Dan Ostermiller's iconic bears meet my little icon - Nosey mouse...!

Before I moved to Santa Fe I had never heard of Dan Ostermiller.
I'd never seen one of his iconic bronze bears for which he's become quite famous.
Come to think of it, I had never heard of any sculptors besides a handful I'd always been in awe of.
Like some classical Greek work, Michelangelo, Rodin, Barye, and a small bunch of others whose work I'd made drawings of when I worked in London in my 20's. That was all part of my figure drawing training, since it was rare to spot naked people standing artfully posed on the street.

Maybe I was hanging out in the wrong part of town!

Santa Fe is full of sculpture, and one artist whose work really popped my cork was Dan Ostermiller.
I did pottery class as a young teen at school, and made an assortment of animals. But since then I'd never given sculpture a serious try until I moved to Santa Fe.I loved Dan's work. It was expressive, realistic but not slavishly so, appealed to my taste and was very honest.
I snapped up a few of his Christmas animals from Nedra Matteucci's gallery on Paseo de Peralta and spent the next hour sitting on the curb enjoying them while we waited for a tow truck, since our car had just broken down.His work, more than anyone else's filled me with the desire to finally get seriously sculpting, since I knew I could do a good job of it if I put my mind to it.

Anyhow, we were in Nedra's again the other day, and while we strolled about the wonderful garden in the back I snapped a few pics of Nosey hanging out with his spiritual ancestors, if you will!

Thanks Dan (from Nosey and me) for being a large part of what inspired me to start meddling seriously with clay 3 years ago.
Above you can see Nosey's hanging out with one of Dan's elephants.

Yesterday was fun. A neighbor organized an art and craft fair on our village green (as it's known).
It was a fun opportunity to meet a bunch of neighbors for half a day while showing off my handiwork and seeing what others around here get up to creatively.
Thanks again to everyone who showed support, to Bruno for organzing, and thanks of course to those who bought something!

Let's do it again next year!

My website and Etsy store.