40UNDER40 SCULPTOR’S WORKS ARE OFTEN AS BIG AS LIFE
Weston sculptor Jesse Nusbaum has been invited to display his lifesized heads of a Spanish fighting bull, a German shepherd and an an English bulldog at this year’s Craft Expo in Guilford.
The artist, one of Connecticut Magazine’s 40under40 honorees, will also display smaller pieces, including an American bear, African elephant and African rhino.
Nusbaum will also explain his sculpting technique, starting with a block of clay and every step that goes into completing the sculpture in bronze.
“It starts with a threedimensional vision of the animal I choose to sculpt. This internal blueprint stays with me throughout the entire creative process. Once my sculpture mirrors the image I created in my mind, I know I have successfully fulfilled my mission,” explains Nusbaum, who at 29 is one the youngest members ever inducted into the Silvermine Guild of Artists in New Canaan.
In its 62nd year, the Guilford Art Center’s annual Craft Expo will bring together 180 craft artists who were invited by a panel of jurors.
Nusbaum’s bronze animal sculptures also were showcased at Red Dot Miami 2018 during Miami Art Week.
“Jesse’s sculptures were one of the reasons the exhibition garnered the Best New Exhibitor Award and Spotlight Award for the show,” according to Linda Mariano, managing director of marketing at Red Dot, and all of Redwood Media group.
Nusbaum appears in a new book, “100 Artists of the Future,” and is work is scheduled to appear later this year in “International Contemporary Masters,” published by World Wide Art Books.
Nusbaum also has been selected
to collaborate with worldrenowned Spanish artist Fernando Cid de Diego to design and to create a sculpture for a proposed new museum dedicated to Martin Luther King Jr. in Atlanta.
Several of his sculptures appear in another book, “Important World Artists: A World of Art V. 3,” published last November. He is one of only seven sculptors featured in the book.
In addition to sculpting, Nusbaum has taught drawing, painting and sculpting to public school students in Fairfield County and privately in his Weston studio.
Originally a political science major and baseball player at Muhlenberg College in Pennsylvania, he planned to go to law school and then join his father’s law firm in Westport. But somewhere along the way, he chose art.
“I took a couple of sculpting class, fell back in love with it, and reignitied the fire I had within me that I definitely missed for a year,” he said in an interview earlier this year. The idea of a law career had lost its luster.
“I decided to take a shot at pursuing my dream to become a sculptor,” Nusbaum said. “I returned to Connecticut and immediately got down to the business of making this my career a little over three years ago.”
Asked in February why he chose Weston for the studio he opened in 2014, Nusbaum spoke of the town’s flora and fauna.
“I need to feel connected with nature. I need to see foliage. I need to see animals. I need to see deer and rabbits running through my backyard,” he said. “All my friends live in the city, and I can’t be there more than a day. It’s a concrete jungle, I don’t like it. I could say I’m one of those people that jokingly says I love animals more than people . ... I just love being surrounded by nature and animals, and the things that make me happy and keep me inspired and motivated.”