completed November 13-09 3′ feet high

Every piece should be better than the last. How can that be? What about the work you buy? Do I mean to say that what I am doing now is better than what I did yesterday and that the work you bought yesterday is not as good? Not in the least. I am talking about mastery. I am also talking, and am always talking, about art. Art is not just about mastery. But mastery needs to be there. Art is about empathy - the ability to understand one’s subject - and also about self-expression and mastery. Those three parts come together to make a great piece of art. Today I am talking about mastery. Mastery is much on my mind these days.

I have sculpted many, many frogs. One could easily say I am a master of my craft. But in many ways, I have only begun to master my craft. Mastery demands that kind of appreciation and commitment.

I lost my wife, Anne, to breast cancer now just over a year. In my last post I said “it has to be about the frog”, meaning, I have to step up to the plate and make all the money as well as be a single parent. Anne was doing well as a clinical psychologist. I have to significantly expand my business to make up for our loss of income. Necessity and pain are forcing me to take my art to a new level. I’m having to grow in many arenas. Talking to me about the loss of Anne, a friend said, “Either you grow and become more or you don’t.” I must grow and become more, if not for me, certainly for my eleven year old son. But for me too because I yet have work to do in this world. It is up to me to fill the world with beautiful sculpture. This may also be true for my son. He is a wonderful artist. His drawings are incredible. Now, if I can only get him to clean his room.

Speaking of cleaning a room, my sculpture studio has always been a mess. Tools have been hard to find. I’ve always had more art stuff in there than just sculpture supplies. It has been a mess, my studio, a wonderful mess. But those days are over. As serious as I am about my craft, I am unwilling to go a day without having my tools exactly where they need to be. Productivity as well as creativity is essential, especially with the kind of work that I do, art that has so much craftsmanship to it.

Recently my son and I became black belts in the martial art of Tae Kwon Do. Once you become a black belt, the Tae Kwon Do master expects you to be sharp and exceptional in every move. Black belts need not be told to try as hard as they can in every move and to be impeccable. This is expected. Appearance and performance are to be impeccable.

Mastery. Every piece is better than the last. How can that be, and how can every piece be full of mastery? Because every piece is full of commitment to being the best. Every piece is full of heart. Every piece has impeccability. When you buy my art, that’s what you buy.

 large, human-sized Thinker frog. Completed 10-20-09.

Well, it’s about more than the Frog. But you’ll see how it is about the Frog as well as everything else. Last year my dear wife of 20 years lost her life to a terrible and extremely aggressive form of breast cancer called inflammatory breast cancer, IBC for short. She was 53. She was a psychologist, well respected in Atlanta, our home during all of our marriage. We have a son who is now eleven. He and I have done a lot of healing and grieving over the past year. I’m writing a book about the loss.

My wife was an incredible healer. She was also the major breadwinner. My income was supplemental. Even so, my sculptures have enjoyed much success over the years and are collected across the US and abroad and are in many public places. Now it is up to me not only to raise our child but also to make the money. So when a good friend of mine caught up with me and we talked, I told him it’s got to be about the frog. He understood and appreciated mightily, and said that he would use that term whenever referring to the need to step up to the plate and do what needs to be done.

Kissing the frog is a metaphor that has had a lot of meaning for me in ways more literal than most. Not that I actually kiss my frog sculptures. But they are frogs that I metaphorically kiss. Do I eat frogs? Not literally. But I make a lot of frogs, and I guess that means I do eat a lot of frogs because making the frog is not the most fun filled activity I can be involved in to be quite honest. It is my work and I respect it. To a degree work is play, but let’s not kid ourselves: making the frog is hard work. It can also be dangerous work. But I won’t go into that right now. I’ve talked about enough scary things in this entry.

My frog sculptures inspire joy and fun. One would hope that the creation of them would involve a lot of joy and fun. It’s not always that way. But I will tell you this: a lot of mastery goes into this work. I produce art, and the art I produce has within it much of my inner power and strength, and in that power and strength is a lot of joy and fun.

I believe that my sculptures can heal people’s hearts — and minds. My wife and I were complements of each other. Though she was of a healing profession, she was also incredibly creative. She could have been an artist if she had wanted to. She had great musical talent as well as literary ability and the eye of an artist. So it is that I have healing ability even though my wife was the one who exemplified this. Now it is up to me to fulfill both roles. It is up to me to step up to the plate. In other words, it’s all about the frog.

Out of this tragedy has come more frogs, and that’s a good thing for all of us and for the world, I think. Let us not forget, those of us who remember, those of us who still appreciate black-and-white films and the comedians who were the funniest in the world: the Marx Brothers. They were a hit on Broadway before they ever made any films, and they wouldn’t have made a single one, probably not…  According to Groucho, anyway. Had it not been for the Great Depression and the fact that Groucho and his brothers had lost all their money we very well might not have had a single Marx Brothers film and probably not the treasure trove that we do have now. This is not to say that I think that our current economic crisis is a good thing or that the terrible tragedy that befell me and my son was at all a good thing. But good things can come from bad.

So when someone many many years from now enjoys one of my large sculptures, be it a frog or some other creature, they might very well have my wife to thank. And for you who are reading this, whatever difficult times you might have had or are having, consider the good that can come out of it: good that can be not just for you but for others as well at this time or at another. It’s all about the frog. And though our frogs sometimes come out of difficulty, sometimes even pain, they can bring joy to us and to others.  

 My family intorduces a local frog sculpture. My wife, who did not like to talk as much as I do, could be eloquent. Certainly she was charming.

Owner of sculpture on left, Beau on right. Guitar frog in the middle.