Sedalia artist creates niche in sculptures of children

SEDALIA, Mo. -- Since she was a child in Jefferson City, Rita Paul has always made art out of anything within reach -- mud, wood, cloth.

"Anything you can cut, sew or manipulate, I've done," Paul said.

Today, Paul, 42, of Sedalia, creates life-size realistic bronze sculptures of children, animals and women. She began making bronze sculptures last August, and has sold five.

"It's fun, but it's also discipline, hard work and financial sacrifice to go down that road," Paul said.

Three and a half years ago, after helping her sister cope with the death of a child, Paul began sculpting clay and terra cotta to keep busy.

After the American Legacy Gallery requested bronze sculptures, Paul decided to try the new medium, although the cost was much higher.

"If you're going to be a serious artist, your work has to be cast," said Olsen.

Making a bronze sculpture is a complicated process.

Paul said that the ideas for the sculptures come from real life: children sleeping in church, children sitting on a porch swing, a mother holding a baby. After playing with the image in her mind and sometimes taking pictures of friends' children, Paul creates a 6-inch tall pinch-up, a 3-D sketch, out of clay.

She works with the pose, the position of the arms and legs, and the basic idea of the sculpture in the pinch-up. If she still likes the idea, she will create a maquette of the work. A maquette, usually 18 inches tall, is a more refined version of the idea. It shows the details of texture, muscles and features, and helps Paul decide if she is going to do a life-size version.

"You're cutting wood, using plumbing pipe, bending wire" to create the base of the life-size statue. Over that base, she uses clay to form the details of the sculpture.

"Then you work and stew and work and stew and tear out your hair until you have a life-size piece," said Paul.

After she is satisfied with the life-size model, she takes it to a mold maker in Colorado. A plaster mold of the figure is made, then layered with wax to create a wax replica. Several molds are made, because often the sculpture is too large to just have one mold. The replica is dipped in ceramic to create another mold, the wax melts and runs out, and the mold is filled with molten bronze to create the final figure.

After the bronze pieces are welded together, the patina, or coloration, is added with chemicals. The mold maker can take several weeks to a few months to create a mold, and the foundry, where the bronze is created, can take 10 to 12 weeks.

The mold maker and foundries get paid immediately, before the artist even has the work in a gallery. A mold the size of an 8- or 9-year-old child can cost $1,000 to $3,000, depending on complexity. The bronze for a sculpture can cost $3,000. After the work is sold, the gallery takes its cut before the artist receives any money.

So even though many of Paul's pieces sell for $9,000 and more, she joked that she can't afford to buy her own pieces.

"It's kind of a crazy way to make a living because there's not a lot of people that can buy it," said Paul. "But there's something enchanting to think that you're getting people to look at the figure and see the beauty in it."