Sculptor, Valerie Stevens, is 88 years old and still has her nimble fingers fashioning clay. She began sculpting seriously in her mid-40s. On a trip to Oregon, she was unexpectedly inspired to begin sculpting and she has not stopped since.

“On a road trip to Oregon with my husband, my stepson offered to give us a tour of his foundry in Joseph, Oregon,” said Stevens. “When I saw all the people busy working with clay figures that would then be turned into bronze, my fingers began to itch and I announced that I wanted some of that clay. That started me on a voyage of sculpting. 

“I like the challenge of the work,” she said. “God gave me this particular talent and the challenge is to do my best and make the piece I’m working on as perfect as possible.”

It takes Stevens several months to finish a piece as she says she has to be “in the mood”, but she doesn’t like having things hanging around on her desk, so she works at getting things done in a timely fashion.

She said she has tried potting, but her hands weren’t strong enough and the finished product was nothing but a round bowl — not particularly inspiring. 

“When I went to that foundry it was the answer to that long-time desire I had: sculpting the human figure,” she continued. “It came pretty easily to me and I surprised myself. If I made a mistake, I could easily correct it as the clay I use is oil-based. Regular clay is water-based, so it dries out rapidly. Oil-based clay remains pliable, so making corrections, even days later, is easy.”

Stevens very first venture into sculpting came quite unexpectedly, when she was in high school in 1952.

“My father owned a jewelry store in Parkridge, Illinois. The Towle Sterling Company was sponsoring a contest for the Best Window Display featuring their new sterling silver flatware pattern called ‘Southwind,’” Stevens recalled. “I asked my father if he would like me to make a sculpture of a woman similar to the one on their brochure. He readily agreed, even though I had never done any sculpting before. Unfortunately, I had used a water-based clay and it cracked in numerous places as it dried. Because I couldn’t finish it due to all the cracks, my Dad sent them a photo of my first attempt at sculpting and they sent me a consolation prize — a sterling silver sugar spoon, which I still have.”

Stevens is a woman of many talents: Not only does she sculpt, but she paints and is a published author.

“I never knew I could write, but people would come to me asking for guidance in difficult life situations,” she explained. “I thought, there are all these 12-step programs, but why isn’t there something in the Christian churches that could help those struggling souls. I was going to Montecito Presbyterian Church at the time, and there were several 12-step programs but none with a Christian basis. So, I wrote one. I just think those things are God-inspired. My sister was the writer in the family and I was the oldest, so I thought if I was inspired by the Lord to do something that could be used in Christian churches to help people, then I should do it. And they picked it up.”

Her book, “12 Keys to Freedom in Christ — A program of spiritual growth and discovery that promises New Hope for Troubled Lives” has been used by many support groups in the Santa Barbara area. 

Stevens has been living at the Atterdag Village for the past year and she says she enjoys it very much. In one tiny room, Stevens has managed to create something like a tiny house, with one large desk for her computer, a living-room/bedroom area and table, an art studio that doubles as a kitchen table, a library, a tiny seating area along with and a small kitchenette, and a bathroom roughly the size of half of her living space. Her sculptures adorn the tables and walls.

“It’s like a tiny house with maid service and it handles all my needs,” she said.

Presently, Stevens is working on a sculpture of her middle daughter, Lynn. She saw a sketch of a woman in a particular pose, which she liked, and took a picture of her daughter in that pose.

“This piece is mostly finished except for the legs and the shoes,” she said. “I’ve made various pieces for family members over the years.”

She plans on taking the finished clay piece to a foundry in Burbank where it will be made into a bronze sculpture.

“It takes about a week until I can get it back,” she said.

Recently, Stevens has been inspired by a photo of a ballerina for her next project.

Stevens continues to be an inspiration herself at 88 years of age and says she sculpts for her own pleasure and wishes that more people would follow their dreams and not be afraid to give them a try.

For more information, email v.stevens1@verizon.net.

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Contributed

Larry R. Rankin has been a sculptor in Santa Barbara and Buellton since 1977, yet Corridan Gallery owner Bill Fedderson calls him “Santa Barbara’s best-kept secret.”

However, his work is found in private homes, galleries and corporate headquarters all over the world, and his studio in Buellton will be part of the 17^th annual Santa Barbara Studio Artists Open Studios Tour on Labor Day weekend, Sept. 1-3.

The prolific artist’s work comes to life in carved wood, cast bronze, and stone; it ranges in size from hand-held at six inches to seven and a half feet tall.

“My sculptures, abstract or non-objective, are built upon a towering of shapes and forms,” Rankin said. “They reflect the collaboration of my life’s experiences and the way I perceive the world through my eyes … my works symbolizes the birth of a new form, not only physical form, but mentally as well.

“After I came back from serving in Vietnam, art gave me the opportunity to express things. Art was my savior,” he said in a 2007 interview with the Santa Barbara Independent’s arts writer, Heather Jeno.

“Rankin’s impulse to express himself through his art yields works as varied as they are emotionally evocative,” she noted. “His breadth of personal human experience, his attention to form and detail, and his intense zest for living fully, all find their residence in his sculptures.”

At the internationally recognized Las Vegas Art Expo, Rankin was awarded “Best in Show” out of 300 artists representing 16 countries in 2007. This was a major breakthrough, and more awards and commissions followed.

His work shows influences from Picasso, Henry Moore and cubist sculptor Jacques Lipchitz, but Rankin said, “My biggest inspiration is the natural world. Through my understanding of art and ability to see patterns, I am able to turn the shapes of nature into an abstract expression of life and emotion.”

In 1977, shortly after graduation from Northern Arizona University, he moved to Santa Barbara and in 1979 opened a studio with a friend on Cabrillo Boulevard. Since then, he’s never stopped working.

He had a studio in Santa Barbara’s Funk Zone for 30 years, but in 2009 he moved to the Santa Ynez Valley to find a home he could afford with a separate space for a studio.

“It was nice finding a house that I could live in and have a separate studio,” he said.

During the Open Studios Tour on Labor Day weekend, more than 30 artists will have their workshops open to the public on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, Sept. 1-3.

At an artists’ reception from 5 to 8 p.m. on Friday at 10 West Gallery in Santa Barbara, patrons can meet most of the artists, purchase tour passes for the weekend, and see a representative piece from each artist. Tickets can also be purchased at the individual studios on the tour.

For more information, go to www.SantaBarbaraStudioArtists.com or call 805-280-9178.

To see Rankin’s work, go to www.larryrrankin-sculptor.com.

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Features writer

Some of us recognize our innate talents at an early age, while for others it takes half a lifetime to discover them. Caroline Bolding is one of the late bloomers.

A painter and sculptor, Bolding said she was first inspired when, as a child, she saw a Disney television show in which a man was shaping the spires on Sleeping Beauty’s Castle out of clay, which amazed her.

“I was absolutely transfixed. It was so far beyond my comprehension. I put that amazing moment in a closet in my mind and never forgot it,” she said.

When she was nine, her mother took her and her brother to France to meet family.

“We walked all over Paris, and everywhere I looked there were sculptures of someone great, something historic. I was a kid from California. We had nothing like that in my town,” Bolding said. “Suddenly sculpting was a much bigger thing than make-believe. It wasn’t a storybook castle, it was great people, historic events, real purpose. But I still didn’t identify with the sculptors who made them. So, I took it all in. I put it in that closet in my mind and forgot about it.”

It wasn’t until Bolding was older that her interest in art became tangible. She was in the process of decorating her home and wanted paintings like the ones she had seen in museums she had visited.

“I wanted paintings like I had seen in the Louvre museum, LACMA, and the Norton Simon, so in the 1990s I started painting studies of them. In the process I surprised myself. I discovered I could paint,” she said.

It wasn’t until some years later that she noticed an ad offering a weekend sculpting workshop at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. She signed up.

“I was so nervous. We were a small group of about 16. Tables were arranged around a nude girl in pose, and in front of each of us was some clay, some wire, and a 10-inch brace to build her on.

This photo was taken when the sculpture was nearly finished and Bolding was about to start the Bible text of the sculpture.

“As soon as I had the clay in my hands, it was like the world just vanished,” she continued. “Suddenly there was a connection between sculpture and someone creating one. It was an ‘aha’ moment for me. I forgot the room, the world, everything. There was just the model’s form and the clay.

“I took it home, but after a while I stopped thinking about it. I had no reason to sculpt, nothing important like in Paris. So I put it out of my thoughts and into that closet in my mind with everything else. “

Bolding had worked in the entertainment industry in Los Angeles for most of her life, but she said at the time she felt that her life needed to take a different direction, one of following her faith and letting God drive. So she sold everything and moved to Los Alamos.

“I had visited and fallen in love with the valley in 2008. I knew it was where I wanted to live. When I moved to Los Alamos in 2013 I was ready to start on a new adventure,” she said. “I found a house which had sufficient space for my newly blossoming creative needs. I was ready to follow my faith in God to lead me to find what I should sculpt and what I should paint.

“One day, I simply asked God, ‘What should I sculpt?’ Immediately in my heart I heard, ‘Sculpt what you love.’ I heard myself say, ‘I love people who are in their ‘God moment,’ and suddenly I saw in my heart Billy Graham praying. It was immediate, absolute,” she said.

Without much of a plan, as this was her first life-size sculpture, she ordered a box of clay. By August it arrived and she began sculpting while saturating herself with videos of Rev. Graham on YouTube.

“I had no idea how to do this, but as I went along, it just came,” said Bolding. “By September I was deep in the clay. As I listened and watched Rev. Graham preach, seeing thousands of people coming to Christ, his profound devotion and purpose poured into the clay. His words became part of it. It was incredible.

“I saw his heart pouring out for his fellow man and I would just weep to see and feel the clay responding to his faith; his brow furrowed in deep connection with God, his hands clasped in prayer. I would just marvel. I couldn’t think about what I was doing, I just had to let it come. The sculpture just flooded out of me.

“I was nearly finished when I noticed something interesting was happening that I couldn’t have planned,” Bolding continued. “I discovered different time periods of the reverend’s life were represented in the piece, such as the style of his lapel, his jacket, his hair. It was as if all his life was a part of the sculpture. And yet, his brow and his hands remained timeless. I finally finished it and just a week later Billy Graham announced his final outreach ‘My Hope,’ which coincided with his 95th birthday. His key message was to pray. Suddenly, here was miraculous confirmation that I had understood my purpose well.”

Bolding’s plan was to give the sculpture to an institution affiliated with Billy Graham.

“I reached out to Wheaton and others who wanted it, but they couldn’t help with the cost of bronzing, transporting and installing the sculpture. Even the Billy Graham Library liked it, but sadly, they had no funding either,” she said.

What’s to become of the sculpture? Bolding doesn’t know. She would like to have it bronzed and donate it in the hopes that it will be seen in as many places as Rev. Graham preached. But for now it will remain with Bolding, awaiting its final destination.

“My hope is that it will find a home where it will inspire those who see it with Rev. Graham’s message – pray,” she said. “His whole life’s work was expressed in that one word. The sculpture is a quiet example of how close God is – as close as a prayer, and it has been a blessing to portray that.”

Bolding continues to paint. Her newest series of oil paintings is entitled “Living Water,” which depicts God’s creation of the seas.

“Someday, I would love to sculpt Jimmy Carter in his ‘God moment’ as well,” she said.

For more information about Bolding’s work, email gdga@earthlink.net.

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Staff Report

Elverhøj Museum of History and Art is presenting the West Coast debut of artist Neil Goodman with “Looking West,” an exhibition of his contemporary sculpture through Aug. 19, including a free 3-D workshop on Saturday, July 15.

The public is invited to join the celebration, enjoy refreshments and meet the artist at the museum in Solvang. Pre-registration is required by calling 686-1211.

For this exhibit, Goodman has constructed sculptures of bronze and fiberglass. The two central pieces focus on one of his major bodies of work, the vertical column. At 11 feet tall, these pieces are also the largest and most ambitious sculptures of this series to date.

“My sculptures have been chapters of my life, measuring success and documenting growth,” Goodman said. “They are three-dimensional journals.”

Besides talent, it takes a lot of muscle to produce the large sculptures. The process is strenuous and labor intensive.

“The work initially seems minimal and subtle, yet the sculptures reveal themselves slowly,” said Elverhøj Executive Director Esther Jacobsen Bates. “Each resting point is counterbalanced by its mirrored and repositioned top, creating movement as well as stability.”

The tools of Goodman’s trade include a sturdy welder, a grinder, clamps, a hoist, and a good set of hand tools.

Born in Hammond, Ind., in 1953, Goodman was educated at Indiana University and Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia, where he began casting his works in bronze and earned a master of fine arts degree. Subsequently he co-founded the art department at Indiana University Northwest and taught for more than 30 years until his retirement this month.

Goodman has exhibited his work nationally and internationally and has had more than 30 one-person exhibitions throughout the country. He has permanent large-scale pieces at the McCormick Place Convention Center in Chicago, the Mary and Leigh Block Museum of Art at Northwestern University, and at public and private locations throughout the Midwest.

His sculpture has been commissioned and collected by museums, corporations, convention centers, parks, synagogues, universities, and private collectors.

His work has been reviewed in Art Forum, Art in America, Art News, and Sculpture Magazine.

A conversation with the artist is also scheduled at 4 p.m. on Saturday, Aug. 5, with a social hour immediately following. “Beginning to End” will be the topic of an artist demonstration and closing reception on Saturday, Aug. 19, from 3 to 5 pm.

For more information, log onto www.elverhoj.org.

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By Jessica Schley

In an effort to bring back a venerated valley tradition, an art show and auction in the spirit of the former Peppertree Art Show was held May 20 at Flag Is Up Farm in Solvang, the home of “Horse Whisperer” Monty Roberts and his wife, sculptor Pat Roberts.

Monty Roberts auctioned off several pieces as a fundraiser for Join-Up International, a nonprofit organization that teaches gentle methods of horsemanship to students from all over the world.

For 33 years artists and collectors anticipated attending the Peppertree Art Show hosted by art collector Irma Eubanks and her husband, TV host Bob Eubanks, at their ranch in Santa Ynez. The art community nationwide was saddened by the loss of the event and venue in 2008, as it had become one of the most famous fine art shows in the nation, with hundreds of pieces on display and up for auction every year. The show attracted thousands of visitors during its three-decade run.

Several former Peppertree artists approached gallery owner and art event planner Tom Burgher of Pismo Beach to reinvigorate an annual fine art show for the valley. The inaugural featured 16 artists and was split between Western and contemporary themes. Mediums included sculpture, oil on marble, and Native American leather and beadwork, among others.

Serving as auctioneer, Monty Roberts auctioned off several pieces as a fundraiser for Join-Up International, a nonprofit founded by the Robertses to teach gentle methods of horsemanship to students from all over the world.

A surprise appearance was made by the horse Shy Boy during the auctioning of a sculpture made in his image by Pat Roberts. Shy Boy is the wild mustang that was featured in a PBS-aired BBC documentary in 1999 about Monty Roberts’ methods of horse gentling.

Classical guitarist Jack Cimo played, and Jeff Faber of Opolo Wines in Paso Robles poured tastings for the crowd of about 50. The event raised several thousand dollars, which will help the farm’s nonprofit to provide “Horse Sense & Healing” clinics for veterans and first responders.

For more information visit www.join-up.org/veterans.

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Ladies of the Valley

By Robbie Kaye

Suzi Trubitz moved to the Santa Ynez Valley from Longboat Key, Fla., about 15 years ago. She spent many years sailing until her desire for a ranch and horses brought her to the valley.

Suzi Trubitz lives and creates metal sculptures with intense conviction and freedom.

Intricate metal work and meaning are interwoven in her pieces. Each one is not only gorgeous but it has its own beautiful narrative. One can see that her work is an extension of who she is — wise, authentic, strong and beautiful.

She has a heart of gold, and she opens it and her art to all.  She is a big supporter of Tales from the Tavern and volunteers regularly.

Can you tell us about some places you have sailed to?

One of our more interesting trips was to Cuba about 20 years ago. It was like seeing a country go to ruins before your own eyes. The Cuban police would check our vessel a few times a day to see if anyone was trying to escape out of the country! They were not concerned with anything else but stowaways.

What did you do before you started working with metal? 

Art director, typographer, graphic designer, business woman.

What attracted you to that medium? 

I just remember thinking when I saw a metal sculpture, I can do that! And I started working with scrap metal very shortly after that.

Was it difficult to get started?  

I just got some old sheet metal and asked a shade-tree mechanic I knew to teach me how to torch and weld. … It was pretty rough in the beginning, but after almost 30 years one gets better at those skills.

Did you have a lot of support getting into that medium? 

My family has always supported me, but where we lived in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, there were no other female metal workers that I knew.

As a woman, did the art world welcome you easily? 

It was always a surprise to that world that a woman was the sculptor of a stainless steel sculpture even though I knew there had been women working with wood, metal and other materials for years!

Is it difficult combining metal with glass to create some of your pieces?  

It depends if I have to cut the glass to fit the metal or the metal to fit the glass. If the glass is on the metal, the adhesive is very important, and there are a lot of different choices.

Did you ever burn or injure yourself creating a piece? 

Yes, most every time in one way or another.

What is one of your favorite pieces that you created? 

It’s called ‘Memories.’

Can you tell us a little something about it? 

I created it after my mother died. She used to collect lace handkerchiefs, so I wanted to make a piece of stainless steel look like the lace hankies she used to carry.

How do you decide what to create? What is your process? 

There is always an idea that comes to me, then I have to decide how to portray that idea. It could take a month or years to come to fruition.

What is the longest a piece ever took to complete?

I have created a series of pieces based on women’s lives. Those sculptures sometimes take me a few years to complete, not so much because of the physical labor but because I want to represent my sentiments exactly, so it takes quite a bit of thought.

Are there meanings behind the work you create? 

Yes, a theme, or nature or how to do something in steel that I haven’t seen before. Sometimes it’s emotional. I want to convey a feeling, but it’s not so direct. You, the viewer, might never connect my ideas with what you are seeing. I also like to hide a little something in each piece, that only I know about.

What inspires your creativity?

An idea or a concept, maybe a poem or a song that I’ve heard that inspires me. I also love typography, which is the style and shapes letters, and I often incorporate some words in pieces.

What are some of your favorite things to do in the valley?  

Hobbies? I hike, exercise, volunteer and spend lots of time with my friends and pets.

Where can people see your work? 

At my studio on my property, at Cottage Hospital and in homes of many collectors all over this country and Europe.

Where can they buy your work? 

Only from me at the moment.

The best way to reach Suzi is at suzitrubitz.com, where you can also see more of her incredibly beautiful work.

Photographer Robbie Kaye is the author of “Beauty and Wisdom” and the “Ladies of the Valley” documentary. Her photography, paintings and design work can be seen at www.robbiekaye.com 

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