Inspired by a photo of his daughter during a camping trip several years ago, Joe states, “That photo reminds me of the importance of what we pass on to the next generation.

I combined that image with the Monarch Butterfly because it is an example of interdependence. I believe that is a critical value to teach our descendants and also one that allows Monarchs to migrate through North America. I have yet to see one fly in anything resembling a straight line, yet somehow they move through habitat for thousands of miles taking several generations to complete. But, it is not a one-way relationship: we depend on them as well to pollinate plants and farmland along the way." -Joe Norman, National Sculptors' Guild

The City of Loveland and Visit Loveland are hosting this year’s Colorado Municipal League Convention this week and asked the National Sculptors’ Guild to help during the event by reflecting what makes the City of Loveland so special - its connection with the Arts!

The Guild has provided the conference with a unique display of 16 large-scale sculptures by our NOCO members inside Embassy Suites - Loveland.

We love being headquartered in this art-centric city and hope to make Loveland’s art community proud.
Click here to see more and learn more about the display and artists.

We are a semi-finalist in this important commemorative monument and ask that you please take a moment and be part of the public art process.

Johnson County is seeking community feedback on the three design proposals for the Heritage Park Public Art Project, commemorating the Potawatomi Trail of Death. One design will be selected for installation in spring 2025. Please give your honest feedback, even if it isn't ours.

​A universal figure representative of a tūtū with outstretched arm draped in colorful leis as an offering to her island in an expression of aloha, compassion, gratitude, and acceptance.

The benevolent gesture of Forgiveness is symbolic of the traditional Hawaiian customs of Aloha and Ho’okipa, the Native Hawaiian values of hospitality and giving. Native Hawaiians have always believed in selflessly extending themselves to others, whether they had close ties with them or not. Housing this sentiment at the Women’s Community Correctional Center is fitting as a place where women can individually grow and contribute to the greater community. The more one cares for the world, the greater the world will sustain and provide.

May this artwork provide a positive space for the women, workers, and visitors. A place one can sit and reflect, seek guidance, see themselves in her, or someone they love. -Jane DeDecker and the National Sculptors' Guild

Click HERE to see the full project progress

The Caruso’s and family were on site for the installation of Jane DeDecker’s ‘YMCA’ this morning, their special donation is a tribute to their late daughter. Julie’s smile will forever be present in the second portrait of the bronze sculpture.

​We are certain these will not be the only photos of families with the sculpture. What a fun greeting to the new Ottawa YMCA in Illinois, we can’t wait to see more, please tag us in your pics. CLICK HERE to see the full project

JK Designs and the National Sculptors' Guild have a number of projects in various stages of completion that we're looking forward to sharing and installing in 2024; as pictured:

Denny Haskew - Trail of Forgiveness, Loveland, CO
Dee Clements - Fortitude, Santa Fe Springs, CA
Jane DeDecker - Ho'okipa, Honolulu, HI
Jane DeDecker - YMCA, Ottawa, IL
Joe Norman - Monarch Girl, Gladstone, MO
NSG Team - Armed Forces Memorial, Paramount, CA
Gary Alsum - Dedication, Cerritos, CA
NSG Team - Tribute to Public Safety Plaza, Cerritos, CA
NSG Team - Inspiration Plaza, Little Rock, AR
Denny Haskew - Strength of the Maker, Loveland, CO
Denny Haskew - Moulding Our Future, Cerritos, CA


We are also finalists in upcoming projects, and know we will be adding many more amazing compositions by our Guild members to corporate and public art collections throughout the year. If you have a project needing an artful solution, we look forward to hearing from you.

Thank you for appreciating art and supporting our team of artists.
May 2024 bring you health, peace, and happiness. Happy New Year!

​Can we say #PicturePerfect or what?! This is a gorgeous capture of beauty from one of our clients showing Tim Cherry’s bronze “Maternal Wrap” with a fiery sky behind. We love seeing how you #LiveWithArt
​
Take a moment to take in the beauty around you today.

The National Sculptors' Guild is saddened to hear that former Guild member, Sharles, passed away on Sunday, he was 83. Flora and Fauna were his subject matter, he explored it for decades in every media and method. As collectors of the eccentric artist know, his love for nature lives on in each one of his sculptures, paintings and textiles. Some favorites were his earthy Ikebana Series and the vibrant Classical Vases formed of Iris and daffodils; frogs, lizards and dragonflies often found their way into a composition.

We represented Sharles from 1994-2008, showing his art in our galleries in Colorado and New Mexico. We placed hundreds of his vessels and smaller works, as well as a number of large-scale bas-reliefs. Our largest placement through the Guild came in 2001 when we installed "The Amaryllis Fountain" in the Civic Plaza of the City of Cerritos, California. Images show various points in the creation of the multifaceted sculpture that featured a central 9ft tall bronze Amaryllis surrounded by Four vignettes of a Swan, Frog, Koi and Turtle accompanied by sculpted water lilies, and shorter stemmed amaryllis, plus natural aquatic plants. Water streams from the center of each flower in the 16-ft diameter composition. All finished in his signature vibrant colors; Sharles never shied away from a bold stroke of color. Click here to see more of this project. We are pleased that people will continue to enjoy his unique vision of the world through his art.

BIOGRAPHY:
Sharles was born in Italy of American parents on their honeymoon while visiting European relatives. The family was forced to sit out the war in Britain, and when the war ended, traveled home. But the transition to post-war United States was not an easy one. His parents divorced, leaving a 5 year-old Sharles to be raised by various relatives in a sparse ranching/farm environment of Colorado and Wyoming.
This early childhood led Sharles to believe he was born in that rural area for most of his adult life.  His parents wanted to forget, and erase all memories of the war experiences and lacking the long lost Italian birth papers enrolled him in school via borrowed credentials and name of a near cousin. Art collectors, artists, friends, and the world,  only know him today by his signature and professional art name of  “SHARLES”.
At the age of 10, his Boston grandmother removed him from the Midwest, not wanting her grandson to become a cowboy. She was a stylish, sophisticated widow, self-made businesswoman who was a very successful art and antique dealer to wealthy East Coast collectors.
Sharles spent his teens immersed in the totally different world of Boston and foreign travel, art museums, and his grandmother’s art business.  He assisted his grandmother in her antique store, and on buying trips to India, France, Italy, China, and Japan. In addition to his own cultural heritage of English, French, and Italian art,  he  was immersed in  many other cultures and educated about the antiques and decorative arts associated with his grandmother’s business.
His grandmother was a passionate collector of art and loved flowers.  These were common interests shared with her best friend, Grace Wedgwood who was related to the famous English Wedgwood pottery family.  Grace Wedgwood was Sharles’ Godmother. These two loving guardians took an active role in his education, privately tutoring him on trains, ocean liners, and in hotel rooms. Sharles received a rare education in the techniques, forms, and artistic values of the decorative arts that were intrinsic to the famed Wedgwood pottery.  Both his grandmother and godmother were dedicated collectors of Wedgwood, oriental bronzes, porcelains, flower paintings, Italian and French art.  These experiences constituted a rich and enduring art education that in time were major influences in his art.
The daily contact with art and flowers became embedded in Sharles’ psyche, and would later come to his aid and ultimate rescue. In 1982 he suffered a serious car accident in Loveland, Colorado, a small farming community. Left as a semi-invalid with almost total amnesia, Sharles struggled to recover. He was stranded, not knowing his past, home, or friends.
While recovering in Loveland, which had a small bronze foundry, Sharles began observing some of the local sculptors, George Lundeen, Fritz White, Danny Ostermiller, Glenna Goodacre, and Kent Ullberg. He gradually began picking up sculpting techniques and learned the casting process. At first, Sharles created the type of western images that were being produced by the other local artists: Indians, eagles, buffaloes, and other western genre.
But one auspicious day while sculpting, Sharles surrendered to the intense pressures of his unremembered past. His subconscious adoration of flowers, plants and nature, so strongly instilled by his deceased grandmother, became dominant themes. These memories were his inspiration in creating functional and decorative arts as he discarded the local, popular art trends.
Not knowing if it could even be done, Sharles began experimenting with creating iris flowers in soft wax.  He attempted to sculpt delicate flower shapes with wet clay techniques, as the Wedgwood potters had done.  Sharles attached these flowers to functional forms, creating extraordinary floral vases, candlesticks, elaborate candelabras, bowls and other types of vessels.  The inspiration of his sculptural style remained a mystery to Sharles for many years as it had all flowed so effortlessly from his mind through his hands.
The bronzes were finished with patinas that were bright natural colors of greens, golds, pinks, and purples that seemed to surprise and even shocked the art world.  So much so, that major galleries were afraid of the purple, blue green patinas and reluctant to show them, having no sales record by which to judge them. After all, their collectors were buying traditional wildlife and Western art in the customary French-brown patina.
In 1987 Sharles was accepted into the 3rd Annual Loveland Sculpture in the Park Show.  At that time, it was a small event organized by local peer artist, George Lundeen, Dan Ostermiller, George Walbye, Fritz White, and Hollis Wilford. It has since become the most important national sculpture show in the United States.  For 23 years, Sharles has participated in this annual juried show of nationally, celebrated sculptors.
Sharles continued to add to his decorative portfolio, waiting for the right gallery to represent him. Finally, Pam Driscoll, of the Driscoll Gallery, saw this new work at the SCULPTURE IN THE PARK art show.  Famous wildlife sculptor Sandy Scott was instrumental in convincing Pam to show his work in her aspen gallery and with hesitation, agreed to show four or five pieces in her gallery.  She was astonished when all five bronzes sold as they were being unpacked. Women particularly loved the colorful, decorative bronzes. Word spread of the immediate sales in Driscoll Gallery, and Sharles soon had more galleries contacting him for his floral decorative work than he could handle.
In 1990, Sharles was one of the many highly talented sculptors from Loveland invited to participate in the Continental Airline’s Sculpture Showcase; a show that would tour the major international airports across the United States for three years. This event exhibited the top sculptors from Loveland: Kent Ullberg, George Lundeen, Fritz White, Hollis Wilford, Steve Kestrel, and other promising artists; adding sculptors as it progressed through the country. Sharles was delegated with the honor of sculpting a bronze centerpiece for the opening night. With the loosely stated theme of “flight”, the requested sculpture seemed of little significance in light of the high caliber of art being showcased. With only three weeks to complete, it was an inspired rush-job. The centerpiece created was a 5 1/2 foot totem-like structure of turtles, iguanas, and birds, crowned with the head of a Native American. The sculpture symbolized man learning the principles of flight from gliding sea turtles, and birds that had evolved from dinosaurs and reptiles. The piece, “Evolution of Flight,” was so successful opening night that it was given a place in the traveling sculpture show. This showstopper, exotic piece, amazed and awed viewers, but none more so, than the airline that had anticipated seeing a French-brown eagle, or some historical rendition of Kitty Hawk.
Both the “Evolution of Flight” sculpture and the traveling show solidified the career of Sharles as a professional sculptor, almost over night.  He had embarked on both projects as a totally unknown artist and had revealed just a tip of the iceberg. 
Sharles was invited into the National Sculptors' Guild in 1994, helping him to place his artwork publicly in large-scale for the first time in Palm Desert, California later that year. He showed his iris-clad bronze vessels and bas-reliefs and fountains, each full of creatures hidden in the leaves in the Guild's galleries in Loveland, Colorado and Santa Fe, New Mexico and in 1996 the March issue of Southwest Art Magazine published a sizeable article followed by a similar piece in May/June 1998 Art of the West Magazine; further putting Sharles on the map. Sharles is also a member of the Society of Animal Artists at that time.
In 2000, the National Sculptors' Guild's proposal of Sharles' Amaryllis Fountain was selected by the City of  Cerritos; a major public art installation for the civic plaza near their new public library. The final design was a bronze of a giant, red amaryllis flower and purple lotus flowers incorporated into a 16-foot multi-piece water fountain.  This included sculptures of amaryllis flowers, lotus flowers, lilly pads and oversized frog, swan, gold fish and turtle in the completed fountain that was installed near the new library in 2001.
In 2006, Sharles was selected by the City of Loveland, Colorado to place two, circular, 32″ bas-reliefs of California quail, pear cacti, lizards, sunflowers, and birds for placement in the famous Benson Park Sculpture Garden.  In 2008, he was again commissioned by the High Plains Arts Council to sculpt a small 12″ x 12″ bas relief for the 25th anniversary of Sculpture in the Park Show. The sculpture, “The Music of Spring,” is installed in Benson Park as part of the permanent city of Loveland art collection
Despite serious attempts to attend various academic art schools, those intentions never seemed to be a realistic option.  In time, art schools no longer seemed necessary, as Sharles had become a successful, self-taught artist/sculptor, learning skills the hard way, by observation, and trial and error.
He is a self-taught sculptor and oil painter, having drawn in pastels from an early age.  His love of color is evident in his patinas and still lifes of flowers, fruit, parrots, and small wildlife. His paintings and sculptures share similar themes. Sharles inherited his grandmother’s love of flowers, continually creating beautiful art for the sake of beauty. In addition to sculpting & painting, Sharles is a product designer of pillow, stationary, household items, coffee mugs  and a digital artist, nature photographer, in general a computer geek.

The National Sculptors' Guild Fellows have voted to promote Craig Campbell as a Fellow Member. He has been an Associate Member for the past few years and we have seen great success with Craig's work and love collaborating with him. We are finding ourselves finalists with him in another major project currently, so the projection is in the up and up - matching this artist's enthusiasm for life and art.

His artwork is creative, fun, thoughtful, and captivating; his skills make his approach very versatile. Always positive, Craig has been a great advocate of NSG’s members and efforts wherever he goes. If you have one of the new Maya Angelou quarters (among others)– you’re walking around with Craig’s sculpture in your pocket. Look for the CAC on coins... that’s him!

Check out his portfolio and add him to your collection: click here