|
|
|
|
A SCULPTOR'S LIFE
For the past 26 years Alexa King has worked professionally as a sculptor. Casting a discerning eye on her subjects and capturing the essence and dynamics of her sculptural studies in bronze, Alexa has won praise and recognition throughout the world. Her forte is her ability to depict her subjects in a way that conveys both depth and emotion to the viewer. She does this through careful study, observation and planning before starting each model. Now, at the peak of her creative capabilities, Alexa seeks to further challenge herself with each new commission by making accurate and unparalleled creations in bronze. By doing meticulous research before I start the model, Alexa comments, my goal is to recreate living forms in motion. Finding the essence of the horse is the most important factor in achieving the portrait. The difficult part is translating dynamic action into a three-dimensional artwork while retaining the qualities of the horse standing before you. A lot of my subjects feature such dynamic action; but also have a quiet elegance in order to give reference to the animals' inner grace. The final piece must reflect a keen line, monumentality, and movement; I enjoy pushing the medium to the limit. Alexa started her education in the arts literally at her mother’s feet. Attending the Indianapolis Art Student’s League studio classes with her mother, she would pick sticks of color from the box of pastels she received for Christmas and draw during the classes. Her interest in art evolved into further studies in oils and portraiture under the noted portrait painter, William Ashby. A disciple of the Ash can school; Ashby taught Alexa the color palette which featured strong light and limited color choices. Little did Alexa know that studying light and color would eventually influence how she captured the light as it was cast on her sculptural forms. Alexa become enamored with the horses early in her life when her father brought home a Shetland pony who they kept in the backyard and stabled in the garage behind the house. More horses followed this first pony of course, Alexa became well known in the mid-west for her champion trotting ponies that she trained and raced on the county tracks. She was named Woman Driver of the Year during one summer of racing her world champion ponies. With what she won in purses she was able to buy her first horse; an Arabian. This horse too carried her to many wins in the show ring, but she also had the fascinating experience as a jockey racing in an exhibition race at the Indiana State Fair grounds race track. Many of these experiences gave Alexa a rich insight into the world of horses and the people that owned them. Alexa was fortunate to live on an Army base at Camp Atterbury, Edinburgh, Indiana, where her father was the Post Commander and commandant of the Indiana Military Academy. She spent many hours on horseback riding the tank trails and fording the several rivers on the post. Her love of the outdoors and the wild animals that lived on the army base further inspired her interest in portraying animals in action. And Camp Atterbury will forever be a place of peace and remembrances of her youth. Later, while attending college, Alexa found her forte in art was more specifically in three dimensional renditions which she discovered during a life modeling class. It was an epiphany of sorts, Alexa had found a means of expressing herself through sculpture. Not knowing what to do with the finished clay models, there was no art casting foundry at Ball State University’s art department, Alexa set the sculpture aside for a while and continued as a painter. Later in 1981, when Alexa moved to Scottsdale, Arizona she then discovered a means to an end with her work. Her introduction into the field of art casting was through Loren Phippen of Bear Paw Bronze, Scottsdale, Arizona. He showed Alexa how to make an armature and the different facets of casting bronze. Within a few short months, Alexa had her first one woman show at the Phippen O’Brien Gallery. Here, she exhibited several of her new pieces of sculpture to an accepting audience. Loren Phippen commented at the time that “Alexa is going to smoke ‘em”. Shortly after her first exhibition of sculpture, she was commissioned by the Rockefeller Collections to sculpt a series of western pieces for their collection. Alexa had found what has proved to be her life-long career in the arts, only slowing down along that path to raise three children, graduate from the University of Wisconsin Madison, and re-establish the English Hackney horse at her Good Thunder Farms; her efforts have allowed these horses a new visibility in the show ring and driving competitions her in the United States and the Netherlands. Alexa has enjoyed the opportunities that her artistic talent has allowed her over the years and she looks forward to new artistic challenges in the future.
|
|
