John Hebenstreit and Ezzard Charles

Yikes! ---  but what a powerful portrait of a powerful man.

Both the boxer, and the sculptor, could kick some butt.

Love that eyebrow.

The full figure will eventually be installed in a west end public park in Cincinnati.

RJ's Cyberart

 I just discovered a disc containing about
120 cyber paintings
that RJ did about 12 years ago


Most of them are his typical
erotic fantasies,
but here are some
that depict friends
or were done with friends
who got together to draw a model


Above is a whimsical depiction
of Carin Hebenstreit painting a portrait

 Depicting one of his favorite models, Dexter,
posing with a second model

 Dexter, again,
this time at Xavier
presumably facilitated by Tom Tsuchiya
who had a studio there.

 Danny Leonard's father, Bill
had died of a heart attack
a few years earlier.

I'm not sure if this was a remedy
or a contributing factor

 Depicting John Pendery,
a family friend
who died not long after RJ


(though I was unaware that he ever got married
 - perhaps this image was mis-labeled)

A model posing
in the studio
of Charles Frymier

Pat Bruchin at the Riverside Art Walk

 
It was a beautiful Spring day in Riverside, Illinois

where Pat was juried into their annual art fair.

Here's my favorite.

Dexter modeled for the male figure
(his face has been anglicized)
so this one was done in Cincinnati.

Echoes of RJ
run throughout the earlier pieces

Many of the pieces were done at least ten years ago,
but there were also several pieces from last year,
including this bronze ballerina

50 Foot Jesus

Tom's  52 foot Jesus has finally been installed




And though it's not as dramatic as
the 'touchdown Jesus'
that it replaces,
it has a gentle, noble stature.

It looks pretty good !

...and happily all the pieces fit together perfectly

Stanley the Robot and Gloria

Gurney Journey is a cartoonist's blog to which I've linked for the past 5 years .... but apparently haven't visited for a while, since this post slipped past me last Summer (right around the time I was visiting MJ for the last time)



The cartoonist had engaged Larry Elig to make a three-dimensional figure of one of his sci-fi figures.



And Larry used his unique talent to make this character just a little more weird.

And being totally asleep at the switch, I also missed last Summer's debut of the

Larry Elig blog

featuring a statue of Gloria.

Here's RJ's version.

As you can see, they were working from the same pose, back when their little sculpture group got together in that basement in Walnut Hills.

BTW -- this is one of the statues that I carried off -- back when RJ was giving stuff away -- and it's one of my favorites.

And here's one of my favorite pieces from Larry's blog - in a further exploration of one of RJ's favorite themes: beautiful young women consorting with large animals.

(BTW, This might explain the recent, tragic death of Lonesome George )

Tom Tsuchiya on the National Mall

Atlas Recycled was
assembled from 14 re-purposed atlases -- and a bunch of re-usable junk from the studio.

for the 2010 Ecosculpt Exhibition on Fountain Square to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Earth Day.

Since then, he's traveled to Grand Central Terminal in New York City,
and to the National Mall in Washington D.C.
.....with his very own page on Facebook




As some of you may know, Tom was a Classical scholar before he took up sculpture, and this is a rather ingenious way to combine both of his interests.

Jacques Lipchitz

-- as well as reviving the practice of cubism.

John Hebenstreit and the Black Brigade: Part II

The Smale Riverfront Park is having it's opening,

...and as it turns out, it's right next to the same bridge, and right across the river from the George Rogers Clark park where R.J. has his statue of Roebling.

...and it's just a few blocks away from the entrance to Great American Ball Park where Tom Tsuchiya has his statues of Johnny Bench, Joe Nuxhall, etc.

So this part of the world is what might be called "Il Museo di Scuola Milleraccio"