John Waddell
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- There was also a noted bridge designer named John Alexander Low Waddell
John Waddell (b. 1921) is an American sculptor, painter and educator.
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[edit] Biography
John Henry Waddell first saw the light of day in Des Moines, Iowa in 1921 and moved to Evansville, Indiana at the age of ten. There he began to study art at the Katherine Lord Studio, and by the age of 16 was teaching classes there. In 1939, he graduated from high school and moved to Chicago where he had received a full tuition scholarship to attend the Art Institute of Chicago.
His education was interrupted by a stint in the military from 1943 to 1945. The following year, found Waddell back in Chicago attending the Art Institute of Chicago and then the University of Chicago on the G.I. Bill. In 1947, his teaching career resumed and he taught at the YMCA Adult Education Program in Chicago until 1954. 1955 found him back in Evansville, this time teaching at the National College of Education. From 1955 – 1957, Waddell served as head of Art Education at the Illinois Institute of Technology before moving to the sunny Southwest where he became head the Art Education school at Arizona State University, (at that time Arizona State College) where he was to stay until resigning in 1964 to devote all his time and energy to his sculpture.
In 1949, Waddell married for the second time. His wife, Ruth Holland, has remained his partner, companion, muse and model ever since. John has 6 children - 3 from his first wife, Elizabeth, - Sean, Seamus & Seanchan; and 3 with Ruth - William, Lindsay & Amy.
The early 1960s were spent in Mexico, continuing to create new works and studying the casting process.
In September 1963 a bomb exploded in a church in Birmingham, Alabama, killing four young girls. This prompted Waddell to create That Which Might Have Been: Birmingham 1963, a work that was set up at the First Unitarian Universalist Church in Phoenix in 1969. A second casting was later dedicated in Birmingham.
1965 found Waddell and his growing family moving to Greece where he continued working on commissions as well as soaking up the ancient Greek traditions in sculpture.
Through the combined efforts of two Phoenix philanthropists, Walter Bimson and Lewis Ruskin, Waddell received a commission in 1970 to create a major work for downtown Phoenix. When completed in 1974, Dance consisted of eleven life sized figures in various dance positions and another figure playing the flute. Although the piece has been moved from it’s original location in the Phoenix Civic Plaza to the sidewalk in front of the Herberger Theater, it remains Waddell’s tour de force in his adopted home of Arizona.
It was while completing Dance that Waddell formed the apprenticeship program that was to occupy the teaching slot in his life until 1992. Under this program, apprentices were able to study every aspect of creating major works of represential sculpture, from working with live models through casting and finishing the final project.
On December 15, 1984 a fire destroyed Waddell’s studio and all the works that were inside at that time. Within ten months another studio, albeit a smaller one, had been built near Cornville, Arizona, and Waddell was able to resume his sculpting.
With the exception of a very few sculptures, Waddell always creates figurative statues of people who are nude. The 1964 work, Family, was one of the exceptions. In that work and despite his objections, Waddell was obliged to place shorts on the male figure of the group. Female nudity was not a problem, so the figure of the woman was allowed to remain unclothed. Another clothed work is the portrait of his patron Walter Reed Bimson.
[edit] Selected Public Works
- Dance Mother (Ruth), - Phoenix Art Center, Phoenix AZ 1962
- Dance Daughters, - Yuma Art Center, Yuma AZ, 1963
- That Which Might Have Been: Birmingham 1963, - First Unitarian Universalist Church, Phoenix East 1964
- Family, - Maricopa County Building, Phoenix, AZ 1967
- Past and Present. – Glendale Community College, Glendale, AZ 1968
- Dance,–Downtown Phoenix, AZ, 1968 to 1974
- Marlo Seated –Phoenix Public Library, phoenix AZ, 1977
- Seated Flute Player –Weinstein Center for the Performing Arts, Evanston IL, and University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 1979
- Apogee & Momentum, - U.S. Tennis Association, Flushing Meadows, New York 1980 - 1988
- Welcoming Muse, Robert Mondavi Winery, Oakville, CA
- I Am That I Am, - Temple Beth Israel, Phoenix AZ, 1982
[edit] Gallery of images of Dance, Phoenix, Arizona
 Elizabeth |
 Mary & Amy |
 Kelly & Mara |
 Ruth |
 Patty |
 Dance |
 Terri |
 Lynn |
 Patty |
 Elizabeth |
 Patty |
 Karen |
 Ruth |
 Lynn |
[edit] References
- Kvaran, Einar Einarsson, Tracking the Nudes of Phoenix, unpublished manuscript
- Sarda, Michael F., John Henry Waddell: the Art and the Artist, Bridgewood Press, Phoenix, Arizona 1996 ISBN 94078216
- Waddell, John Henry and Ann R. Mealy, The Beauty of Individual Differences: A Study of the Waddell Sculpture Fellowship and the Master-Apprentice Relationship, John Henry Waddell and Ann R Mealy, Flagstaff, Arizona 1985 ISBN 85091395
