GDC: I am sitting here with Michail Constantine, born in Bucharest, Romania who is a very famous artist with many collectors in the United States and many other countries. Michail, how did you go about getting this commission to sculpt our president?
M.C.: I would like to start by telling you that I have been a Republican for over 25 years. I am most likely one of the few Republican artists in the United States. Here in Denver I have some very good friends (Barbra and Phill Marcum) who are one the biggest art collectors I know. I have known Barbra and Phill for many years. They are very kind, sophisticated and intelligent, and they are well known for their good taste in art. Phill grew up in Midland, Texas where he became good friends and went to school with George W. Bush. To answer your question, we were celebrating our president’s win at a restaurant and we decided it would be a great idea to sculpt a life size bust of our president which would be cast in bronze. This sculpture will have an edition of 100 pieces and part of the proceeds will be donated to the George W. Bush Library in Texas.
GDC: Are you going to present this sculpture to the president?
M.C: Yes. Our Governor, Bill Owens, Phill and Barbra Marcum and I are going to present the sculpture to the president himself some time in April.
GDC: What steps have you taken to create this sculpture?
M.C: I have worked on this sculpture from photographs alone which is very difficult compared to having a person model for the bust. First I had to sculpt a 3D clay model from 2D photographs which I found on the Internet. Next I will make a rubber mold over the clay model. Last the sculpture is cast in bronze using the lost wax process.
GDC: Thank you and good luck. We will come back in the nearest future with more details.MICHAIL RAZVAN CONSTANTINE
He is a Colorado Artist who has owned and operated a studio and fine arts foundry for over 25 years. Born in Romania, he began his career as an artist at the age of four, creating drawings, paintings and welded sculptures. At eight years Michail began sculpting. He later defected to Western Germany and studied at the Kunst Academy in Munich, Germany in pursuit of his dreams of artistic freedom.
Michail studied Fine Arts in Germany and Italy, under several great European masters. During this time, he was a student of the “Lost Wax Casting.” Now a master of this ancient method of casting, Michail creates his original sculptures in clay, from which a rubber mold is made and ultimately used to bring forth the bronze form, which seems to come alive as it is carefully finished. Bronze is such an unyielding medium, that it is rare to see bronze that suggests freedom and motion;
Being suppressed in a communist regime, Michail’s desire to create in liberty and to express himself artistically, led him as a youth from his native Romania to the United States and has inspired his efforts ever since.
Although Michail works is now available in many affordable media, such as Hydro-Stone he is well known for his life-size bronze sculptures. Soon he will be known for creating the tallest monument in the world.
Private collectors and corporations from all over the world enjoy the unique beauty of Michail’s limited edition bronzes and hydro-stones. His work can be seen in museums, galleries throughout Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Saudi Arabia and the United States.
