I mixed my own paints, beginning with raw, clear lacquer and tinted colors. I still love lacquer, the way it spreads - so thin and luxurious, even the way it smells. I could achieve a kind of detail there that I lost when I moved to water-based paints. I made the change when I began hiring people, because of the toxicity. But I lived with lacquer, living in the rooms with my work, for 20-some years, and I never developed any health problems. Oh yeah, listen to me, sitting here hacking, breathing oxygen from a tube, and saying, "I never had any health problems at all."
The first character I made strictly for reproduction was a sailor sitting there, smoking a pipe, wearing a peacoat. It was pretty crude, but that was when I started understanding the mold-making process coupled with the sculpting process-that you sculpt with the mold in mind.
I made a couple dozen reproductions of that little sailor, and then took him around, selling him for something like $4 each - just ridiculously low prices. But I lived cheap, drank cheap, and thought I was quite successful until people started asking, "What else do you have?"
In 1965, I created my first series-four nautical pieces: First Mate, Salty, Tramp Steamer Captain, and Tug Boat Captain.
I also created my first western cowboys. I spent months perfecting these characters. Then I'd load them up on my motor scooter, and off I'd go, selling my wares to just about anyone at all - drug stores, gift stores, furniture boutiques. I wound up selling them in some of the strangest places. I'd walk into bars and show off my pieces. They set them up on display behind the bar, and customers would ask, "Where did you get that?"
"Hell," they'd say, "from that Irish kid. You know? That cute little drunk that was here last Friday."
So that was how it all started. No plan, no idea where I would wind up, and no thought that 50 years later I would still be doing what I love, still telling my stories the only way I know how. I don't sell my pieces off the back of a motor scooter anymore. But other than that, the process remains about the same. |