BOLIVAR BRONZE David Iles

Updates and Notes

Tue, 1 Jun 2010 00:00:00 -0500

A busy year or so brings regrettable delays to updating our website.

Our focus in much of 2009 and 2010 has been on fabricating a number of large-scale bronze works by long-time friends and associates of the foundry, as well as the construction of a new livable structure to compliment our quonset hut studio on our facility grounds.

Wichita, Kansas based artist Connie Ernatt hired our foundry to help create her ambitious memorial for the Sedgwick County and Wichita Police Department. The artwork elements consist of a fourteen-foot-tall sculpture featuring two life-size lions surrounding a flame-capped pillar draped in regional flags. Additionally, twenty nine life-cast boots and shoes of the fallen police officers of the Sedgwick County area were also cast at our foundry, and will be incorporated into the display near the northeast corner of City Hall in downtown Wichita. The scheduled final dedication and unveiling of Ernatt’s monumental artwork is pending. Check back for updates and images of the final results.

Dallas artist Sherry Owens sculpture Drought after fabrication. (Note the grouping of life-cast shoes by Kansas artist Connie Ernatt in the background.)

Recently our attention has been with Drought, a large natural form artwork created by Dallas artist Sherry Owens. Entirely composed of crepe myrtle wood, this meticulously crafted sculpture was carefully dissected by our foundry, cast in bronze, reassembled, and patinaed to the artists specifications. Drought will be on display at the San Angelo Museum of Fine Arts as just part of an extensive series of exhibitions and events Owens will be participating in this year.

Finally, when time allows, we have been constructing a, 1,700 square foot livable structure behind our foundry. Using windows and doors discovered at various architectural reclamation shops in the North Texas area, our building will be a continual work in progress as we divide our time between art and foundry duties and construction of this very special shelter.

“Chipmunks and Cheetos” in Frisco

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 21:24:25 -0600

A new addition to the park facilities of Frisco, Texas features a snack food confrontation. Chipmunks and Cheetos, a sculpture by David Iles, has been added to the growing public art collection in the city of Frisco. Installed on the grounds of Hummingbird Park, the sculpture is the fourth artwork by Iles to proudly see Frisco as a permanent public home.

“Observing the behavior of the chipmunks on our vacation property in Colorado is the inspiration for the Chipmunks and Cheetos sculpture.

Among the rocks and boulders on our campsite lives an active group of chipmunks that never fail to entertain. Seemingly at ease with our annual visits, the creatures receive snacks and handouts throughout our vacation, making for some very memorable and humorous situations. Despite the daily handouts of fruit, trail mix, and crackers it is Cheetos that always seems to be a favorite among the chipmunks. The bright orange snacks bring out the most action from the little animals, creating situations very similar to the one alluded to in the humorous sculpture installed at Humming Bird Park in Frisco.

The majority of the elements in this sculpture were life cast from rocks and deadfall from the area, as were the Cheetos. The chipmunks were modeled in clay and combined with other applicable elements. I used a traditional patina for all of the natural elements, and applied an oil paint mix for the Cheetos, enhancing the contrast between the natural elements and the obviously unnatural Cheetos.”

David Iles on Chipmunks and Cheetos, 2009

“November Devil” Dedication

Sun, 28 Sep 2008 00:00:00 -0500

Please join us for a public dedication ceremony for the recently completed November Devil sculpture. The event is scheduled to occur at 5:30PM on Thursday, October 2, 2008 at the southeast corner of the downtown Denton Texas Square, at the intersection of Locust and Hickory streets.

“November Devil looks like a natural coincidence, a simple act of God frozen in a bronze tornado.

In truth, Denton sculptor David Iles went through a painstaking process to produce the sculpture, which stands just under 10 feet. The sculpture will sit on a painted cylindrical steel base. It took a lot of deliberation to cast live leaves, branches, twigs and nuts to make November Devil look like a weightless dust devil of leaves, branches and acorns...”

Vortex of Visual Texas Poetry, Lucinda Breeding, Denton Record Chronicle, 09/27/08

Additional links:

November Devil Spins on the Square, Lucinda Breeding, DRC, 10/02/08
72 Hours or Less: Denton , Cheryl Van Tuyl Jividen, mysanantonio.com, 05/05/10

“Harvest Game” Dedication

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 13:08:54 -0500

The City of Frisco and the Frisco Parks and Recreation Department will hold a dedication for the new Foncine Settlement Neighborhood Park on Saturday, September 20, 2008 at 10:00AM.

The park features Harvest Game, a new group of bronze sculptures by David Iles.

Description of the artwork from the artists proposal:

“Frozen in a moment of activity, a group of squirrels gather sports balls from around a playground, and collect them in a pile built on the grounds of Foncine Park. While sitting atop a ‘shag bag’ one squirrel gathers golf balls, while another, using a shin guard as leverage, pushes a soccer ball towards the growing pile. A third squirrel, scurrying across home plate, spies a prize in the form of a baseball resting in a glove. A fourth squirrel stands on the pile, attempting to crown it with a baseball. Included in the pile are elements from a cross-section of sports, including basketball, football, volleyball, tennis, and more.”

Foncine Settlement Neighborhood Park is located at 15350 Appaloosa Drive in Frisco, Texas.

For more information about this event, visit the Frisco P & R Department.

“One Dark Spring Night” in Arkansas.

Wed, 7 May 2008 20:31:33 -0500

“One Dark Spring Night”, a bronze sculpture fabricated in 2004 by David Iles, was recently added to the collection of public art in the city of Fort Smith, Arkansas.

The sculpture was installed at the outdoor entrance to the Miller Branch of the Fort Smith Public Library. The sculpture was donated by an undisclosed patron of the library.

New Public Sculpture, New Exhibition.

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 12:41:28 -0500

A bronze sculpture of beloved University of North Texas biology professor Dr. JKG Silvey is the latest addition to the Crow Creek collection of native Texas animals at the Elm Fork Education Center at UNT.

The Silvey sculpture is located near the water feature at the entrance of the Environmental Sciences building on the UNT campus. The bronze captures a relaxed Dr. Silvey studying the contents of a flask and surrounded by tools and objects representing the late professor’s various interests. As a nod to the ongoing population of turtles in the small pond near Silvey, a small bronze turtle is present near the good doctor.

In conjunction with the April 25th dedication of the Dr. Silvey sculpture, the Elm Fork Education Center will host Mischievous By Nature, a small exhibition of recent sculptures by David Iles. This exhibition will include two previously unexhibited works, He Was a Bad Influence and We Waited for the Last Leaf.

The Elm Fork Education Center is the public education branch of the Environmental Institute of Applied Sciences located on the campus of the University of North Texas.

J.K.G. Silvey Society to host... - KERA Arts and Culture Blog

Questions? Contact Brian Wheeler, assistant director of the EFEC.