DION WRIGHT

"Atta Girl"

Leaf Cutter Ant - Mixed Metals - 30 inches tall Atta mexicana; mixed metals,length of ant, 3 feet - $2,500, shipping extra. Atta mexicana cut foliage which they take home to feed the fungus that they raise underground as their own food source. Like bees, all ant workers are female.

"Solpugid"

5 inches tall

"Scorpion"

30 Inches

"Fiddler Crab"

Welded Metals, 10 inches

"Croaker"

4 feet long

"Croaker"

Another View. This fish was stolen from this location at the 2015 Sawdust Art Festival. Keep an eye out for it!.

"Fan Fin"

3 feet long

"Wahoo"

Silver Plate Spoons and Brass - 6 feet long. Wahoo are are the most pellmell and voracious of the mackerel tribe. They look a lot more like gigantic barracuda, and are the villains of many a fish story.

"Bluefin Tuna"

13', brass. Commissioned for Chart House Restaurant, Boston, Mass.

"Spawning Grunion"

Brass 17 inches tall

"Spoon Bass"

"Fish Face"

"Spoon Koi"

Spoons and brass rod, 48" long. Using spoons as scales is a good, if obvious idea. It could turn into a stylistic ploy of the type which become La Brea Tar Pits, as it were, for so many artists who get into manufacturing ruts before they know it. Once a philosopher... This gambit will only carry so far, as to the types of fish which could support it. On the other hand, I DO have a ****load of spoons. Maybe a pangolin is in order - an articulated one.

"School of Barracuda"

Mixed metals, around 5' each. I think this batch was commissioned for the Baltimore Chart House.

"John Dory"

4' long, somewhat larger than the actual fish, reputed to be of commercial importance in the North Atlantic. Never ate one, personally, but find them to be exceptionlly piscine altogether. Steve Karafides of Wahoo's Mexican Restaurants owns this one.

Rooster Fish

"Li'l Ol' Roosterfish" (Pez Gallo, en Español) Brass. Pretty nifty shapes in these guys. This one owned by Mike Atkins of Pez Gallo Pottery.

"Mahi Mahi"

"Mahi-Mahi, or, Dorado, or, Dolphinfish", brass. These fish are tropical residents noted for their super coloration, which quickly fades after they are boated. This pair is in The Chart House at Kailua-Kona, HA.

"Barracuda"

This sculpture utilizes a commercial product, expanded metal, as a metaphor for a scaly surface, and is further fabricated from sheet brass, and brazing rod. The piece is 5' in length, and one of a group of eight commissioned for the Redondo Beach Chart House Restaurant.

"Mako Shark"

Brass rod and sheet, 8' long. Openwork construction allows dramatic shadow effects with controlled lighting. Private residence, Providence, RI.

"Roosterfish"

"Fish!"

"Sea Turtle"

Brass, copper and steel. Piece is somewhat over 4' in length, and commissioned for the Chart House Restaurant, Jacksonville, FL. Buster Bean owns a similar piece.

"Lion"

"Lion 2"

Profile View

"Pegasus"

"Unicorn"

"Longhorn Bull"

Welded Steel 15 inches tall

"Bull and Bear"

8 inches tall

"The Runner"

All Steel Ca: 3' long. Owned by Esther Gallant.

"The Runner"

Another View

"The Man in the Cape"

Steel, an impression of the artist, Bob Brannaman. About 5' high. Stolen piece.

"Star"

Steel and copper. 4/5 lifesize. She was a real lady, really named Star, an actual actress from Hollywood who came to the wilds of Mendocino County where I was holed up on a remote ranch. She stayed awhile, and modeled for me.

"Mermaid"

4/5 lifesize. All steel.

"Medusa"

Mixed metals, 7' high. This piece was made in the aftermath of the JFK assassination, and during the vitriolic dissolution of my 1st marriage. The full story of "Medusa" is in my memoirs, and a fetching tale it is, too.

"Icarus and Daedelus"

"Icarus & Daedalus", 66" high, steel.

"Human Race"

All steel. This was the signature piece for the Canessa show in November 1998, San Francisco.

"Balancing Act"

The piece shown here is about 2' high. A life-size rendition of this theme is under construction. It is a metaphor for the identity of anybody who is trying to keep it together under impossible conditions.

"Ancient Mariner"

This piece was shown in the Canessa Gallery Show, San Francisco.

"Sisyphus"

"Zot!"

"Hold Your Tongue"

"Bungee Frog"

"Having the Last Word"

"Having the Last Word"

Another View - 21 Inches Tall

"Flying Insect"

"Sharp Tongue"

"Pelican Fountain"

Bronze "Pelican Fountain" at the Sperry Univac Building in Irvine, CA.

"Staff of Aesculapius"

Facade of the Santa Ana Medical Arts Buiding, 17th Street, showing the "Staff of Aesculapius" (which was the original Greek symbol of healing which the Romans later developed into the two-serpent Cadeuceus).

"Staff of Aesculapius"

Detail of the "Staff of Aesculapius", sculpture in bronze. Scale may be judged by the 4' by 5' travertine facia panels.

Condo Gate

Condo gate at 2359 Sierra Madre Blvd in Pasadenba, CA. Southern California landscape motif in sheet and line brass over standard square-rod construction. 20'.

"Evolution of Birds"

"Evolution of Birds" is a sequential sculpture of twelve stages in the evolution of birds from amoeboid to turkey vulture, about 22' in length, which is on the introductory wall to the walk-in aviary at the Arizona/Sonora Desert Museum in Tucson. The piece is made of mixed metals. The creatures which had lived in the water environment have been nickel-plated.

"Evolution of Birds"

Details

"Evolution of Birds"

Details

"Evolution of Birds"

Details

"Evolution of Birds"

Details

"Evolution of Birds"

More recent photo.

"Evolution of Birds"

Even more recent photo.

"Interpretive Wall"

Interpretive wall of high desert stream ecology by Dion Wright and Robert Young in the otter habitat at the Oregon High Desert Museum in Bend, OR.

"Artimesia Tridentada"

Dion applying liver of sulphur to blacken the brass roots of "Artemesia tridentata".

"Artimesia Tridentada"

This is a 7' model of a sagebrush plant designed to show how the root system is designed. The sculpture is made from mixed metals. Each tiny three-toothed (tridentata) leaf was cut by hand from copper sheet, and hand-patinated to a natural blue-green color. On exhibit at the Oregon High Desert Museum in Bend.

P.A.W.S. Public Art

Promoting Assets With Sculpture. Each Lion was painted to represent one of the 40 things all children need to thrive. The Mountain LIons were placed throughout Arizona. Click to go to the article and website.

Scale Model Mountain Lion

Winning Animal

Kids' votes determined the choice of the mountain lion.

Prepared for Casting

"Mountain Lion" Detail

This photo was taken at the Sawdust Festival. During the show, it found a good home with some appreciative admirers.

"Mountain Lion"

Dion with the original mountain lion commissioned by the city of Flagstaff, AZ. which was reproduced as a series decorated by various participants in an art in public spaces project.

Mountain Lion - Side View