New Patina for Harriet Tubman Bronze Bust

I absolutely love the new patina on my portrait bust bronze "Fierce, the Triumph of Harriet Tubman"! Simplicity is my new mantra. The simplicity of the Chinese Brown patina is warm and human and I'm thrilled with the results.

The act of patination of bronze is so very different from my patina of transparent glazes on fired ceramic. I found that what glowed with beauty and subtle depth through glazing on my clay work didn't always translate the same when hot patina was applied to bronze. The color and nuances in hot patina are completely different. So rather than try to emulate my glazes on ceramic, I decided to work in more traditional bronze patinas and have learned that these choices are indeed, the more subtle approach that I love and allow the beauty of the bronze and the tooling of the the sculpture to shine.

Every day is a new lesson in sculpting and how every component impacts the piece, from the size of the sculpt to the choice of clay for expressiveness to the attitude of the subject, the patina that colors it, down to the base that supports it.... all these decisions are so important to the beauty and balance and statement of the final art.

Harriet Tubman, Conductor of the Underground Railroad is being honored in 2013 - the 100th anniversary of the death on an American hero.

Harriet Tubman Bronze Available for Purchase

2013 ~ the year of Harriet Tubman, honoring an American Hero.

"Fierce - The Triumph of Harriet Tubman" Life-sized bust of Harriet Tubman cast in lost-wax bronze mounted on a black marble base.

You can see the creation of the original ceramic portrait sculpture of Harriet Tubman on my website.

The lost-wax life-sized bronze is now available for purchase. This is a small edition of 9 and the first one has already been sold to a private collector in Kansas.

$2750 (shipping $35 - please contact for shipping quote to countries outside of U.S.)

Purchase safely with Paypal, credit card placed over the phone, money order or check. Payment plans are available, please contact me for information.

I carefully selected an earthy and heavily grogged stoneware clay for this sculpture. The rugged body of this clay, with it's gritty aggreates and the expressive tooling of the clay combine to give a heaviness and world-weary feel to her face.


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People often wonder where inspiration for art comes from. In this particular instance, I was reading two books simultaneously, as I often do. The books were unrelated and not historical, however on the day that I was reading them, they both made a reference to Harriet Tubman - the Conductor of the Underground Railroad. The coincidence provoked a distant memory of studying about her in school and renewed my curiosity about her.

This led to the reading of several biographies of Harriet, where I learned of her immense strength, courage and business acumen. She was a tiny but tremendously strong woman who suffered a terrible blow to the head in her youth while protecting a fellow slave from an overseer. This injury left a scar on her forehead and life-long seizures that renered her unconscious at times. In her later years she went on to campaign for women's suffrage and created a home for the aged.

After reading all I could about this amazing woman, I took time to contemplate her character and then endeavored to sculpt a bust of Harriet Tubman that embodied her ferocious soul - defiantly rising above the restraints set upon her. As this was such a personal journey for me, the original fired clay portrait will not be sold and will remain in my studio with me.