Feature: On The Trail Of The Rusty Moose - Granite Grok

Feature: On The Trail Of The Rusty Moose

The Iconic Manchester Airport Moose
The Iconic Manchester Airport Moose
If you’ve ever passed through New Hampshire’s Manchester Airport, you’ll almost certainly have encountered “The Moose” – life sized, lifelike, and with his patina of rust, almost life-color, too. In this picture, he’s enjoying greeting holiday travelers.

But did you ever wonder where he ambled in from? What skilled hands wrought that lifelike form? You did? Well, take a diversion from politics and follow me on the Trail of the Rusty Moose to see what other wonders Chris Williams has produced in his sculpture studio and workshop…

The Sculptor with one of his bugs
The Sculptor with one of his bugs
Chris Williams is a man with the lucky situation that his passion for creating striking sculptures is a natural fit with the skills he inherited/acquired as the third generation of a metal working family from Rockport, MA.

Now, after twenty years as a sculptor, Chris lives with his wife and two sons in rural Essex, MA, and the studio is always a hive of activity. He produces high-end commissioned works like the moose at MHT and the Merrimack outlet mall, mid-sized beauties like the bronze dragons, octopuses, and oversized spiders, insect sculptures large and small, and many more that you may have met at homes and businesses around the country.

The Viking taking shape on a stand
The Viking taking shape on a stand
Chris works with steel, bronze, and with blown glass shapes produced by local craftsmen. Starting with a customer request or an idea, and a number of pencil sketches, a creation begins to take shape, typically around an armature (skeleton) of thick steel or bronze rods, to which the plates comprising the surface will be welded.

The larger pieces are designed to be bolted down, and so begin life bolted to a frame in the studio, as we see here with the legs of a Viking mascot for Salem (MA) State University.

Eeek! A spider!
Eeek! A spider!
Those who have visited us may have noticed the cricket on the hearth, or the large grasshopper chasing the gnomes in the garden, but Halloween is approaching, and as we were unpacking the ghosties, ghoulies, and spiders, what should drop into my email box but a Chris Williams newsletter with a new array of designs on offer. Oh look. A spider! Road trip!!

Look who dropped in!
Look who dropped in! (click)
Mar-Mar and I took a sunny afternoon drive in the general direction of Essex, hoping to catch Chris at work, but he was unfortunately out running an errand. Lucky for us, his wife and sons were home, and only too happy to share Chris’s work with us – the current inhabitants of his yard, finished and unfinished items in his office, and a whole trailer full of items which had just returned from an art show. Yes, the spider hopped in our trunk, and he got a friend for the trip, too…. (below)

Eye and Body Works (Nice title for Halloween!)
Eye and Body Works (Nice title for Halloween!)
One of the great features of Chris’ work is that every creature has a different personality, and with the smaller pieces, especially the bugs, minor differences in the shape of the legs, the angles of the antennae, the attitude of the head, and the natural variations in the glass bodies and eyes, make every one unique, and all of them appealing.
Here are some bodies and eyes lined up for their turn!

Glass Blowers (click)
Glass Blowers (click)
The glass parts for the bugs and small fish are usually pre-blown, and then assembled to the sculpture as Chris transforms the wire outline into a creature with personality and attitude. But take a closer look at those octopi, spiders, and the larger fish, and you’ll see something unique – the glass is blown into the metal body, and fused into a whole

Let’s take a quick tour, and then I encourage you to visit his website, ChrisWilliamsSculpture.com, to see more of his art and his workshop.

Bug lineup
Bug lineup
Fishing School
Fishing School

Big Mouth Billy doesn't talk back!
Big Mouth Billy doesn’t talk back!
Marine tableau
Marine tableau

Bronze Raven on a shelf
Bronze Raven on a shelf
Bronze Raven on a rock
Bronze Raven on a rock

Big brother Raven on the prowl!
Big brother Raven on the prowl!

Octupus's  Garden with Sea Anenomes
Octupus’s Garden with Sea Anenomes
Anenome closeup
Anenome closeup

Giant (6ft) Tree Frog - great eyes!
Giant (6ft) Tree Frog – great eyes!
Dargon Sentinel on a rock post
Dargon Sentinel on a rock post

Giant Spider in his web
Giant Spider in his web
Skeletal, but evocative, Crane
Skeletal, but evocative, Crane

The Mantis came home, too!
The Mantis came home, too!
We're hoping to catch one of these Monarchs next Spring!
We’re hoping to catch one of these Monarchs next Spring!

(All pictures enlarge when clicked.)

We’re big fans of Chris’ work, and we encourage you to catch him at an event, or make an arrangement to stop by the studio – the small bugs and fishes are very reasonably priced, and who knows – maybe you’ll be inspired to commission a special piece for your house or garden.

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