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Show J OREM TIMES Page 8 Thursday, April 10, 2008 Pleasant Grove man loving life as a sculptor Craig Dilger I ' " ' ' y"' . u ' fi mall shreds of clay fall to the table like trie thin . peels of a carrot as Blair I Buswell delicately shaves some bulk from the body of a sculpted ox. Behind Buswell there is an array of anatomical drawings of oxen, photographs of the large animals in various positions posi-tions and stages of movement, and :i collection of real ox skulls. There K even a television playing videos of oxen moving around on a farm for additional reference. BuswelJ is me-ti'-ulous and precise. I owering above BusweD as he . oiks in his Pleasant Grove studio i a larger-than-life covered wagon 1 itue being pulled by four mules. At"p the wagon is a sculpted driver U ;inng a striking resemblance to B i- a ll Sitting beside the wagon df i. -r is a young girl modeled after Buswell's own daughter. The ox that b is currently working on is just a 1 4 scale model that will ultimately be enlarged to match the proportions of the giant wagon. It is just a small portion por-tion of the HJ- to 12-year project that liu v.'. ell is working on for the city of (Anuria. Neb. When complete, the project will be a bronze wagon train the length of an entire chy block. It is a dream job," says BuswelL It is a job that has been a lot of fun, one where I get really excited to go to work. I don't look forward to Fridays Fri-days and a I don't dread Mondays." ix-spite the fact that he has been working for the past six years on the wagon train sculpture, Buswell is not best known for his depictions of the American West, but rather for his sculptures of athletes. One of his primary clients is the Football Hall of fame. Soon he will have to take a hi eak from his wagon train project to begin working on the sculptures of this year's inductees. Buswell has been producing sculptures for the Hall of Fame for 28 years and in that time has made at least 65 sculptures of some of the world's best athletes. "I got my big break from playing fo-jiball at BYU," said BuswelL who met Bill Walsh (a one-time coach of the San Francisco 49ers) at his senior football banquet. Some of Buswell's bronze sculptures were on display at the banquet and Walsh was so impressed that he hired Buswell to make a sculpture for the 49ers. That introduction to the field of athletic sculpture led to a job creating sculptures sculp-tures for the Football Hall of Fame in Ohio. In 1990, Blair was honored as the Sports Artist of the Year by the United States Sports Academy. He was the first sculptor to receive the honor. "It took me 25 years to make people peo-ple really look like people," Buswell said. "Now I haven't had much time at all to learn about how to make animals ani-mals and wagons. I make my sculptures sculp-tures from the inside out. That is why I have the skulls; so that 1 can look at the structure underneath and then build it up. There is a reason that the folds do what they do and it is caused by what is underneath." The process of sculpting a larger than life, yet accurate, wagon train is even more complex than it sounds. Each of the components of the scene are originally sculpted at 14 of the HOT lillMT Pill Mil ON APRIL 15 BUY ANY,; MBlAf '. If. BERNINAVV: AND WE' I PAY THE . aaies tax b orey pata on nw Bemma & ;4'f U : f. '2 sX t WV .'"'V' " IT- rS Blair Buswell puts the finishing touches on a sculpture of an ox in his studio current size for display in Omaha, Nebraska. actual size. That piece is then sent away to be scanned in three-dimensions and then mechanically formed out of foam at 54 actual size, thus creating a larger than life foam replica rep-lica of Buswell's sculpture. That foam is then sent back to Buswell's studio, reinforced and coated with a layer of clay. Then the finishing touches in texture and detail are done in clay. The final clay sculpture will then be bronzed and shipped to the site in Nebraska. It is impossible to pinpoint how long it takes Buswell to finish a piece since he tends to move between several sev-eral works-in-progress in order to keep a fresh outlook on each sculpture. sculp-ture. However, Buswell estimates that each sculpture probably takes a month or more of cumulative time to complete. Despite his dedication to each work of art and 27 years as a professional sculptor, Buswell can't single out a particular piece as his favorite or even his most challenging. Each sculpture presents a different set of challenges. "There are a lot of favorite pieces because of what they did for me, what they taught me and what I learned from doing them," Buswell said The sculpture I did of Danny Ainge was important to me for getting get-ting an athlete in action. I loved working with Charlton H est on. The Indian I have called "How Many More?" I love it because of the expression ex-pression that I was able to capture in his face. I don't have one favorite, I can go through every sculpture and pick out what 1 learned from doing it." Ifen-fri10atn-6pni Sattero-Sp 2S8 It Cetitw Prow , 374-5520 wiurisbjet m Bernerte macnir. i n i z V J f v ) ' (s TT-' " 'V I I I -f ' v. , . ' . I i "J' Iff J" i I i J- i s j ii ii i -f a j' . ,1 - r -f r - I .0 i At f.P CRAIG DILGER Daity Herald Blair Buswell carefully attends to the final details of an enlargement of a sculpture of a pioneer woman in his Pleasant Grove studio. The sculpture will join a number of other components as part of a block long wagon train in a park in Omaha, Nebraska. ixMaiiiirtinni ftlssf insurance acioptod in Pleasant Grove. The sculpture will hi 1 ' - .r" i ; -1 As an Independent Agent we can tailor a program just right for you. 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