Catalina Island Museum store offers handcrafted bronze sculptures

Artist Mike Hart

creates Catalina-themed artworks

For the Islander

In recent months, the Catalina Island Museum Store has added a multitude of new merchandise. Handcrafted bronze sculptures depicting Catalina’s bison and beloved sea lion Old Ben are among the most unique.

To learn more about the creative process behind these bronze sculptures, the Catalina Island Museum recently sat down with the artist, Mike Hart. Below is an excerpt from their discussion.

Artist Mike Hart

creates Catalina-themed artworks

For the Islander

In recent months, the Catalina Island Museum Store has added a multitude of new merchandise. Handcrafted bronze sculptures depicting Catalina’s bison and beloved sea lion Old Ben are among the most unique.

To learn more about the creative process behind these bronze sculptures, the Catalina Island Museum recently sat down with the artist, Mike Hart. Below is an excerpt from their discussion.

Catalina Island Museum: You are an illustrator, a painter and a sculptor.

What do you find special about each process and what you can express with them?

Mike Hart: Getting from artistic conception to a finished product requires choosing the right medium to capture a particular subject matter.

Sculpting is just a three-dimensional version of a painting or illustration.

As an artist, I have to choose which form of art accomplishes what I’m trying to express or to explain.

Museum: Can you tell us a little about the bronze sculpting process?

Hart: For me, the first step once I’ve decided on the subject matter is to spend countless hours on research. Sculpting requires an in-depth understanding of anatomy, from the basic structure to the most intricate tissue connections.

The second step is making an armature, which is the internal foundation on which to build your sculpture. I have been known to spend as much as 400 hours sculpting one of my bronzes and sometimes as many hours on the research before I start, but this is only the beginning of the process.

When finished with the sculpting, it is then delivered to a foundry for their 10 to 12-week process.

This will include making a mold, usually consisting of a flexible rubber inner mold surrounded by a stiff outer mold.  The mold itself may take up to two or three weeks to create.

Bronze, which has been melted in a crucible at around 2,100 degrees, is then poured into the hot shell mold. When the bronze has cooled, the ceramic shell will be broken off with a hammer and/or chipped out with air tools.

The surface of the bronze will then be blasted clean with sand or glass beads.  If the sculpture was cast in more than one piece, it is now welded together.

Much time is spent chasing the bronze sculpture, meaning the artist defines/refines the forms of its surface. The result should be a perfect duplicate of the original sculpture.

Next, the patina (color) is applied with various acids and heat giving each piece a unique coloration.  Finally, the surface of the bronze is sealed with wax and mounted.

I must add that numerous details were left out of this description. Normally each of these major steps is done by a separate skilled artisan who specializes in that particular area of the process.

Museum: What are your ties to the Catalina Island? How has the Island influenced your work?

Hart: My first time going to the Island was in 1965 via the “Great White Steamship”, what a treat!  Loved the island setting where you feel you could be anywhere in the world and yet only “26 miles across the sea.”

I met my wife Sue in 1969 and this was where she spent many summers throughout her high school years. Catalina has remained one of our favorite destinations for the past 47 years.

On one of our many trips, we were taken on a tour of the back side of the island and loved seeing the bison in the wild.

Being inspired by what I saw, I came home and started my research and working on a new sculpture of a bison, “American Icon” which is now on sale in the Museum.

Museum: What inspired you to sculpt Old Ben?

Hart: I just loved the story behind Old Ben of Catalina, a friendly sea lion from the late 1800’s who decided to make Avalon his home.

His story is well documented in the museum so I felt inspired to try to capture his spirit and personality in bronze.

The museum shared many images to help with my research and I’m very happy with the outcome.

Throughout the month of December, the sculptures are available at 10 percent off. If you are a member of the museum, you will receive a 25 percent discount.

The Museum offers art and history exhibitions, music and dance performances, lectures by guest speakers from all over the world, and the finest in silent, documentary and international film.

Open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., except New Year’s Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day. The museum’s new Ada Blanche Wrigley Schreiner Building is located in the heart of Avalon at 217 Metropole Ave. For more information, call 310-510-2414 or visit CatalinaMuseum.org.