Old Dog, New Trick

Perspectives from The Artist's Road

I-80 Western Wyoming

We are on the artist’s road again, having just driven 1000 miles to deliver John’s new clay sculpture maquettes to the bronze foundry in Alpine, Utah. Driving across the Continental Divide through the snow and dense fog in the middle of winter was challenging but also had moments of sublime beauty. Being on the road always inspires us.

While John is known primarily as a painter, he has worked on sculptures throughout his career and even assisted in a foundry years ago in college. Still, this sculpture commission is an exciting new area of art for him, one with a steep learning curve in all the new technological advancements of the foundry processes.

Trying something new always carries some risk, and the fear of failing in some way to meet expectations, either our own or those we imagine others have of us, can be a formidable obstacle to venturing into the new. But often, the thing that holds us back as artists is simp…