"Fresh Art for the Convivial Heart"

Monumental to miniature bronze sculpture. Articulating community connections.

Themes: Folklore, bells, morphic fields, myth, portraits, Equuleus, EHE (jewelry), community.

Short History: Community and salmon - historic synopsis.

What is art for? For the past 30 years we explored ways to articulate the marriage of culture and local ecology through intense participation involving art. Our inspirational key was wild salmon, Pacific Northwest regional keystone and totem.

Some of the highlights include:

Wild Olympic Salmon - celebration, restoration and education, Shoreline Commission, Fish Hill, Salmon Creek Restoration Team, Tahmanawis/Soul Salmon, NOSC, Sofa Salmon, Salmon Woman and Raven and 30 more public sculptures, Folk Fish, Storytelling, Essays, Etymology, Poetry, Salmon Banks, "Reaching Home", Chum Charms, Salmon Festival, T-shirts, Native American honoring events and Potlatch, Fin, the migrating salmon, Watershed Trading Cards, Dragon Tracking Community Quest Game, Thunderbird Tracking Game.

PRESENT DAY SUPPORT SYSTEMS FOR ARTISTS? Post 9-11:

As outlined above, the art we created for the past 30 years was largely for and about community. During that time we made a living doing foundry work for other artists while creating community opportunities. Having raised our family, our present intent is to deepen and evolve personal art production and integrate the real need to make a living into our creative work. As all artists know, this is a considerable challenge.

How to survive as artists in a post 9-11 world with rising fuel and material costs? As sculptors, overhead is our biggest expense.

To this end we have adopted strategies that relate to art to help ensure economic viability and survival, while maintaining a creative core.

Some of our strategies:

1. AMICUS - Community Supported Art Plan. This has been the focus of our extra-studio work for the past several years. We are preparing a body of work for a community celebration event and exhibit which AMICUS patrons are invited to join to support our evolving studio work by subscribing to the AMICUS Plan and thereby receiving a favorable advantage in price (approximately half). By committing to a to-be-created sculpture of their choosing a year in advance, the patron engages in an artistic community of mutual support and discovery. (Compare to community supported agriculture (CSA) where clients subscribe on an annual basis to provide operating capital to the farmer who then provides produce to the client as it is grown).

2. WRITING: Tom's new book is out. "The Blossoms Are Ghosts At The Wedding" .Tom explores the poetic connections of language, culture and nature through poems and essays. Publisher Empty Bowl, Port Townsend.

3. LANDSCAPE AS FACE; POETRY AS PORTRAIT: Sara Mall loves to do personal portraits, especially older folks whose face acquires a definite landscape.

4. 'EHE' and SILVER MULCH: Sara was saving jewelry mainly until she no longer has the strength to do sculpture but some pieces couldn't wait. They are variously available.

5. PUBLIC ART. We work with landscape architects and occasionally apply for public art opportunities. Some projects from recent years; Pinehurst Pocket Park 2006. Elements included entry, oval and climbing designs. Carkeek Park Salmon Slide.

6. EQUULEUS. Sara Mall has rediscovered an old favorite, the horse. After burying her old horse after 38 years of friendship, she sculpted a combined horse-rider portrait of Briar and Jan Brink, world class competitors and three time Olympic participants. New series are arriving: "Galloping Graphics" and "Extreme Equipoise" as well as the series "RISK".

7. SCULPTURE REVEALED: Since 2002, we have offered a bronze casting primer that teaches the basics of bronze casting with the student's own work. Alumni of these classes also have casting privileges several times a year.