Description
The Other Side of Eden is a figurative bronze sculpture. I consider it the major turning point of my early career. The first version was approximately 20 inches in height and was completed in 1980 while I was in Denver. At that time I had begun sculpting but was still drawing in the ballet studio. As a male dancer was completing his grand jetés (large leaps), he crashed in to the wall on the last one, but I saw him go through the wall or rather, I saw this sculpture.
Drawing a quick sketch I captured the image (a practice I continue to this day). The sketch helped me see the work again in my minds eye again and I sculpted and cast the work in this first size.
As a young artist with limited funds the 20 inch version was all I could afford to take on. It would be many years before the vision I had originally as that vision would be commissioned.
All my sculptures appear to me in this way, as a completed vision of a sculpture. I consider it my greatest gift as an artist.
There are four versions of this work. The first in 1980 that was an edition of only three with two artist proofs. The second size was the five foot version created in 1991. It was then commissioned in a three foot size in 2003 and finally in 2014, it was commissioned as I originally had seen the piece as that original vision, at fifteen feet in height by ten feet in width and 6 feet in depth. Becoming the largest bronze sculpture I have ever undertaken to create and cast.
All the rubber molds for the three different sizes of the sculptures were destroyed in the fire that consumed the casting studio on November 23rd in 2016.
This monumental sculpture was commissioned by Tom and Mary Steffek Blaske for their home in Ann Arbor. All the sculpting, casting, assembly, chasing and patina were done here a my studio and took place over a three year time period. Glenn Campbell (Campbell Plaster and Iron of W. Rutland, VT) did the initial enlargement and construction of the armature. My friend Bill Carey was extremely important in aiding me in the casting and assembly of the piece. You can see slide shows of the work in progress and the installation on the What’s News page.
The Other Side of Eden has inspired many people. It is a work of art that people relate to – even those who would not normally respond to a work of art. For me it is when my career truly began.
