Speaker
Oh, wow. I don't know if you know who Zig Ziglar was. Yeah, yeah, sure. Dad worked for an outfit out of Waco, Texas called Success Motivation Institute, you know, setting goals, high achievement. And then he was with another outfit called Goals Incorporated.
01:06:35
Speaker
and And he used us seven kids as guinea pigs to try different things out. you know And just you reach for the stars, go for it, the risk risk it all. And the thing is, we were blessed as kids because we always had a safety net.
01:06:55
Speaker
There are people that I know that if they risk it all, they risk it all. and They're really risking, I could always go back home to mom and dad. you know If you are in that situation and you've got a mom and dad or that safety net that you can go for it, then you're so blessed. um One of the best compliments you've probably ever gotten is that your parents believed enough in you to invest in you.
01:07:24
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. In fact, when I finished my first piece of sculpture, dad was the first one to buy it. And he paid thousands of dollars for it because the casting was pretty expensive, you know? But yeah, so yeah so my parents believed in me. When I was playing football in high school and look up into the stands on a freezing night in Wiley, Texas, you know, below freezing,
01:07:52
Speaker
and there's two people in the stands on the visitor's side and one of them is my dad who hated the cold more than anybody I ever knew because he fought the war in Korea. He knows what cold is and there's dad and his leather coat freezing to death up in the stands. you know That's the support that I was raised with. We've talked about year your past from the very beginning all the way to where you are now. A ton of advice about sculpting, what to focus on, how to get better. What does the future look like for Scott Rogers? Where are you hoping to go? Do you have any any huge projects out there that's kind of like, this is my Super Bowl. I'm going to tackle that kind of a deal.
01:08:42
Speaker
I do and in fact, a meeting is being scheduled as we speak the first week in January and we'll see what happens. ah If ah this one goes down.
01:09:00
Speaker
It's big, but the thing the thing that I do is I know that I've sculpted over 360 pieces in 35 years. That's ah over 10 pieces per year.
01:09:14
Speaker
and take into consideration, one of those pieces took three years. One of those pieces took one year. So, ah I stayed busy. And so, as I've, what i what where I'm at right now is, it's like I've sculpted so much and got it out of my system and i feel like i'm an empty vessel in a lot of ways there still some healing to be done i know but i find that commission work is coming towards me in a big way.
01:09:47
Speaker
I just got a commission two weeks ago, a man out of Florida in Jackson, Wyoming, a piece for him. I'm finishing another piece for one of the largest corporations in America. It's sitting right to my left and it's a private commission and it's a secret for a birthday next August.
01:10:13
Speaker
I'm doing a lot more commission work and it's fascinating to get the phone call because I'm getting to be known and so all of a sudden we get a phone call. Would you consider this commission? Would you consider this? So that's where I see myself going and it's almost like Christmas answering the phone. What's gonna come our way next? But the thing about it is If I'm not passionate about it, I'll tell people. If I can get behind a project where my heart's in it, um they're not even on my website, but there's a gentleman that has about
01:10:53
Speaker
um 23 of my monumental pieces in different parts of the country on properties that he owns. And he wanted me to do Civil War soldiers, you know. And so if you look at my website, you'll see Civil War soldiers, I'm pretty sure, in the military section. And those two, I did seven feet four monuments and we've cast a couple of sets and they're on his property. But that was, you know, I could get behind that.
01:11:24
Speaker
I can get behind a civil war because I was studying the civil war as a small child, just being enthralled by that and you know Ken Burns Civil War series, that type of thing. So I love to be excited about the subject matter. I'd love you know Trump before he was out of office the first time, he was doing something called Garden of the American Heroes. And, uh, there was about 50 people in American history that he wanted monuments done to have monumental sculptures and a garden or gardens around America. And I was contacted by the department of the interior to throw my hat in the ring. And so that sounds cool.
01:12:11
Speaker
Yeah, yeah i went through the list I went through the list and I saw there's five people that I'm excited about. Alexander Graham Bell. I'm not excited about doing a piece on Alexander Graham Bell, but Patton.
01:12:28
Speaker
Lincoln washington amelia air heart and baby rock you know those are guys i get excited about and so i did small markets of those and i'm going to reach out to the department of the interior again and see if that project is still available.
01:12:46
Speaker
um as a possibility, and who knows, I might get the commission on one of those. I've already sculpted, if you go on my website, you'll see Young Washington and Young Lincoln. I sculpted them as youths. Those were my ideas, you know, to sculpt Lincoln bareback on a horse before he was even an attorney as a young man.
01:13:09
Speaker
I want to sculpt Lincoln. Well, yeah, I'm going to compete against the, one of the greatest sculptors in the history of the world. Daniel Chester French and his Lincoln Memorial. Yeah. I'm going to sculpt something beat with that. And I just sat on it and I go, why don't I sculpt Lincoln before he was president, before he was in Congress, before he was in the Illinois house of representatives, before he was an attorney.
01:13:34
Speaker
How about just a young man on a horse bareback, with a young boy with dreams, you know? That's a unique take on that. I think that would be well received. Yeah, yeah. I'd love to see that as a monumental piece. And then, oh, you should see my Amelia Earhart. I've already got the Bazzetti.
01:13:54
Speaker
yeah Here's a word that's really cool. ah You look it up, Bazzetti, B-O-Z-Z-E-T-T-I. It's ah an Italian word that means sketch. What happens is when an artist does a monumental piece, ah they don't just sculpt the monument. They sculpt the smaller one. you know It might be two feet tall, but even before that, to work out the compositional problems, they'll sculpt something, a little one that you could hold in your hand.
01:14:22
Speaker
Like if you look at my last supper sculpture on the internet that like 40 inches wide and The Bazzetti, I sculpted that. you know It took me a year to sculpt that Last Supper. Well, I did the Bazzetti in probably 15 minutes or less, and you can hold it in my hand. And it's the exact same piece. All the composition is there. You know what I mean? So I've got the Bazzetti's of Amelia Earhart. Oh, it's really cool. I'd love to see that one as a monument.
01:14:56
Speaker
But that's i I leave it open, just I don't have really set goals for the future. It's almost just like sit back and what falls in my lap now, I'm at that point. you know I spent a lot of time looking over your website, this the varying sizes, and I would see there was a lot of contrast, Wild Hearts Raging Water Sculpture. If you look at it, and I don't mean,
01:15:26
Speaker
I'm going to use the wrong words and it's going to sound like it's a negative, but it's not. ah It almost looks basic and rudimentary, but it's not. yeah know You're conveying this chaos that's going on with the rapids. yeah and Then you contrast that with the jury is out.
01:15:43
Speaker
the detail of the women's hair and the people's faces is so fine and delicate. And that's when, if you look at somebody's catalog of work, you can see someone who goes, well, I couldn't do that, but that's pretty good. And then you see someone like your work. That's what you were meant to do. You're right in your lane. And I think we're all born with gifts. And obviously, this one is yours. yeah And anybody listening if they just want to go and be impressed. That's a great place to go. I do have one question about the prayer for corn. And then I also saw it on the bison YouTube video where the gentleman was patinaing, if that's the right word.
01:16:28
Speaker
or applying the patina. yeah He was using a torch and some sort of a liquid that he would apply to it and then use the heat. yes i I don't know what that process is. What am I witnessing when I see someone doing that? Okay. Bronze is a non-ferrous metal. It has pores in it. It has pores, and the way that you open the pores is with heat.
01:16:53
Speaker
And so bronze is, um if you look at a bare bronze, it's ah golden in color like a ah wedding ring. That's literally the color of bronze. Most people think that bronze is brown inherently. It's not. It's about 90% copper, maybe even more than that. And there's about 10 or 11 different metals that make up the various types of bronze.
01:17:20
Speaker
and it's golden and a bronze left out by itself will ah age just like a copper penny, you know, set out on a brick wall for 10 years and it's turquoise. So when you see these old monuments in Europe or wherever and they're kind of turquoise, that's the bronze leeching out of the pores to get that turquoise color.
01:17:50
Speaker
Well, what we do at the foundry is we sandblast a bronze before it's patinated, patinaed. And so we've got this beautiful even texture all over the piece.
01:18:05
Speaker
And then there's various chemicals, a host of chemicals that they use to colorize the sculpture. I'll give you an example. They'll take copper sheets and they will put a nitric acid on the sheets.
01:18:24
Speaker
and Literally leach the copper it starts to dissolve and so in liquid form within that nitric acid they now have liquid copper and they call it cupric nitrate so that's in liquid form in a bottle and they put it in an air sprayer and then they will put that uh evenly all over a sculpture so they're literally spraying liquid copper on a bronze okay and then it will turn it it will turn it turquoise blue then they come in with a scotch bright pad and they'll scrub that back and they're scrubbing off about 90 percent of what they just sprayed on
01:19:11
Speaker
But that blue stays in the recessed areas of the sculpture. Okay. Okay. All right. Then in another bucket, they put 16 penny nails, iron of various sorts. They put the nitric acid on that and they've got liquid iron.
01:19:29
Speaker
And then they put that in a spray bottle and they spray that over the sculpture. And wherever the, wherever the cupric nitrate, the turquoise blue, wherever that was scrubbed back, it turns that part of the bronze brown. And then wherever the iron oxide, the ferric nitrate hits the turquoise blue, it turns that green.
01:19:58
Speaker
And so when you look at my sculpture, uh, on various sculptures, you'll see brown and greens. That's the method that we get that. So those pores in the bronze are able to receive the chemicals. Then it, so it's a paint. It's literally changing the molecular structure of the metal on the outside, you know, and every bronze will change color over time. So you have it patinated a certain color.
01:20:28
Speaker
The most likely it's you put a patina on within the first four or five days, it's going to darken like say three or 4%. And over time that patina just gets richer and richer and richer as the chemicals interact with the the atmosphere. You can have something patinated in the exact same time, you know, put it in Hawaii and put it in Montana. They're going to change both of them.
01:20:58
Speaker
Depending on the environment that they're in, you know, so that's your question Yeah, it did. You know how you were talking earlier where you had to sculpt that? I had to know the answer to that question. I saw that process and I thought, I need i need to know what's going on there. That just looked really interesting and I was real curious about that. so Yeah. you know There's a couple of things I was feeling to share. When I was ah a kid, I was just 29 years old, just starting to sculpt.
01:21:29
Speaker
I ran across something that has meant a lot to me in my life for the last 35 years. There's a painter, his name is Arnold Freeberg. and He's actually the painter of the famous George Washington painting, Praying in Valley Forge. That painting's in the White House.
01:21:48
Speaker
yeah And he said, I remember reading something that he said in an art magazine, he said, how dare anybody attempt to sculpt life to paint life? How dare any artist attempt to portray life?
01:22:05
Speaker
Unless they've lived it i love that and so i love being able to draw on my experiences in life you know my broken back bull riding but the lost love of rate running raging rivers in various parts of the country the fist fights i did a piece look on my website ah there's a piece called ah never best it.
01:22:32
Speaker
never and that's up Oh, yeah. ba I saw that one. Yeah. i I've been in the ring. I've had my nose broke. I've been in a gang fight outside the boys club in McKinney, Texas. I know fear. I know when I've stepped up to courage, I know being in the thunderstorms in the tops of the Wind River Mountains where lightning's bouncing off the cliff walls. And I'm right there, you know, scared out of my gourd. And so but when I sculpt a piece, it's fascinating. This is a miracle that happens that I wait for on every sculpture.
01:23:14
Speaker
I wait for it on every sculpture because it's fascinating when it happens. I'm working on a piece, I'm working on a piece, I'm working on a piece. And most of the time it happens about a month or two in, and all of a sudden this moment happens where the it's like, oh my gosh, the piece looks back at me. And right then, I know I've got it. Something happened. The piece is looking back at me, the horse is looking back at me, the man is looking back at me.
01:23:43
Speaker
And it's like, okay, now we are in a relationship. Let's work together to hold this and enhance it in every area of the sculpture. That's fun right there. That keeps me going. The experiences that you pull from, like you were just listing a minute ago, and I'm not dismissing youth, but one of the benefits of getting older and having a large catalog of life experiences from the minor to the major it gives you a very deep bench of emotions and experiences to apply to whatever you're doing. And we talked earlier about the authenticity of gratitude, yeah being genuine, that kind of stuff, when you can pull from a real experience in your art, I would imagine that's what conveys that realness and that genuine vibe that your art kind of portrays.
01:24:41
Speaker
Yes. I love how you said that. Pulling from a deep bench. Love that. Yeah. I've got a piece in my foyer that's still in clay and it's about four feet wide. And it's it's a bear that is attacking a canoe with a Native American in it. And ah he's literally slammed that canoe with this gigantic paw and almost bent the canoe in half. you know And that's from a personal experience to draw upon. I was 21 years old, and I was in the mountains of New Mexico at Philmont Scout Ranch. And to this day, ever since then, for the last, since I was 22, I've worn a Philmont Scout belt buckle
01:25:38
Speaker
Philmont Scout Ranch buckle on me. I've got it on right now. And it's because of this experience. I went to sleep. My feet were hurting so bad. All the other scouts and leaders went to climb Mount Baldy and I stayed in camp. And I went to sleep and it was the sleep of the dead. I don't know if you have those every once in a while. I treasure them now.
01:26:03
Speaker
I went to sleep and all of a sudden I woke up and I didn't move and my eyes fluttered and I got up on my hands and knees. My head was still down and I knew I wasn't alone.
01:26:20
Speaker
And i slowly raised my head and probably within a foot and a half was the nose of a bear and i left back <unk>d i'd love to see a video of this one day in that life movie that we see after we're gone i left back i'd love to see how far i left back and i was standing ah screaming with my arms up in the air.
01:26:46
Speaker
You know my arms hired in my head screaming my face off and all of a sudden this bear got up on its hind legs and we were face to face and his arms were up in the air like mine we were mirroring each other and i'm screaming and all of a sudden i stop screaming. And we locked eyes.
01:27:07
Speaker
And there was like a trance, you know, youre I was, I always heard don't lock eyes with an animal or dangerous animal, but we locked eyes and there was a transfer of information and we just froze. And it could have been a 10th of a second. Who knows? It might've been three or four or five seconds. I can't even think of it right now, how long it was.
01:27:32
Speaker
And then he dropped down on all fours and walked off, you know, and changed my life. And so that piece that I did is to honor that experience, and it's called Two Moons, which is the name of the Native American in the boat. ah the Two Moons receives the totem of the bear. Speaking of that deep bench to draw upon, back to back to your comment. And there's one other thing I feel to mention that the in a way kind of goes with this.
01:28:08
Speaker
My dad, I've been making my living at doing this for about 10 years, and he came to me one day and he says, I finally figured it out. I know your talent. I know what your talent is.
Acknowledgments and Conclusion
01:28:20
Speaker
And I thought he was going to tell me it was sculpting, you know? and He said, I know what your gift is. I know what your talent is.
01:28:29
Speaker
and it's not sculpting. He said, your gift is to find somebody that you believe in. He says, I've watched you your whole life. you find somebody that you believe in and you'll actually do what they say. He says, I've been a teacher and I've watched people and he says, a lot of people think they do, but they don't, but you do. And I have been blessed with some of the greatest teachers of art in my life, teachers of life. Back when I was in, you know, school, school, scout leaders,
01:29:08
Speaker
And then it goes into my dad teaching me how to sell, and then the greatest teachers Fritz White, Herb Minnery, Mel Lawson, ah Robert Beverly Hale, who taught anatomy at the Art Students League of New York for 40 years.
01:29:26
Speaker
These people have come into my life, I say Stanley Blythe, he was the sculptor of the United States. Oh my gosh, he taught me three words that ring in my head every time I put my hands on clay. Sculpture is silhouette. That's what sculpture is. Want to know what the sculpture is? It's silhouette.
01:29:47
Speaker
When you look at a piece from a hundred yards away, what is it read? How does it read? Do you get up on it? How does that silhouette read? ah You look at the Statue of Liberty. but You're looking at that from a distance. You're actually seeing the silhouette.
01:30:04
Speaker
sculpture is silhouette and steady silhouettes. Most people sculpt subject matter. I don't sculpt subject matter. I sculpt silhouettes. I sculpt the- The silhouette, that's an excellent point you made. The silhouette, I never thought about it like that, but that's the Statue of Liberty, for example. Yeah. If you were coming over on a boat, that is the first emotion that's going to be conveyed as you're coming to the new world, so to speak.
01:30:34
Speaker
yeah and you see that silhouette, all you need is the outline and you know you made it. yeah That's a good way to look at it. yeah You look at Jerry West, the the logo of the and NBA. You just look at that silhouette. You don't see yeah the eyes and the fingernails and the buttons on the shirt or the your stitches on the jersey. You see that silhouette. You look at the Nike's, Jordan, you know, yeah um that's one of the greatest silhouettes in the history of art is one of Michael Jordan with the basketball.
01:31:07
Speaker
That's, you know, we're known the world over now. It's the silhouette. And if I could give anything for new artists, don't bother about the detail and the subject matter. Art is not subject matter. It's composition, balance, and design. And you can literally, I've seen artists make a career and a living.
01:31:33
Speaker
a huge living just on composition, balance, and design, no detail, and living on that silhouette. If you can feel that, oh that's a neat place to to come from in art.
01:31:47
Speaker
I got so much out of this and I've never had the opportunity in my whole life to sit down and speak with someone who has made their living in your arena. And so i don't I don't come from a place of being informed. And so I was excited to talk with you because it's just something that I'm a curious person by nature. I was interested in what the meat and potatoes of your career is like. What's your website again? Give everybody the best way that they can find you there.
01:32:18
Speaker
My website is my name, Scott Rogers Sculpture, R-O-G-E-R-S, scottrogerssculpture.com. And give a shout out to my wife, she built my website. and She did a great job.
01:32:34
Speaker
She really did, and she lives her life in huge support of me and um grateful for her. Yeah. This was an incredible conversation. So thank you so much, Scott. You're a blessing. Thank you. It's my privilege.
01:32:56
Speaker
And that wraps up another episode of the jobs podcast. Thank you so much for joining me today. Hopefully you found that interesting. As always, I wait until the end of an interview to ask you to like, subscribe and share. I feel it's important that I earn that support from you. Thanks again, and we will see you on the next one.