Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Paula Slater . We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Paula , so happy to have you with us today and there is so much we want to ask you about. So many of us go through similar pain points throughout our journeys and so hearing about how others developed certain skills or qualities that we are struggling with can be helpful. Along those lines, we’d love to hear from you about how you developed your ability to take risk
‘Risk and then be ready to receive’, has been my mantra. Not invoking the courage to face one’s fears of failure can stall the creative flow needed to find an artistic purpose and destiny. Even the fear of success can make a person question, how will my life change(?) can I handle the added pressure and attention of success? However pushing through these kinds of blockages to follow the intuitive breadcrumbs and synchronicities, opens the doors to greater self-awareness and rich new horizons of artistic achievement.
I believe a deeper journey into one’s creative destiny isn’t about making money (although in practical terms most of us need to earn a living) or gaining notoriety, It is about personal growth through trusting the process, having faith in something larger than the small self. The courage to create is taking a leap of faith and connecting to a higher consciousness, It is about listening to the Universal Forces or Divine Mind, or whatever one calls the originator of insight and chills-up-the-spine that whisper “you are on the right path”.
The most profound signs I have experienced along my artistic journey were messages in nighttime dreams. I worked very hard as a fine art painter for the first fifteen years of my career and had moderate success. However when I began sculpting, I felt like I was coming home. I then started having repetitive dreams in which I was telling people I was a professional sculptor. Over and over in different dream situations this occurred and still does to this day. Someone in the dream would ask me “What do you do for a living,” or “Do you work or have a career?” and I would always answer the same thing, “I am a professional sculptor”. Then at some point I read back through my dream journals and I realized I never had a dream in which I was asked those work/career questions and replied I was a fine art painter. This was an awakening and an affirmation my life purpose was calling and I switched my creative focus to sculpting fulltime. My magnificent obsession had began.
One other exciting thing I have repeatedly experienced in my night dreams, are what I call ‘reward dreams’. When I’ve worked really hard to complete an important sculpture commission or finished a large bronze monument, I’ll have an exquisite flying dream! In the dream I’ve broken free from the constraints of this world and I’m flying higher than the trees, or above a city, or up in the stars! Again, this encouragement sends chills up my spine and I know I’m on the right path to whatever destiny is mine to reach.
None of the success I’ve been blessed to garner, would have been possible without taking risks, listening to the whispers, working hard to push through fears and trusting my inner guidance. We often focus so much on doing, doing, doing without the balance of expanding the connection to the creative guidance within. I believe as one’s consciousness expands, so too does the ability to build positive and fulfilling outcomes in one’s creative life and bold journey.
Thanks for sharing that. So, before we get any further into our conversation, can you tell our readers a bit about yourself and what you’re working on?
Since I was eight years old I knew I wanted to be an artist. Following that dream has been a life long pursuit. It has lead me through many twists, turns and even some major detours. However, I never wanted to give up that ultimate destination and the past thirty years I’ve been able to dedicate my focus to fulfilling my soul’s desire.
For the past thirty years I have been a full-time professional sculptor. My specialty has been life size and monumental figurative and portrait Memorials and Public Monuments. My many important international sculptural works are seen by millions of people each year. Bronze lasts for centuries so with each new commission, it is my goal to create the highest quality fine art of which I am capable. I believe art has the ability to inspire and ‘fine art’ has the ability to heal the human heart. I hope to leave a legacy of bronze works that reach that elevated state.
Two of my bronze sculptures have been designated State Landmark Monuments and I was awarded the great honor of sculpting the many monumental figures of a huge U.S. National Monument. I have also been awarded dozens of important life size and monumental bronze portrait busts of historical figures, celebrities, Presidents, Congressional leaders, renowned authors and educators, leaders of industry and military heroes (over three and a half dozen bronze busts and counting).
My husband Chris and I work together on large monument projects. He helps with armatures and rough clay build out, as well as, creating all the high quality Silicon molds that are used for casting the sculptures in wax, then in bronze (using the complex fine art ‘lost wax’ bronze process). The seven monumental figures I was commissioned to sculpt for a National Monument located at Lackland Air Force Base, in San Antonio, Texas, required Chris to create 57 detailed Silicon and plaster molds. As a reward for all our hard work, we enjoy traveling around the United States and to other countries to oversee installations and celebrate unveilings and dedications of our Monuments.
Most recently I finished sculpting a portrait bust of Rachel Carson for the Department of the Interior—presently at the foundry being cast in bronze. Carson has been my hero since reading her bestseller, “Silent Spring” in college. I wanted it to be special and created her portrait up on a pedestal shape for height and hand sculpted reliefs of birds and branches on the lower section of three sides and an underwater scene on the back from her book “The Sea Around Us.” I’ll be posting photos of on my website soon.
Right now, I’m sculpting a life size full-figure kneeling weeping angel that will be installed in a gorgeous Tiffany finished granite site plan in Kentucky. Chris will capture every fine detail of this clay sculpture and her large feathered wings in the molds he will create for bronze casting. This past January (2024) we received a commission to sculpt another large bronze Monument with three 1.25 times life size full-figures for a huge new development in Reno, Nevada. It will be installed in December of 2026 and we’ll be sharing more information about this wonderful project in the weeks ahead.
Also, the highly detailed St. George and the Dragon Bronze Sculpture (4ft high by 4ft wide) will be installed in a gorgeous Greek Orthodox church in Fresno, California. This glowing bronze will fit so beautifully into the ornate style of this church with its glorious painted ceilings, gold trimmed painted walls and huge stained glass windows. We look forward to the unveiling in the Fall of 2024.
One of the most exciting things about this career is we never know what commission we will be asked to sculpt next–what kind of monument? Or, who will be the next historical person or celebrity or heroic figure I get to sculpt? Phone calls, emails and texts we receive are often full of fun requests and surprises. Later this year, I plan to publish a book of photographs and information about our sculptural journey and trusting the creative process. It has been an amazing experience!
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
I’ve heard it said, we make our own luck. I believe the three qualities most impactful to the luck of my success have been determination/hard work, following inner guidance/self-development and education (whether self-education or schooling, training and courses with mentors in one’s field). Trying to make a living creating art has been a long haul with many years as a “starving artist” and working side jobs to support my art until my art could support me. For ten years I was Dr. Rollo May’s part time assistant (he was author of several bestselling books including The Courage to Create, and was known as the father of humanistic psychology in America). During that time I was continuing to paint and airbrush in oils, then creating book covers and illustrations, lithographs, a few gallery shows, a dozen large murals on-site in the Northwestern states for a restaurant chain, while also earning a Master of Arts Degree. I was highly motivated to find my niche in art, but I look back on that time and, whew, talk about determination!
However, after Dr. May passed away, I needed to find more steady work and checked the want ads. Low and behold, there was an ad from a company twenty minutes away wanting to hire independent art painters. Such a synchronicity–it is extremely rare to find anything in the want ads for artists. When I showed the company owner my portfolio, he liked some of the subject matter in my paintings and thought they might translate well into sculpture. He asked if I could sculpt. I said I hadn’t sculpted since high school. But he still wanted to try me out sculpting for three days because they needed sculptors more than painters. I said okay and started right then—after a couple of hours he announced excitedly, “You’re going to sculpt for us!” and he commissioned a dozen collectible pieces to start. I did a lot of work for him for a few years and then also started sculpting pieces for Disney Dimensions, the Disney Galleries, United Design, Illusive Concepts, Amcal, Debbie Mumm Designs, Harley Davidson and other collectible companies. Then I was commissioned to sculpt a couple of small full-figure portraits for NASCAR.
I was developing my sculpting skills while finally making a good living, and then, the collectible market crashed! So, I needed to switch direction again and sculpted two limited edition bronze series for fine art galleries and had a booth in the New York Art Expo in 2003. But it wasn’t until I started sculpting bronze portraits that my professional sculpting career really took off. I’ve been busy ever since with wonderful public art monuments, private memorial commissions and sculpting probably more bronze busts than any living sculptor today.
Determination/hard work, following inner-guidance/self-development and different forms of education can help lead to exciting and surprising avenues of success. At least, luckily, it has for me.
Before we go, maybe you can tell us a bit about your parents and what you feel was the most impactful thing they did for you?
My parents always encouraged my pursuit to have a career in art. My mother taught third and fourth grades in public schools for over twenty years before retiring. However, she also possessed artistic and musical talent. I remember having trouble drawing a female form when I was in 5th grade. So I asked her if she could draw one. She took my pencil and easily whipped out a sketch of a woman’s lovely body. I knew she appreciated art, but up until then, I didn’t know she also had artistic talent. As a young woman she had wanted to be a concert pianist, and throughout my life she played the piano. Every weekend she looked forward to listening to classical music, symphonies and opera playing on the radio. Mother also loved the ballet and took me to see Swan Lake when I was a child. I’ve always appreciated her exposing me to these beautiful forms of cultural artistry, and those sweet memories have stayed with me.
My father worked in security for Walt Disney Studios in Burbank and he enjoyed knowing the movie animator artists and greeting Walt Disney everyday. While I was still in high school, Dad told them he had an artist daughter and showed one of the top illustrators, Al Dempster, (who was called a ‘legend of animation art at Disney’) my paintings. Dad asked Al’s advice for my following a career in art. Al wrote a note on his stationary that I had real talent and recommended I enroll at Cal. Arts (the California Institute of Art). I still have his little hand written note and treasure it.
My parents could not afford to send me to Cal. Arts, as it was/is an expensive private university. However, I was able to work part-time to put myself through Cal. State Fullerton University with a major in fine art. While I was in college, my father arranged for an exhibit of my paintings at the Walt Disney Studios. I was allowed to visit the studios to curate the show and was able to meet a few of the movie animators and animation background painters to see their work up close. Several of my large and small paintings sold to studio executives and to the movie animators. I was thrilled!
All that support from my parents in my childhood and young adulthood had a great impact on my passion for creating art. Later, when my paintings were accepted for a huge month long show in Laguna Beach at the Art A Fair Festival, my parents loaned me the funds to have four of my paintings printed in limited edition lithographs. Fortunately, I was able to pay them back from sales. Again, their supporting my passion for a career in art was a loving affirmation. My father passed away before I began my sculpting career and my mother only was able to see the very beginning of my foray into sculpting. I wish they were both still alive to see how far I’ve come in realizing my dream of being a professional sculptor. I owe much of it to their early encouragement. I know they would be, and are, proud.
I must also mention the positive feedback and lifelong support I have received from my two wonderful sisters, and especially, Chris, my dear husband of thirty-five years. Even during the ups and downs of my art career, Chris’ loving encouragement has been unweavering and his support has been a temendous source of strength.
Contact Info:
- Website: http://PaulaSlater.com
- Instagram: @Paula_B_Slater
- Facebook: Paula B. Slater
- Linkedin: Paula (Hutchins) Slater
- Twitter: @PaulaBSlater
- Youtube: http://www.youtube/@paulaslater4681 and http://www.youtube/@paulaslater2930
- Other: http://tiktok.com/@user8133425181957
