Arizona Bronze Fine Art Foundry was established
in 1977 by sculptor Jasper DAmbrosi in Tempe, Arizona. The
foundry employed Jaspers two sons Mike and Marc DAmbrosi
and was by definition a "family business" in the best
sense of a large Italian family. Uncles, aunts, cousins, sisters
and Ruth, Jaspers wife, all contributed to and worked in
the business. Tom Bollinger, the present day owner, was the foundrys
first 'outside the family' employee (think the Irish character
played by Robert Duvall in the first Godfather movie).
Over
the last 22 years Arizona Bronze has earned a reputation as a full
service art foundry which produces sculpture of the highest quality,
at reasonable and fair prices and with a unique "artist oriented"
environment.
Arizona
Bronze has produced sculpture for many of the countrys most
recognized sculptors; including Jasper DAmbrosi, John Battenberg,
Fritz Scholder, Ed Mell, Robert Wick, Ben Goo among others. The
foundry produces sculptures in any scale, from table top to monumental.
After
leaving Arizona Bronze, Tom Bollinger, also a sculptor, went on
to become Foundry Director for Shidoni Foundry in Santa Fe, NM and
later Foundry Manager and consultant for Tallix in Beacon, New York.
Bollinger was responsible for the doubling of the production capacity
of Shidoni in the mid-1980s and oversaw that facilities phenomenal
growth. After 10 years as a studio artist in Sedona, Arizona, Bollinger
was asked to return to Shidoni to manage the Foundry a second time.
Following the second tenure at Shidoni, Bollinger accepted the position
of Manager at Tallix, the largest art foundry in the world. In these
positions Bollinger was instrumental in the production of numerous
large scale projects for many of the worlds most notable sculptors.
These include Alan Houser, Dewaine Valentine, Korczak Ziolkowski,
Claus Oldenberg, Tom Otterness, the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation,
Gutzon and Lincoln Borglum, and Glenna Goodacre among many others.
Tom
Bollinger purchased Arizona Bronze from Mike and Marc DAmbrosi
in November of 1997. Since the transition, Arizona Bronze has undergone
a ground up revitalization of equipment, process and production
techniques. Bollinger has also gathered a group of highly experienced
and expertly trained artisans.
Arizona
Bronze, based in Tempe, Arizona, part of the rapidly growing Greater
Phoenix Metropolitan area, is poised at the start of the new millennium
to respond to the cultural growth of this dynamic community.
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