Best of State Award

The Best of State award was commissioned in 2001 following my first place finish at the National Sculpture Society sculpture competition in Philadelphia. The main thought behind the piece was to create a beautiful, uplifting sculpture and that when people saw it, they would want to have the award for themselves.
To create this piece, I first did several quick clay sketches. Once one of the sketches was decided upon, I made a much larger version using a male model, who was a dancer. I then did a final version free hand without the model so I could adjust proportions according to how I felt the design needed to look. The original precast sculpture is more muscular, but a lot of it gets removed during the polishing process. However, the polishing gives it a great look as a prestigious award. This award is given at a special ceremony to the top businesses in many different fields in Utah each year.