Home

(Above) An example of a large commission, "Great Falls" is 85 ft wide x 10 ft high. This is just one section of the 1,200 foot mural
"The Life and Legacy of Washington."

LARGE or SMALL, You found the right place!
Of course, not all commissions I do are as large-scale as the one above, I more often create much smaller custom artwork for clients. If you are in need of a custom piece of artwork, no matter what size, please don't hesitate to contact me.

Designer Artist
My formal training and early career was as an industrial designer. I feel this is a huge advantage I have over most other artists. As a designer, I always used a variety of materials and processes to find the best solution for a project. The best solution might be metal, it might be plastic, it might be stamped, cut carved, cast -or none of those. After ethetics and function, the most important factor for my design clients sometimes was cost, the time to make it, or at times, even it's shipping weight. This was great training for my second career as an artist. I still follow that same design process today and it has served me (and my clients) very well. Following a proven work process not only gives my clients a sense of comfort, it is the essence of what takes a "cool idea" and turns it into a reality.

My Commission Process
I realize asking an artist to create custom artwork for you can be intimidating. The process I use allows the client to be as involved as much as they would like, and informed of the project status throughout.

The process often begins by visiting or seeing photos of where the completed artwork will be displayed. I will need you to tell me as much as possible about how you would like your finished artwork to look. If it is difficult for you to explain what you want, look at magazines and books and either mark the pages or start a file of cut out images that are similar in style to what you hope to commission.

The second step is "concept development" where I develop sketches of the ideas that I have for your project. We can meet or I can email you sketches for you to review at your leisure.

A price estimate can be discussed after we agree on a sketched out idea and a material that it will be made from. Payment arrangements can then be discussed.

The third step (for more complex projects) would be small scale models of the final design so that you would know exactly what to expect your project to look like. We would review the model together and make sure that we both agree on the details. At this point, a schedule for completing the artwork can be created.

For large projects, several client reviews would be scheduled. For most smaller projects, all that might be required is a final review before the piece is totally finished. Sometimes this can even be completed via email. For example, a small simple terra-cotta sculpture might not need reviews along the way, but it should be reviewed by the client when completed (while it was still soft and able to be changed) -before it was fired. See example photo below.

(Below) These repeating leaf patterns in plastelina clay will be used to create cast bronze moldings 4 inches x 12 inches each. This would be the point of an important client review, before they were cast into bronze and could still easily be altered. The final review -for finish only, would be after they were cast into bronze and a patina color was applied to make sure the color was as discussed.

Often a final review can be conducted at the time of pick-up or it can be done after the artwork is completed and final patina colors are applied. For smaller pieces, I often suggest stopping by before lunch, shopping or doing errands. That way should any final color adjustments be needed, often, I can quickly complete the changes and the piece will be ready for pick up after you are done, saving you a second trip to the studio.

(Below) This is actually my first sculpture commission. I is a replica of the statue of "Freedom" -the statue which sits on top of the U.S. Capitol dome. This photo shows the plastelina clay model surrounded by a frame that I made to transfer the measurments from my 2-D reference photographs onto the 3-D sculpture.

(Below) The sculpture "Freedom" cast in bronze is now on display
as a sharp-shooting trophy at the U.S. Olympic Headquaters in Colorado Springs, CO.

Below: a smaller-sized commission:
This detail of a Medussa adorns a fireplace near Leesburg, VA.