OLYMPIA

Olympia began during a 90-minute Quick Draw in Scottsdale, Arizona. Working against the clock left no room for refinement or second guessing. The clay went down quickly and directly, and I chose to preserve that immediacy in the finished bronze. The marks of making remain visible across the surface.

I hadn't named her when a couple admiring the piece at a show asked about the title. I turned the question back to them. They were from Olympia, Washington, and suggested Olympia. Something about it immediately fit. She felt heroic to me, almost mythic. The name stuck.

Olympia would later become the maquette for the larger sculpture Epeius.

FROM OLYMPIA TO EPEIUS