Go ahead email, make my day...

I've had a couple of emails this week that more than made my day!
Norma Evans won the bonus prize in my guess the length of the snake contest and she had this to say...

'Thank you so much for Alfie, my rabbit, I really love him.  Thought you'd like to see where Nosey and Sprightly are spending their time lately getting an education.  I made the books out of wood for them, they look like real books and fool everyone.'

Stunning! I can honestly say I never expected anyone to carve wooden books to arrange their mice around!



And then I learned that Gordon Lutz from Pasadena had bought one of my life sized laying down rabbits, Maxwell, from Manitou Galleries here in town during a recent visit to Santa Fe.

He contacted me and had this to say...

 'He now sits proudly next to my reading chair.  My wife and I volunteer for several local (Pasadena, CA area) rabbit rescues (mybunny.org) and have been rabbit people for quite some time.  We curently have 18 house rabbits along with a couple of fosters, all rescues, so Maxwell is very much at home here.' 

'BTW...the housekeeper came into the living room and saw Maxwell on the table next to my reading chair and she literally jumped.  She thought one of the rabbits had escaped and was resting on the table.  She could not believe how realistic the sculpture is.  I think that is a nice compliment of your work.'

  'I am attaching two pics of two bunnies that in a way remind me of Maxwell.  they are not desert cottontails but are domestic rescues living with us.  There is somewhat of a resemblance in the look I think.' 

Thanks Norma and Gordon! And thanks for letting me quote you as well!

The best thing about being a sculptor is feedback like this!

It's left me feeling quite puffed up this week!





Click these links to visit my website... SteveWorthingtonArt.com - Sculpture that loves you back
or my Etsy store, CritterVille

9 mice auctioned at the "Barkin' Ball". How did they do?

Last night was the humane society shelter's "Barkin' Ball".

I really didn't have much clue what to expect, except I knew there'd be a bunch of stuff up for silent auction, some food, dogs and hopefully some beer.

Check out the pics, taken with my new fangled shiny phone thingy that does a gazzillion things, and even lets you send and receive calls!

The tables were laid with silverware and dog treats!

Check out the hound packing heat!

It sold out which we know because some friends of ours decided to try and get tickets.
It was much bigger than I expected, in a huge room in the new and very tastefully decorated conference center.
So it turned out there was a bunch of stuff up for silent auction, some food, lots of very nicely turned out dogs, and happily some beer.
And a band.

I'd swung by the shelter a couple of weeks earlier to drop off three more mice since the last half dozen.

I was pretty eager to see how my critters were faring in the silent auction.
People put their name (or ticket #) next to how high they're prepared to bid.
They had all nine sprinkled about either individually, or as group lots of 3.
Lots of good stuff on offer.

From what I could tell by nosing about the mice pulled in more than their retail value, which is great news for the shelter's critters, and a nice stroke for my ego which is such a delicate, fragile little thing!

Lots of dogs got a real kick out of the event.
Like they knew it was all just for them!
Some others looked a bit overwhelmed by it all.

That's Valerie above, one of the many volunteers helping out. She walks dogs at the shelter.


I noticed one of Louise Peterson's Great Dane miniatures was also up for auction. Her stuff pops up everywhere!
I saw her in Loveland while we were both participating in 'Sculpture in the Park' in August, and was mightily gratified that she asked to trade me one of her puppy bronzes for one of my mice.
I like her work a lot.


My website...
SteveWorthingtonArt.com - Sculpture that loves you back
My Etsy store, CritterVille.

How Sprightly mouse and Creamsicle kitty became friends, and Barkin' Ball, the Santa Fe Animal Shelter and Humane Society bash...

A couple of weeks ago Celia at the coffee shop told us she had some kittens.
Not being one to miss a photo opportunity for Sprightly mouse, I asked if I could borrow them for a couple of hours.

Last weekend she brought two of them by. Creamsicle and Picasso.
They were unbelievably well behaved and photo friendly, and Meridee fell instantly in love with Picasso. If we had to have a Picasso in the house, that little kitty would be it.

Celia was keeping Picasso (not that we could have, Meridee is off the charts allergic), but said Creamsicle needed a home. So I used one of the pics to make a poster for her, which this morning she told us has done the trick (I cut off her phone # for this blog post version).


She put it up at the local Co-Op market and has been inundated with offers, so after a careful screening it looks like Creamsicle gets a home.


We also recently went to the Santa Fe Humane Society and Animal Shelter (or vice-versa) to meet Gabrielle who works there, and drop off a set of six bronze mice for their upcoming bash and art auction, the 'Barkin' Ball'. It will be held at the convention center and tickets I believe are $60 (as of right now).
The shelter's not far away, and is sprawled on a bunch of land overlooking plains and mountains with spectacular views of the sunsets.

Gabrielle was very nice and showed us around the building with all the otherwise homeless bunnies, kittens, cats, puppies and dogs that they are caring for. It's pretty hard to resist the big sad brown eyes as they get up and stare imploringly at you from their tiny rooms, gripping your hand with their paws. It's kind of a bit like doggy jail, except for the puppies who just roll about blissfully ignorant of their situation.

It's more like camp for them.

Since June, when I decided to give one mouse away to art auctions benefitting animal shelters, for every five mice I sell I've given 8 away. I'll need to give a few more to the Barkin' Ball and I suspect soon a bunch to Felines and Friends for their Christmas bash since those mice just keep trotting out through the door!

I think there's another homeless animal shelter locally that might host auctions, after that I'll be searching further afield.

My mice are on a mission to find homes for them, one kitty at a time...

My website, and Etsy store.

The day Nosey mouse was born, and his current work for charity...

These pics were taken the day Nosey was born...


It was Dec 29, 2006 in Santa Fe.
This was taken in town the day after...
I suppose Nosey should have two birthdays, like the Queen.

One for the day he was born in clay, and one for first day he emerged from his cocoon of investment material as a fully fledged bronze.

I decided, starting June 1st to donate one mouse to auctions benefitting animal shelters for every five mice sold. No matter who sold them (me, my Etsy store or galleries), and of course if each person buying only buys one, no matter, each gets added to the tally and every time I pass another 5, one goes to a charity auction to benefit animal shelters.

And of course it's not just Nosey mouse, it's any of my family of six mice.

I started by donating 2 mice to cover my first 10 sales from my starting date. They were auctioned at a cocktail party in a very fancy home and the proceeds are now benefitting cats and dogs at Felines and Friends in Santa Fe.
They assist other shelters in finding homes for unwanted pets and strays. They also take in some that need veterinary help.

I'm always a bit leery of websites that proclaim 'a portion of sales are donated to...' or 'a percentage of sales are donated to...'
Always seems a bit vague to me. I always want to know 'what portion?' or 'what percentage?'.
After all, you could drop a dollar in a charity bucket once in your life, rationalize it came from your sales, and therefore counts as a portion or percentage.

0.00000001% can be called a percentage of sales, as much as 50% can be called a percentage of sales.
If you stop donating after a dollar, but keep selling forever, the percentage or portion you gave just keeps getting smaller, that's all.
So to all those out there who want to know how my mice are helping homeless cats and dogs, I went with one mouse donated for every five mice sold.

So if donated mice sell at auction for their retail value, each mouse you buy from me, my Etsy store or a gallery amounts to about $50 of help for an animal shelter.

When we lived in Venice, California there was a female cat in the neighborhood who was bent on populating the whole area with her kittens.
We managed to catch one and adopted her as our pet. She had 2 kittens before we got her spayed (one of which we found a home for, the other we kept).
Later Meridee's doctor told us keeping them would kill her (Meridee's allergies were getting severely worse).
Luckily we found a great home for them both before moving to Santa Fe.
Here they all are in a pretend Friskies commercial I made for fun...

Other than that, I just got a tree frog (so I'll be making tree frogs - stay tuned for that!)
My website.

Southwest Art magazine features Sprightly and Nosey mouse!

I'm delighted to announce the debut of Sprightly and Nosey mouse in Southwest Art magazine's July edition!
In fact it's the first time any of my sculpture has been featured in a nationwide publication besides exhibition catalogs.
Here's a sneak preview (I believe the magazine will be on the shelves next week).
As it mentions, I'm donating mice to animal shelter art auctions (one donated for every 5 that sell).
I'll no doubt post all the details here from my website (probably next week's post) since it's a worthwhile cause.
And thanks, Southwest Art!