Extending the Artist's Hand: Contemporary Sculpture from the Walla Walla Foundry

A quiet country town nestled at the foot of Washington's Blue Mountains with one high school and a population of just under 30,000 is the unlikely home of a world-class art organization, the Walla Walla Foundry. On one particular day, curious onlookers outside the unassuming building could have observed a crane lifting a women's torso onto legs to form a giant urethane foam model, several stories tall, now ready to be molded and cast. Once inside, they might have watched expert workers pour glowing molten metal into a monument-sized plaster mold, weld architectural elements, perform wax tooling, or remove a rubber mold from a huge plaster model. Established in 1980 and winner of the 1996 Governor's Arts Award, the Walla Walla Foundry has become a prominent fine arts bronze casting facility where skilled technicians craft artistic vision into actual artwork through digital scanning, machining, manipulation, assembly, casting, fabrication, and design. Renowned artists such as Robert Arneson, Terry Allen, Deborah Butterfield, Jim Dine, and Tom Otterness have utilized the firm's services to create, produce, and install finished art pieces worldwide. With full color photography and informative text, the Walla Walla Foundry celebrates the collaboration between artist and technician, explores the fascinating journey of metal sculpture from initial concept to final installation, and documents the history and achievements of this extraordinary eastern Washington enterprise.