Chances are if you visited a high end art gallery or museum in the area – Flagstaff, Sedona, Cottonwood, Prescott – or even those in larger cities – Scottsdale, Paradise Valley, Phoenix, Tucson, or Albuquerque and Santa Fe – you have seen and admired the craftsmanship of the skilled personnel at Bronzesmith Foundry and Gallery.
You likely did not know what you were looking at might have come from a small foundry located in rural Arizona.
But the reality is, hundreds of artists and sculptors and collectors throughout the world know of Bronzesmith.
In fact, you will likely see some Bronzesmith pieces in galleries in Britain, France, Germany and China. Asia, in fact, is a rapidly growing market for the company.
Chances are equally good that you “ooh’ed” and “aah’ed” when you viewed a sculpture such as the charming “Giddy-Up, Daddy” sculpture. Located at McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park in Scottsdale, it memorializes Family Circus cartoonist Bil Keane and the four beloved kids whose cartoon family appeared in 1,500 newspapers across the country beginning in 1958.
The same reaction may occur when you see “Not-So-Gentle Tamer,” a bronze statue honoring pioneer Arizona women, located in the art garden at Prescott Valley Town Hall. Cave Creek author and artist Bob Boze Bell designed the piece, but sculptor Debbie Gessner shaped and formed the 10-foot statue as part of the Arizona Centennial celebration.
Yet another famous statue, that of Arizona icon Sen. Barry Goldwater, has been admired for years in its centerpiece location at the Goldwater Memorial in Paradise Valley.
And in 2010, to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Boy Scouts of America, a statue of a BSA leader, his arm draped around a young Scout, points to the future. That $98,000 sculpture stands near the entrance to Miller Valley School in Prescott and celebrates the proud tradition of scouting in the United States.
The common denominator among the four? They were designed and cast by Bronzesmith.
Bronzesmith – A Truly Fine Art Foundry and Gallery
The four statues earlier mentioned do not even begin to reveal the thousands of sculptures formed in the full-service foundry. Since its beginning slightly more than 21 years ago, the foundry has heated and poured tons of pounds of specially compounded bronze in a process called “lost-wax casting” (also called “investment casting”).
Foundry and gallery owners Ed and Kathy Reilly describe what they do as “…being dedicated to creation to completion of limited edition bronze sculpture. We want our product to be perfect.
Our experience, which includes 10 years with a foundry we had in Flagstaff before we relocated to Prescott Valley, had helped us develop innovative techniques for pasting and patina,” Ed Reilly explained. “Our ultimate objective is to collaborate with the artists to create as fine and detailed sculpture as possible.”
Reilly learned his trade as an art major at Northern Arizona University, graduating with a degree in 1979. His wife earned her degree at Arizona State University.
Two other Reillys – Bill (a brother of Ed) and his wife, Sunshine – also are NAU graduates.
Kathy, who supervises the Gallery that houses hundreds of pieces of traditional to contemporary bronze sculptures, added, “We are committed to providing our artists and sculptors – and our customers – with the finest bronze casting available.”
For pieces too large to fit within the Gallery and its hallways, a sculpture garden just outside the entrance to Bronzesmith showcases dozens of striking sculptures. They range from intricately detailed depictions of wildlife to richly colored Native American pieces to vibrant abstract shapes and forms that intrigue and stimulate the imagination.
Kathy also conducts scheduled detailed tours of Bronzesmith, usually by appointment at 11 a.m. on Thursdays.
Inside the main gallery area are also “workstations,” where eight full-time and several part-time employees design, refine and make models for future sculptures. The complicated model-making, molding and ultimate casting process is demanding and intricate, says Debbie Gessner, a multi-talented musician, artist and sculpture who originally came from Scottsdale.
“I’m pretty much self-taught,” Gessner, who now lives in Mayer with her husband, said. “I fell in love with sculpting when I was at Coronado High School in the Valley, and I exhibited in the Phippen Show in Prescott. But I ‘burned out’ for a while and became a traveling musician with Don, my husband, until we came back here in a few years ago. I got a job with Bronzesmith and now, I’m doing what I love.”
Some of the artisans work with various projects – shaping and carving wax or plaster models into shapes around which molds are placed.
Others work with sculptures after they have been cast, removing the imperfections or welding multiple pieces together to form a “whole” piece.
Often a final step sometimes involves putting a patina – a metallic or colored finish – on the final bronze.
The foundry itself is at the rear of the gallery in a separate building. There, foundry workers, fully protected from the 2000-plus degree furnace, melt and pour bronze from the crucible into the carefully constructed moulds. Once poured, the molds are set outside to cool until the molds can be stripped away and the finish work begun.
How Sculpture Concepts Become Reality
The Reillys say much of their national and international success is because of word of mouth among the sculpture community.
“We have what amounts to a regular stable of artists and sculptors who call on us regularly to cast their work. They come from all over the world. Many want just limited editions of what they do – maybe no more than 25 total pieces. In fact, we cast some pieces on a ‘by demand only’ basis,” he said.
The sculptures ranged in size from pieces that could fit into the pam of a hand to one of the largest he has ever cast – a 23-foot statue of Standing Bear, a late 19th century leader of the Ponca Tribe in Oklahoma. The statue, designed by Oreland C. Joe, a Ute-Navajo artist from Kirtland, N.M., is the largest statue of a Native American in the United States. The sculpture is visible in Ponca City.
Waiting in the parking lot next to the foundry are three large sculptures being prepared for shipment to a gallery in Santa Fe.
But not all sculptures leave Arizona. One recent instance is that of “Not-So-Gentle Tamer,” the 10-foot tall centennial sculpture. It depicts a shirtwaisted pioneer woman holding a shovel in one hand and a headless rattlesnake in the other.
Gessner was a key player in the creation of the statue.
“Bob Boze Bell showed me a painting he made when he was assigned to create a piece of artwork for the Prescott Valley Centennial Commission. The painting – a composite of his two pioneer grandmothers from the time he was growing up – was the original idea for the sculpture,” she said.
Bell and Gessner collaborated until they agreed upon a final design and created a small model for the ultimate sculpture.
Bell says he first thought of doing a cowboy or some other stereotypical Western image.
“But I thought better of it. Really, it was women like my grandmothers who tamed the frontier,” he said.
“I have nothing but praise for Deb. She is the consummate artist, and turned my primitive painting into a fantastic statue,” Bell continued.
But also instrumental in the creation of the sculpture was 11-year Prescott Valley Town Council member Lora Lee Nye.
“We, the descendants and beneficiaries of Yavapai County pioneers, needed to acknowledge the dedication and perseverance of those farmers, miners, cattlemen, business owners – and especially women – who made possible the ‘Mother of counties” we enjoy so much.”
Nye spearheaded a fundraising campaign to pay for the $87,000 statue.
“We were insistent that no taxpayer money would be used, so we had raffles and bake sales and whatever else we could do to raise that money,” Nye said. “We also received some generous individual and corporate contributions.”
Bright Shiny Pennies
Nye fondly recalls one fundraising event when she and others were promoting the idea of a centennial sculpture.
“It was a fairly large crowd, and some folks, after hearing the pitch about paying for the statue, were dropping money into a small bucket. But what I remember most is that one little boy –maybe five or six years old – came up to me and shyly asked, ‘Can I give you some money?’
“He reached into his jeans pocket and pulled out six bright shiny pennies. He smiled at me, and dropped them in the bucket. I almost cried. I like to think that those six pennies are now part of that centennial monument,” Nye said.
Contributions, large and small continued to accumulate until enough was raised to pay for the statue.
Nye says of it, and the other statues and artwork that dot the Town Hall campus, “We at Town Hall like to think it’s a point of pride in PV to have public art that citizens can enjoy for years to come. We truly do owe Bronzesmith a big thank you for helping make our sculpture garden a place where people can come and enjoy diverse artistic efforts.” QCBN
Bronzesmith Fine Art Foundry and Gallery is located at 7331 E. Second Street, Prescott Valley, AZ 86314.
Gallery Hours: Monday-Friday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Tours: 11 a.m., Thursdays, or by appointment.
928-772-2378
www.bronzesmith.com
By Ray Newton, QCBN
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