For the MMSI’s 50th Chicago Show in October 2025, I wanted to do a box that paid oblique tribute to what we do as miniature sculptors. I was inspired by this 1887 painting “A moulage sur Nature” by the French artist Edouard Dantan, depicting the moment when a pair of sculptors remove the cast from the leg of their model. I loved the possibility of the light coming from above through the glass-windowed roof (covered by a shade in the painting), but I thought it would be more interesting to “flip the script” on the male gaze, making the model a boy or young man and the sculptor and her assistant women. (I was thinking of Camille Claudel, whose work was often overlooked in the shadow of her lover, Rodin.) I also loved the idea of filling the studio with other casts and sculpts, similar to what Dave Browne did in his box showing the sculptor of the Lincoln Memorial, and that offered the opportunity for plenty of “easter eggs,” including a few that pay tribute to my mentors Shep Paine and Joe Berton, and a callback to one of my earlier pieces. (Thanks to Barry Biediger for some help with a few 3D prints from public domain SDL files.) Here are some photos of the work in progress.

Below: The box on display (exhibit only) at the MMSI show in October, 2025. (Top photo by Penny Meyer, photo below by Joe Berton)