News
Artist's love of art came early
 |
| Face to face: Artist Tim Trask applies fine detail to a sculpture of Wyatt Earp, soon-to-be unveiled at the Wyatt Earp House and Art Gallery in Tombstone. Trask is based at Gallery of Dreams in St. David. (Adam Bernal/photo.) |
Adam Bernal/San Pedro Valley News-Sun
While artist Tim Trask now labors creating the huge sculptures on display at the Gallery of Dreams in St. David, his love of art started before he was 10.
Trask hails from Pueblo, Colo., where he gained an early love for art and had already completed his first oil painting while in the fourth grade. By fifth grade, he asked his mother to get him involved in a correspondence course for cartooning.
In 1971, Trask cast his first bronze as he worked at the local steel mill where his father was also employed. Other jobs that Trask had included working at foundries and carving granite headstones for a memorial company, he said.
All the jobs helped hone his skills, he said. "It improved my skill in art and gave me the technical ability to do what I chose," Trask said. "I was casting and creating my own body of work, which is what you need to do as an artist."
When he began to find work creating sculptures, Trask said he began doing sculptures of golfers for the Fox Hollow Golf Course in Englewood, Colo. He did another set of golfers for a course in Longmont, Colo. In Boulder, Colo., Trask created a 20-foot Tyrannosaurus Rex out of concrete panels and built a 24-foot meteor crater with a five-foot-tall meteor, he said.
Later Trask sculptured six Egyptian pharaoh statues and 11 10-foot columns for Waterworld water park and crafted bronze portraits of various civic leaders in Westminster, Colo. Trask has also created works for England's Princess Anne, George Bush Sr. and the late Malcolm Forbes.
After deciding to move to Arizona in 2002 and marrying his wife Karen, Trask said they decided to establish the Gallery of Dreams to help showcase his and other artists' work. Karen's daughter Mia also works as the gallery's manager.
Trask described the peaceful atmosphere of St. David as "a dream come true" as he and Karen decided to settle in the area.
"The more we were in this area, the more St. David appealed to us," Trask said. "It's quiet; everybody knows everybody and it's peaceful."
Trask's current project is an eight-foot tall statue of Tombstone legend Wyatt Earp, which will be displayed at the Earp House and Gallery at 102 East Fremont St. in Tombstone later this year. Jim Allen, who runs the Wyatt Earp House in Tombstone, has funded the project after deciding to make the house into an art gallery.
With pre-casting and casting costs, the Wyatt Earp statue has cost approximately $5,500 to create, said Trask. There have also been 30 small-scale Wyatt Earp statues created that are replicas of the larger one, he said.
Trask said the Gallery of Dreams would also like to work with the Benson Arts Commission on a proposal for a bronze statue commemorating the history of Benson. But that is in the future, he said.
Admitting he enjoys working on bigger projects, Trask said people are always dropping by the gallery to check his progress and sometimes even participate in the sculpture, such as helping place clay on the statues. Long-term projects such as the Wyatt Earp statue seem to almost take on a life of their own, he said.
"It's always exciting, because it becomes a legend of its own after a while," Trask said.
In many ways, Trask feels that artists are some of the last free people around who work on their own schedules and don't have a superior to answer to. It's a big step in a person's life to make the decision to become a full-time artist and depend solely on that for your income, he said.
"You have to be doing it every day or else your heart isn't in it," Trask said.
As an artist, Trask said the hard work he goes through in imagining and creating his work is worth it whenever he sees the joy on his clients' faces when he unveils his finished pieces. Trask said he would like to serve as an inspiration for young artists and give them the confidence to believe they are capable of great things.
"There should be more in this world to inspire people to do more than they think they can do," Trask said.
While artist Tim Trask now labors creating the huge sculptures on display at the Gallery of Dreams in St. David, his love of art started before he was 10.
Trask hails from Pueblo, Colo., where he gained an early love for art and had already completed his first oil painting while in the fourth grade. By fifth grade, he asked his mother to get him involved in a correspondence course for cartooning.
In 1971, Trask cast his first bronze as he worked at the local steel mill where his father was also employed. Other jobs that Trask had included working at foundries and carving granite headstones for a memorial company, he said.
All the jobs helped hone his skills, he said. "It improved my skill in art and gave me the technical ability to do what I chose," Trask said. "I was casting and creating my own body of work, which is what you need to do as an artist."
When he began to find work creating sculptures, Trask said he began doing sculptures of golfers for the Fox Hollow Golf Course in Englewood, Colo. He did another set of golfers for a course in Longmont, Colo. In Boulder, Colo., Trask created a 20-foot Tyrannosaurus Rex out of concrete panels and built a 24-foot meteor crater with a five-foot-tall meteor, he said.
Later Trask sculptured six Egyptian pharaoh statues and 11 10-foot columns for Waterworld water park and crafted bronze portraits of various civic leaders in Westminster, Colo. Trask has also created works for England's Princess Anne, George Bush Sr. and the late Malcolm Forbes.
After deciding to move to Arizona in 2002 and marrying his wife Karen, Trask said they decided to establish the Gallery of Dreams to help showcase his and other artists' work. Karen's daughter Mia also works as the gallery's manager.
Trask described the peaceful atmosphere of St. David as "a dream come true" as he and Karen decided to settle in the area.
"The more we were in this area, the more St. David appealed to us," Trask said. "It's quiet; everybody knows everybody and it's peaceful."
Trask's current project is an eight-foot tall statue of Tombstone legend Wyatt Earp, which will be displayed at the Earp House and Gallery at 102 East Fremont St. in Tombstone later this year. Jim Allen, who runs the Wyatt Earp House in Tombstone, has funded the project after deciding to make the house into an art gallery.
With pre-casting and casting costs, the Wyatt Earp statue has cost approximately $5,500 to create, said Trask. There have also been 30 small-scale Wyatt Earp statues created that are replicas of the larger one, he said.
Trask said the Gallery of Dreams would also like to work with the Benson Arts Commission on a proposal for a bronze statue commemorating the history of Benson. But that is in the future, he said.
Admitting he enjoys working on bigger projects, Trask said people are always dropping by the gallery to check his progress and sometimes even participate in the sculpture, such as helping place clay on the statues. Long-term projects such as the Wyatt Earp statue seem to almost take on a life of their own, he said.
"It's always exciting, because it becomes a legend of its own after a while," Trask said.
In many ways, Trask feels that artists are some of the last free people around who work on their own schedules and don't have a superior to answer to. It's a big step in a person's life to make the decision to become a full-time artist and depend solely on that for your income, he said.
"You have to be doing it every day or else your heart isn't in it," Trask said.
As an artist, Trask said the hard work he goes through in imagining and creating his work is worth it whenever he sees the joy on his clients' faces when he unveils his finished pieces. Trask said he would like to serve as an inspiration for young artists and give them the confidence to believe they are capable of great things.
"There should be more in this world to inspire people to do more than they think they can do," Trask said.
Copyright © 2010 - San Pedro Valley News-Sun