Life Size, Solid Wood Statue of Mickey Mantle for sale

Saw some search engine searches coming through that had the text string “Mickey Mantle statue” in them, so I figured I would put this out there.  This photo was taken at Mickey Mantle’s Restaurant on Central Park South in New York City way back in the mid-90′s.

I still have this statue in inventory–inquiries welcome!

He’s life size in all details and depicted in that classic Mantle left-hand hitting power stroke.  The foot print is about 5 feet in length by about 2.5 feet in width.

To see more: www.birrerart.com

Babe Ruth In Satin

Since you liked that one, here’s another. The pile of stuff between his feet is masking tape. Every single pinstripe is the result of two pieces of masking tape. You take 1″ tape and razor blade it down the middle. Then you use the good straight edge to define the outside of one stripe. Repeat for the other. Then you paint the stripe by hand, between the tape, with the Yankee blue acrylic paint. You peel the tape off, and there’s your stripe. I’ve experimented with many other methods: stamping, freehand, rolling. All of them are N/G. This is the best way. As you figured, it is slllloooooowwwww.

Also remember that any sheen on the figure will be removed by overspraying with the top secret window froster. Cloth, and skin for the most part, are flat. Not glossy. Not semi. Not satin.

The edges of the base will be hemmed in 6″ oak planks, which I have just purchased.

 

[There's the Oak on top of the pine and basswood.  You can see the airbrush compressor as well.  In the background is the life size Mickey Mantle statue, awaiting his sprucing up.  Those headphones are fantastic.  They are totally soundproof and also a great am/fm radio.] 

The deck will be coated with a thing called “Turface”. Turface is the stuff that sometimes is referred to as “diamond dry”. It is kiln fired clay that is ground up. It is very light and granular (think unground pepper kernel size) and apparently absorbs water like a son-of-a-gun, however, I don’t care about it’s water properties; only that it is the cleanest “dirt” that I can find that also looks realistic.

Babe Deserves A Hand

More progress shots. Err, well, actually, they’re from the same batch as yesterday. I worked the hands again and are two days beyond my estimates on that. Denial. Tomorrow, I have a vacation day so with any luck, I can put in a 12 hour day and get some things squared away. When I walk out of the shop tomorrow, the hands may be glued in place, or at least, glue-fit and not glued in so I can still work behind them. Ready to glue, how about that?

Remember that I’m not crazy about all of the folds and I will be working on the ones that annoy me. That’s one of the processes you have to go through. Get the white on and then look at it…a lot. Photos too. The bad stuff then jumps out at you in a few days. Take your sharpie, draw your lines and fire up the chainsaw.

It’s nice for me to see the head because mostly, he looks like the photo below–bag on head. Too much dust and although I am NOT done painting the kopf, I don’t want it dusty either. Dust clogs the woodburned lines in places like the hair or skin lines.

Another nice close up of the head–there aren’t many. It’s difficult to photograph. The eyes need work, don’t forget. I made the hat ride up high so that you can see his face. The bill is actually a bit more modern than the old time hats, which, if you study photos, can be downright short. I have found from doing shows and installations that SOMEtimes, if you try too hard to be historically accurate, you will annoy the generic onlooker. Remember, if you are the only one who knows it’s accurate and regular folks just don’t think it looks right, you will hear all sorts of rude from them. They’ll look you in the eye and tell you they know better. “…But I went to the library in the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY, to do research on this~”, you’ll say, but it won’t matter. And don’t get me wrong, most people are just happy as heck to see it and take a snap| with it or ask you, “…how long did it take you? how much does it weigh? Is the uniform wood?”. But I have found that every 100 or even 300 people contains that one, negative, know-it-all who just HAS to point out something that they think is not right, or SHOW you that they are cognoscenti.

Take the numbers on the backs of the jerseys. I view Babe Ruth as a once in every 500 years type of athlete. I think that he was so much better than his peers that it has never been matched since we’ve been paying attention. Muhamed Ali? Don’t make me laugh. A good fighter, but really, the fight game is mostly a smokeshow–just a step above wrestling. Ali’s real gift to mankind was trash-talking and I wish he’d take it back. Guys like DiMaggio and even Cobb were great, no doubt, but they weren’t better than everyone else in the ridiculous proportion that this man was. Go ahead, give me your “guys” that are up there with Jidge: Jordan, Tiger, Mays, Montana, Rice…all good but not in the proportion.

So the point is that I revere Ruth and I know the legend is that he was fat and you will see photos of him as a big fat guy but for every photo of him (and I have looked at thousands) as a fat man, there were 2 others of him as a svelt athlete. He spent many years at respectable weights and that is how I chose to depict him; a little more in shape than some will want to see. So I expect to hear that he was fatter, and that was true. But he was also skinnier for many seasons as well. The skinny seasons tend to be pre 1930 or so. Trouble is, if I don’t put that number 3 on the back, some will howl. But the Yankees didn’t number the uniforms until 1929, when most of your really fat Ruth photos were taken. So for the purist, I have depicted a fairly in-shape Ruth, post-1929, or at least equal. Will anyone care? Naah, except for the occasional comment that, “…he was fatter”, most don’t know that numbers were an innovation in 1929 and they EXPECT to see that number and they will insist that it is wrong if it isn’t there.  Give the people what they want.

Stymied

You know, when I started this blog, there were times when I was just OBsessed with posting and looking at the hits and stats but tonight, I find myself totally stymied.  I have nothing.  Nothing that I want to write about.  I am excited about the European Cup Final but that is May 23.  Too far off.  I am excited that I picked up Sheilds in fantasy baseball and he goes 9 shutout innings tonight (but I don’t get the Win or even the Complete Game or the Shut Out because the DRays lost 1-0 in 10).  But beyond that, and the feeling that Ethier, Luke Scott and Orlando Hudson make me look like I know what I’m doing, I am not that fired up about anything.  Ooohh, maybe Curt Schilling’s remarks re Bonds were pithy but then he recanted the whole shootin match.  France shows some life and elects a pro-Bush leader.  Brent Bozell’s Wed column was better than in the past few weeks as he has been slumping.  Coulter was a fun read.  After a long layoff from pool, I beat Ciro at Rotation again!  And played lousy.  But still, somehow, he can’t beat me a race.  Pool could be the most mental game after chess.  Not something to bet on if you have any nerves at all (I don’t so I don’t bet).  I’m pulling a lot of ticks off of McGonnigle, the cat’s, head.  Bad tick year.  My cherry trees are growing.  My tomatoes are in (so are eggplant, cukes, chard and Kale) I’m feeling older than I can ever remember because I am still really hurting from falling on my arse catching a fly in the softball game.  My hip joints are shot and I’m struggling to get comfortable at work sitting and in the car.  If this is 40, I want to punch out by 70.  Whoo ahhhh.  Phil Mushnick sent me an email in response to me telling him he should follow the British fans’ boycott of the concessions at the FA Cup final.  He said that there are only two businesses in the world where you can get away with treating your best customers like dirt: Pro Sports and drug dealing.

Out of all of that, what has me the most juiced?  Well, my nephew threw the ball over the plate today at the traveling team practice.  He made the coach take notice.  That was the best.  –fog 

A modern day DaVinci : Norm Saunders

Apparently, Wacky’s were painted mostly by

Norm Saunders (1907 -1989)

FROM WakckyPackages.org Bum Chex, along with Choke Wagon, was pulled early and replaced by Windhex, making it one of the toughest titles in a complete series 1 to 16. Bum Chex also has the distinction that it is the only one that artist Norm Saunders actually signed. He slipped his signature in by signing one of the checks, the green one. He was not allowed to sign the works because Topps wanted to keep their artists top secret, so as not to have them stolen by other companies. Norm slipped his intials in various other places, but this is the only one known where he got the full name in.

This is my favorite from series 2: Run Tony. The story goes that Italian Americans looked up from watching The Godfather and complained that this made light of their ethnicity so it was pulled early in the run, thus making it scarce.

I DO recall it being hard to get but I’m not sure if that is the answer. Unless a company’s legal department was sending in a “Cease & Desist” order, they probably wouldn’t have just pulled it.

If you come across this book in a garage sale, buy it! On Amazon, there is one used copy listed at $250.00

Reprint anyone? –fog

All Hail, Victor Horta (and Jerry Garcia)

Mrs. Pinetar and I were in Brussels this summer and we went to the Victor Horta museum. Horta was a great Art Nouveau architect and the Belgians are very proud of him (as they should be) as many things there are named for him. When we got back, we looked him up and there aren’t a lot of English sites on him.

Tonight I found this one.

If you go to Brussels, everyone will insist that you go to Grote Market and see the Hotel DeVille. You won’t miss that. No one will let you. But don’t miss the Victor Horta house and musem and don’t miss the Old England building. Old England is THE most Art Nouveau building you’ll ever see, and it houses the museum of musical instruments and a cafe (cha ching) on top.

The amount of custom iron work inside and out was stunning. This building must have seemed like a spaceship to the Victorians of 1890, when it was built. These types of buildings are now mostly gone because they:
(1) Were only built from 1890 to 1910

(2) Were radically different thus when they got old, they were very out of style

(3) Are ridiculou$ly hard to maintain

While I wouldn’t want to live in a house as over-the-top Art Nouveau as Victor Horta, I do really like some of the aspects of this style. In fact, the Musee D’Orsay in Paris has a big Art Nouveau section that was totally deserted as people are all looking for the silly water lillies.

(Musee D’Orsay, Paris)

The furniture especially, has these amazing lines and sweeping, tangled motifs that are designed to look like they are growing. Amazing stuff. It’s a shame it only lasted a few years and then bled into Art Deco after The Great War. Now, most only know it from Grateful Dead concert posters, but it was a whole movement. –fog

“America’s Sweetheart” was Canadian!

About five years ago, I saw a piece on the History Channel on Mary Pickford. In it, they said that she was the first woman in the world to make a million dollars a year.