Pageant makes sculptor’s work alive

Torus Tammer

The old West has always been alive to sculptor Tom Gillenwater. The

Huntington Beach resident recalls going to the movies with a childhood

friend to watch a western and then returning home and mimicking the

action he had just seen.

“Like a lot of kids, we played cowboys and Indians,” Gillenwater said.

“When we’d come back, I’d be so and so that we saw in the movie, and

he’d be the other guy, so cowboy art has always been an integral part of

my life.”

A piece of Gillenwater’s western art is being brought to life at the

Pageant of the Masters in Laguna Beach. The pageant, an annual event,

recreates selected pieces of art within a theme using live performers.

This year, the theme is “California Dreamers: Artists, Explorers,

Innovators and Visionaries.”

The sculpture, “First Strike,” is a bronze depiction of a California

gold miner crouched down, looking at a piece of gold. Gillenwater is one

of four living artists whose work is being honored by the pageant this

year.

Diane Challis, the pageant’s director, said she searched high and low

for inspiration before stumbling across Gillenwater’s work.

“I was looking everywhere for western bronzes having to do with the

Gold Rush and kept running into dead ends,” Challis said. “Then I

remembered a gallery called Trails West by the Sea in Laguna Beach. I

went there and found this great bronze sculpture, which was exactly what

I was looking for.”

Gillenwater said his introduction to art came in elementary school,

where he used to draw “horrible little horses, Tarzans and cowboys” on

the back of the cardboard that came in the back of laundered shirts.

Although he initially trained in fine art at Ohio State University, it

was the move to the Central Academy of Commercial Art in Ohio that

afforded him the foundation to go out and find a job with a publishing

firm.

After getting married and having a child, Gillenwater said he became

discouraged with the administrative aspect of his career. So he packed up

his family and moved around until finally arriving in Huntington Beach,

where he has lived since 1963.

After moving to Surf City, Gillenwater joined McDonnell-Douglas, now

Boeing, as an illustrator and graphics supervisor and settled down.

But tough times hit.

In 1972, his wife died in an accident. Then, the aerospace industry

began slowing down, leaving Gillenwater disenchanted.

In 1975, Gillenwater retired and said he decided it was time to

explore life and pursue art.

Gillenwater said he honed his craft by putting in several years of

learning at Orange Coast College.

“This was where my understanding of bronze sculpting was built,” he

said. “It is a very solitary art form that takes a lot of concentration

and patience.”

It wasn’t until 1981 that he turned out some of his first work. He was

strongly encouraged by someone he met at Art Works etc., a gallery in

Fountain Valley, to bring one of his pieces in. That helped to launch his

career as a sculptor.

Bill McGowan, co-owner of Art Works etc., said the gallery has carried

a variety of Gillenwater’s original bronzes over the years.

“Tom is a talent waiting to be discovered, and that’s the difficult

part for an artist because it’s just a matter of being in the right place

at the right time,” McGowan said.

FYI

The Pageant of the Masters runs through Aug. 31 at the Irvine Bowl,

650 Laguna Canyon Road, Laguna Beach. Information: (800) 487-3378.