Chris Barela’s love for the water has been life long. Growing up at the beach and becoming a pro surfer allowed Chris to travel the world. At the peak of Chris’s surfing career he had made it into the finals at the Banzai Pipeline Masters. Having traveled the world’s oceans Chris retired from professional surfing however, he still wanted to stay connected, that connection inspired him to create his first line of bronze sculptures, an amazingly life like collection of big game fish , Barela created his own billiant patina formulas that are now widly used internationally...
Chris Barela’s love for the water has been life long. Growing up at the beach and becoming a pro surfer allowed Chris to travel the world. At the peak of Chris’s surfing career he had made it into the finals at the Banzai Pipeline Masters.
Having traveled the world’s oceans Chris retired from professional surfing however, he still wanted to stay connected, that connection inspired him to create his first line of bronze sculptures, an amazingly life like collection of big game fish , Barela created his own billiant patina formulas that are now widly used internationally .
As Barela’s sculpture line grew so did the opportunities, he accepted various commissions including The Zane Grey “Tales of the Gladiator”, Ted Williams, Memorial Sculpture, Public installations such as Marlin fountains in Key West, FL. & Salmon Fountain located in Medford, OR., The Tim Kelly Statue that sits at the base of the Hermosa Beach Pier, Chris’s home town and most recently the Bob & Bill Meistrell statue at Sea side Lagoon in Redondo Beach CA.. Along with the public arts commissions Chris’s commissioned works are owned and exhibited by celebrities, public institutions and professional firms.
Barela’s passion for nature is the driving force behind his art …Chris’s talents are not limited to bronze sculptures, he excels at photography and filmmaking and recently was awarded first place in the Hawaii Ocean Film Festival for his short film on octopus.
It is with out question that Barela has become one of the worlds best sculptors/patina artist, which grants him the honor of being one of the most influential artist of today.
Like Norman Rockwell, Seuss personally created every rough sketch, preliminary drawing, final line drawing and finished work for each page of every project he illustrated. Despite the technical and budgetary limitations of color printing during the early and mid-twentieth century, Dr. Seuss the artist was meticulous about color selection. He created specially numbered color charts and elaborate color call-outs to precisely accomplish his vision for each book. Saturated reds and blues, for example, were carefully chosen for The Cat in the Hat to attract and maintain the visual attention of a six-year-old audience. By the time Seuss’s book career took off, sharp draftsman skills were evident in drawings. His ability to move a storyline ahead via illustrations filled with tension, movement and color became a hallmark component of his work, and the surreal images that unfolded over six decades became the catalyst for a humorous and inspired learning experience.
Artist Leo Rijn, the inaugural sculptor for the Dr. Seuss Tribute Collection I, was selected to launch this project due to his prized work with some of today’s top talent in the world of film, entertainment and the visual arts (including Tim Burton, Ang Lee and Steven Spielberg). Rijn has been identified as one of today’s brightest sculpting talents because of his ability to breathe life into the written word and successfully transform two-dimensional ideas into three-dimensional works of art. Universal Studios commissioned Leo to develop and oversee the creation of numerous maquette scale models for the Monumental Dr. Seuss Sculptures at Seuss Landing in Orlando, Florida. Leo was instrumental in the art direction for many of the sculpted characters and buildings now on display at this permanent Seuss attraction. His strikingly accurate Seuss works embody a masterful and intuitive Seussian sensibility, establishing him as a leading talent in interpretive sculpting.
Seuss embarked on an ingenious project in the early 1930s as he evolved from two-dimensional artworks to three-dimensional sculptures. What was most unusual for these mixed-media sculptures was the use of real animal parts including beaks, antlers and horns from deceased Forest Park Zoo animals where Seuss’s father was superintendent. Unorthodox Collection of Taxidermy was born in a cramped New York apartment and included a menagerie of inventive creatures with names like the “Two Horned Drouberhannis,” “Andulovian Grackler,” and “Semi-Normal Green-Lidded Fawn.” Shortly after Seuss created this unique collection of artworks, Look Magazine dubbed Seuss “The World’s Most Eminent Authority on Unheard-Of Animals.” To this day, Seuss’s Unorthodox Collection of Taxidermy remains as some of the finest examples of his inventive and multi-dimensional creativity.
Illustrator by day, surrealist by night, Seuss created a body of irrepressible work that redefines this American icon as an iconographic American artist. Yet, the Secret Art often shows a side of the artist that most readers, familiar with him through his classic children’s books, have never seen. This collection, created over a period of more than 60 years, encompasses the entirety of Seuss’s multi-dimensional talent. The artistic golden thread highlighted throughout this collection is apparent in each wildly imaginative and surreal Secret Art image. The Secret Art of Dr. Seuss is an inimitable collection of artworks created at night for his own personal enjoyment. These works were rarely, if ever, exhibited during his lifetime and provide a deeper glimpse into the art and life of this celebrated American Icon.
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