I learned the art of wax carving for making fine jewelry in gold in the late nineteen eighties. At the time, I was married to a jeweler and we had a tiny store in the heart of horse country in North Carolina. We made our living traveling to horse shows and selling gold and silver jewelry he had cast. He knew how to cast an create jewelry, he was not able to carve and create horses in wax. At the time, I had no experience but we were in need of money so I learned. It went something like this: "here's some tools and wax, see what you can do."
Fast forward, I wound up in Kentucky as I was riding horses professionally in nineteen eighty-nine. Creatively, I was very burned out and frustrated, unable to paint or sculpt anything. My marriage had failed. I took a geographic cure of sorts. After three years of riding young Thoroughbreds, I had enough. It had been fun, but I had enough.
In nineteen ninety-two, Penny Chenery and her trainer, Kathy Roller, were seeking an artist who was capable of painting watercolors in the style of the J. Peterman Catalog artwork. By Chance, Penny had some broodmares at a farm of a mutual friend and former employer of mine, Schare Adams, who owned a farm in Georgetown (Saga Farm) and specialized in foaling mares and prepping Standardbred yearlings. I had given Schare a framed watercolor of her teaser stallion, a Belgian thing with matted mane and forelock. When Penny and Kathy saw the piece on Schare’s wall, they asked who had done it and that led to me creating the “Last Work” piece which they made into notecards to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of Secretariat’s Triple Crown victory in nineteen seventy-three.
Fast forward to nineteen ninety-eight. I was sitting at Penny’s kitchen table in her Lexington home, folding notecards in preparation for an upcoming show. I guess it must have been January or February. I asked about the gold pin she wore for each of Secretariat’s races and what happened to it. It was long gone, somehow. I suggested she let me create another one for her that was specifically Secretariat and cast it in eighteen karat gold. She loved the idea. Several months later, I presented the finished piece to her at the grand opening of the newly remodeled Derby Museum in Louisville. The picture you see with her and the pin is that moment.
If you would like to learn more of the story behind the pin and much more, please sign up for the Studio Newsletter. Upcoming, how I met Ron Turcotte and Charlie Davis.