Sculptures installed in village
NEW BREMEN — New Bremen got an updated look on Tuesday as some sculptures were installed in the village.
Sculptor Bret Price was in the area and installed pieces that he had created.
Price, a native of Orange County, California, had a busy day in New Bremen, speaking at the New Bremen New Knoxville Rotary Club meeting in the morning and then installing the sculptures in the parks throughout the day.
Two of his sculptures went up in Komminsk Legacy Park and another in BremenFest Park.
The sculptures were part of the late Dianne Komminsk’s estate, and had been donated to the village.
New Bremen Schools had one installed in the front earlier this year.
Price and his wife became good friends with Komminsk and her family over the years, with the two initially meeting in 2001.
“We became great friends. Our interaction with Dianne was one of the great thrills for everyone in my family,” Price told Rotarians on Tuesday. “Dianne redefined by artistic career.”
A former ceramicist, Price began working
with metals when he realized he could manipulate the structures through heating them and bending them. His first piece he created in 1979 was titled “Twisted Flex.”
“I had this idea for bending metal because I was a ceramicist. Rather than heating up clay, I’d heat up steel,” he said. “I figured if I could handle the weight, I could make things. I thought when they’d cool down, they’d freeze, and I was right, they did do exactly that.”
In 1983, he created “Big Scoop” and it was displayed in the sculpture garden at PepsiCo.
“I was 33 years old and I got my sculpture
into a major sculpture park in this country. I was really, really full of myself. I thought I was the gift. And I didn’t sell another sculpture for 15 months,” Price said with a laugh. “The art world has a way of humbling you as you go along.”
Price’s ties with New Bremen go back to the 90’s and he first visited in 1998, after having met Jim Dicke while at an art gallery in Washington, D.C.
“A close friend of mine was having a show there and I flew out,” said Price. “I met him and he liked my work which I would like to say changed my life significantly.”
Price’s trip in 1998 was to install “Giant Step,” a piece that was created for Crown Equipment.
“I brought my parka
but forgot my gloves and hat and it was four degrees with a 30 mph wind,” Price explained. “… It was the coldest I’ve ever been. I’ve never left my gloves [at home] in the winter when I’ve come to Ohio since then.”
And Price visits often.
Working out of a studio at Herr Farms, he’s created some of his biggest sculptures right here in New Bremen.
“Bob Wade helped me set up a bending jig out at the Herr Farm and that’s the first piece I did here in New Bremen,” he said. “It went to the Dayton Art Institute and it’s still hanging out there.”
One of the sculptures is one that’s installed at Ohio Northern University after Price said Dicke wanted
to honor his father.
“I was sitting at the bowling alley at 10 o’clock at night, wondering my next bend of this piece. I said what was I like in college? Marginal comes up,” Price joked.
Price created a 24-foot structure that was installed horizontally because he feared students would get hurt trying to climb it if it was installed vertically.
“I thought it was going to get tagged by the students but they’ve gotten very territorial over it,” he said. “You cannot mess with their sculpture.”
Price walked Rotarians through a series of sculptures that were created in town and took questions at the end.
He was asked why a lot of his statues are the color red and Price said he likes the emotion it invokes.
“Red is a primary color. Primary colors create a reaction for people,” he said. “My feeling is color defines the emotional component of a form. Red works, it’s just a color that most people react to.”
In total, Price said he’s made over 600 sculptures, varying in size.
“If you count the little ones, it’s well over 600. This is a ridiculous compulsion,” he said with a laugh.
“Any artist’s goal is not to be your biggest collector when you’re no longer here. I’m doing pretty well in that regard.”