Sharles

“I like the wild and the bizarre, and I like it in my work. If it's ordinary and boring, I won't do it," Loveland sculptor Sharles says. "I try to create pieces that will stop viewers and make them question the work.”

Through the use of unusual subject matter, distinctive, often ornate, presentation, and bright colors, he achieves his objective. He has created full-round sculptures and fountains, but is concentrating these days on his colorful wall reliefs. Popular during the Renaissance and Baroque periods, reliefs today are an underappreciated art form, according to Sharles. Named Official Wildlife Sculptor for the American Endangered Species Foundation in 1995, Sharles especially likes to tell stories through his work about endangered and unpopular species, the environment, and evolution. "The relief format allows me a greater delicacy and freedom. I can suggest real delicate things and complex relationships between plants, animals, and insects in a relief that are very hard to portray in a full-round bronze," Sharles explains.  Koi Fish, Day Lilies, and Frog is a perfect example. "It's the predator and prey story," he reveals. "Who is going to get the dragonfly first, the little frog or the fish?" But there is an even deeper message: "Each species needs the other to live. When the three animals die, the plant gets them. So the real predator is the plant," Sharles concludes with a chuckle.

His intimate narratives about plants and animals also reveal much about the artist and the strong influence of his grandmother, with whom he traveled around the world for eight years during his childhood. An art collector and former antique dealer, she exposed the budding artist to thousands of years' worth of art as they ventured through Europe and the Orient.

Now, the artist says, “I'm using my past and my background. I'm pulling strongly from these areas." His works vibrate with Oriental and Italian influences, and some are "very Baroque," he affirms. "Baroque meant theatrical and dramatic. I try to get those influences in my work."