Completed Sphere for Special Olympics Michigan!!

I’m excited to announce that I’ve completed a commission that was sparked 3 years ago after a referral. I submitted a few designs for Special Olympics Michigan in Grand Rapids, Michigan to be installed outside of their 68th Street world headquarters and this one was selected. It took 3 hard months to complete and was installed on September 12th, 2024. It’s 12 feet tall and is fabricated from 100% stainless steel. I’m so pleased to be associated with this fine organization.

New commission for IMC Financial Markets in Chicago!

I’m very excited to be commissioned (AGAIN through Forcade Associates Inc …my 4th commission from them) by IMC Financial Markets to create approximately 30 wire drawings of stock trading hands to be exhibited in their headquarters at Willis Tower (formerly the Sears Tower!).  Embarrassing thing…I’m from the east coast originally and I didn’t know that the Sears Tower was a thing. It’s one of the tallest buildings in the world, so it’s a huge honor to have my stuff displayed there. My wife, who’s a native Chicago girl, laughed that I’d never heard of it. Anyway, if I’m making her proud, I’m doing something right.

I got a Wacom Cintiq!

As some of you know, my strong suit has always been drawing. I love portraits, specifically faces and likenesses. From day one, I’ve always been very low-tech and old-school with my drawing. I’m a pencil and paper kind of guy. Anyway, a good friend had some good fortune and received 2 Wacom Cintiq drawing tablets! He asked me if I’d like to have one on permanent loan and, of course, I said YES!! I’ve NEVER drawn digitally, so there’s a huge learning curve, but I’m having so much fun playing with this thing. Anyway, this will be a valuable asset when I’m laying out designs of customers. Here’s a sketch I did with pencil and paper years ago, digitally embellished using the Cintiq. The only weird thing is not having a physical drawing. I guess I could print it out…

KPMG Installation!!

Today was a real adventure!! I drove to Chicago to install the wire portraits of the founding members of KPMG in their headquarters boardroom. I was SOOO LOST! People who know me know that I have ZERO sense of direction. I was born without a compass in my brain. Getting to the building was very easy, thanks to my GPS, but finding the loading ramp, which happened to be hidden two levels below street level, proved to be next to impossible! After and hour and a half of driving around, searching, calling for directions, cursing at someone I shouldn’t have cursed at, I finally found the loading dock with the help of a security guard. Installation was easy. I didn’t have to do it! HA! I just supervised an installation handy man and the display turned out great!

What?! Turns out that I received the Key to the City!!

I’m very honored to receive this great award!! Thank you Mayor Daniel F. Beavers!

“Mother’s Burden” installed!

Possible War Memorial in the future??

I may have a lead on a series of bronze bas relief War Memorials for a town in Western Kentucky! That would be such a great commission. Besides the fact that it would be a big commission/ opportunity for me,  I have many family members who are veterans who served our country and I’d love to use my skills to honor their service/sacrifices. Anyway, here’s a picture of my father, George W. Large II, a veteran of the Viet Nam War!

Trail of Tears Commission Complete!!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I was approached by the Trail of Tears Committee to create a bronze Bas Relief for Princeton, Kentucky’s Trail of Tears Park. Two weeks ago, I picked up the finished piece and, with the help of my awesome dad, George W. Large II who was here for Thanksgiving, we’ve delivered it to Western Kentucky! Saturday the piece, titled “A Mother’s Burden”, will be unveiled!  I’m unable to attend, but my proud father will say a few words in my place. I’ll attend the dedication in the spring. I can’t post pics until tomorrow, but I wanted to let everybody know the news! Here’s a sneak peek of the wax. It’s just a teaser.  Pics to come!!

BTW, the foundry work was done by my good friend Brent Harris from Alchemist Foundry in Kalamazoo, MI, my go-to foundry!! Great job, Brent! Can’t wait to show off his talented craftsmanship.

Possible Trail of Tears commission!

Just yesterday, I spoke to a committee member of the Princeton, KY Trail of Tears organization. They’re interested in commissioning a Bas Relief to be installed on a large boulder in their Trail of Tears park, located near Big Spring park. The theme of the piece will likely be a Cherokee Woman, in traditional, period-correct garb, leading a child on their sad journey. I would love to work on this considering the fact that I grew up in Princeton!

Great meeting today with Sculptor Lou Cella!

I had a great meeting with Sculptor Lou Cella of Chicago today about a couple possible future collaborations!

http://www.rotblattamrany.com/studio-artists/lou-cella

Ironic communication of the month! ;)

Follow me on Facebook!!

http://www.facebook.com/MattLargeSculptureStudio

It was suggested that I create a Facebook fan page for Matt Large Sculpture Studio instead of combining business and family stuff on one page. Probably a good idea. I’ll really try to update it on a regular basis with day-to-day stuff that’s happening at my studio and upcoming events and shows. Also, I can post pics of my pieces in progress. My official webpage is a static resume and gallery site, so the Facebook fan page will be more quick and dirty…more fun. BTW, here’s a short, silly video that I made to whet your appetite.

A few things that inspire a master sculptor…

Today, I met Kathy Goralski.

She’s the talented writer who came up with the winning solution for “Crime Wave”, my who-done-it entry for ArtPrize. Her wonderfully devised solution was emailed to me along with scads of other theories, but hers was the clear winner. Her entry was concise, snappy and exuded that simple Film Noir type of movie plot.

I met her at Starbucks on the GVSU campus and she was thrilled with her prize, “Yorick 1940″. Here’s a shot of what she won.

Thank you so much, Kathy, for your participation in my experiment to get people to really look at art! I was just as thrilled at her great crime story as she was with her new art!

Unveiling At Cooley Law School, Ann Arbor, MI!

I had another really great unveiling yesterday in Ann Arbor, Michigan at Thomas M. Cooley Law School! This was the fourth figure of  Thomas Cooley for their fourth and last campus in Michigan. There’s a possibility that they’ll want another casting for their new campus in Tampa Bay, Florida, which I think would be great for uniformity’s sake.

Speeches were made by President and Dean Don LeDuc, Jim Robb, Professor Marjie Gell, and myself. All were great, but Marjie’s really stood out. She never gives the same speech twice and this time she told a story that I thought was very poignant. It was about the personal life of Thomas Cooley and his character. The short version of the story went like this. Thomas had a close friend with a son. That boy really wanted to be an artist. I’m assuming that the boy was 10 or 11 years old. Cooley’s friend asked him to come visit the boy and try to talk him out of being an artist. Well, Cooley showed up, but he had a present for the man’s son. It was an art book! Apparently, Thomas Cooley saw the value in other endeavors other than the law and encouraged this boy to explore his goals. I thought that was great.

Anyway, the sculpture was placed in front of a great building designed by Dow, a student of Frank Lloyd Wright. As you can imagine, the building has a great feel, inside and out, and has a ton of horizontal lines. A perfect place to exhibit this piece.

Anyway, thanks to all the people at Thomas M. Cooley Law School that made this project possible.

Winner of “Crime Wave” Solution Announced!!

There were many, many entries to the “Crime Wave” Solution Contest, but after hours of reading, I’ve finally decided on a winner. Picking a clear winner was very difficult because of the wonderful imaginations of would-be-detectives (and totally weird, but equally entertaining solutions by some), but one stood out with the spirit and feel I was going for in my work. Really, none of the entries hit the nail right on the head, but the submission by Kathy Goralski was closest to what I imagined and very well thought out. Here’s what she wrote:

“After 8 years in NYC, Patsy’s dream of making it as a singer was as dead as the field corn in the middle of a Nebraska winter.  Escaping the abuse and poverty of her home on a farm in Arcadia led Patsy to New York where she struggled from one dead end job to another, starting as a taxi dancer in the late 30’s when she got to the Big Apple.  When the men went off to WWII and dime-a-dance girls lost their audience , she snagged a gig as a cigarette girl at the popular Brooklyn supper club, El Tangiers, where her striking beauty caught the eye of handsome Johnny “the Fixer” Martoni, Capo Bastone for Bugsy Siegel, one of the most ruthless killers in New York gang history.  Patsy had more looks than brains and immediately fell for Johnny’s smooth line, flashy suits and giant bankroll.  Johnny moved her to a posh row house in Brooklyn Heights, with a view of Manhattan from her 3^rd floor windows.  The affair may have languished for years, but Patsy was insanely jealous with the resulting arguments between her and Johnny about his suspected infidelities becoming more intense as time passed.  One regrettable night, Patsy decided to follow Johnny when he left her apartment; she was certain he was meeting another woman.

Johnny moved quickly in the dark along the promenade, heading toward the Brooklyn Bridge.  Patsy followed unobserved.  About two blocks from the bridge, Johnny stepped into an alley, where he planned to meet one of his numbers guys, Vinnie the Mooch, who he suspected had been skimming money from Johnny’s accounts.  The confrontation between Vinnie and Johnny was quick, vicious and deadly and ended with Vinnie’s body being dumped silently into the river by Johnny.  Unfortunately for Patsy, she observed this encounter from behind a trash dumpster, and decided to run away.  In the dark, she tripped over a metal pipe, catching Johnny’s attention.  He caught her within a block and before Patsy could scream, shot her in the back.  Patsy died instantly but the noise of the gun attracted the attention of patrons from a nearby bar and one of the customers ran to the site where he saw Patsy lying in an oozing puddle of blood with Johnny standing over her holding a gun.  He tried to tackle Johnny but managed only to knock the gun from his hand before Johnny disappeared into the dark.

The cops and press showed up within minutes of Patsy’s death, but little evidence was found and nothing pointed them to Johnny.  The gun had been stolen, and although Patsy was known as Johnny’s mistress, the DA could never prove that Johnny was the shooter.  As happens many times over in such mob cases, Johnny was provided with a rock solid alibi by 14 people who claimed he was at a party all evening two boroughs away.  The would-be hero was held at the scene for questioning, but was released when it became obvious he could add nothing to the investigation.”

This submission was short and to the point. It painted a beautiful picture and was suspenseful. It also has a simple Film Noir story line. When I read Kathy’s submission, I envisioned Johnny as the suspicious man with his hand in his pocket. Yeah, he was the obvious choice, but as Occam’s Razor states, the simplest of two or more competing theories is preferable. The scene that I created is symbolic of the story, so the fact that Johnny is still present on the scene means little to me. Many aspects of the composition were symbolic in nature, such as the color red, the dove, the foreboding bridge, etc.  Speaking of the color red, I threw out a bunch of red herrings to folks I spoke to, so my sincerest apologies are in order. Really, the location wasn’t that important other than to establish a heartless city landscape. The fact that Arthur Fellig, aka “Weegee The Great”, was the real-life crime scene photographer meant little except to tip my hat to his bleak and wonderful crime scene photography that inspired this piece.

The real success here is that I was able to engage a group of intellectually curious viewers into really looking at a piece of art. Boiled down, I hope “Crime Wave” provoked thought and imagination. I love the idea that there can be so many solutions and that the viewer is the ultimate judge and detective. Special congratulations go to excellent writers, Lori Jordan who’s solution would be the beginning to a really great novel, Roberta Christenson and Patti Pruitt, who’s solutions were very cleverly written, and Detective Taylor for his well-thought-out hypothesis.

Thank you so much for joining in the fun,

Matt Large

Made the Top 50 out of over 1500 artists!!

Well, I didn’t take home the grand prize, but I did get into the Top 50 at ArtPrize. That’s not too shabby considering that there were over 1500 artists competing! I was in the #26-50 group and the people at ArtPrize don’t give out your exact number that you placed, so theoretically, I could have been #26. Here’s a screen shot of my Top 50 placement (note that Top 50 is highlighted):

At this event, I literally gave out 10,000 business post cards. Yes, ten thousand. The Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum, who was nice enough to host “Crime Wave”, said that the official tally of visitors that walked through their doors for ArtPrize was 197,000 people, not counting all of the people that didn’t want to brave the line and stayed outside. All in all, they believe that over 250,000 people visited the museum and I feel like I spoke to all of them. Here’s a shot of me and the Coxes, Amber, Ryan and their beautiful daughter from Ohio. Amber Cox originally posted this pic on her blog Amberwire.com.

What a great experience I had. Special thanks go to the Deputy Director of the museum, Jim Kratsas, for allowing me to show there at such a great venue!

Artprize 2012!!!

This year, I’m really excited about ArtPrize here in Grand Rapids, Michigan. In case you’ve not heard of this HUGE art competition, here’s a little text from the official ArtPrize webpage:

Unveiling at Grand Rapids Campus!

This summer, I had the pleasure of installing a number of life-sized bronze portraits of Justice Thomas M. Cooley for the law school named after him. There will be editions of Cooley at the Grand Rapids, Auburn Hills, Ann Arbor and Lansing (and possibly Tampa Bay, Florida) campuses across Michigan. I attended three of the unveilings and spoke at all of them. At the Grand Rapids campus, there is a special piece of sculpture honoring the schools relationship with the homeless of Grand Rapids. A gallery of pics is located in my portfolio section.  Here are some shots:

Here is the Homeless Man that stands across the courtyard from Thomas M. Cooley whose his hand stretched out to offer a helping hand.

Auburn Hills, Michigan Unveiling at Cooley Law!

Thomas M. Cooley figure at Auburn Hills

Wow, I’m finally getting the hang of this public speaking! Was told that this was the best of the three speeches, so far. I don’t have what you would call a “booming voice”, so I’m constantly reminded of this by people yelling at me to TALK LOUDER! I try to look at it this way. I have the voice of a 14 year old, but the skills of a master.

What a great commission this was and I’m so grateful for it. I’m looking forward to the next unveiling.