Description

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Item#: 42

Artist: Bill R. Shaffer

(1955 – )

From LUX Center for the Arts:
“I was born a long time ago in Omaha, Nebraska. When I was old enough I attended Benson High School, just like everybody else in my family. Did you know that three Heisman Trophy winners are from Omaha, one of them from Benson High? I didn’t think so. I received both of my art degrees at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 34 years apart. In those years in-between I lived in Seattle for a while and also did a lot of graphic design. I presently live in Lincoln with my wife and our teen.”

Bill R. Shaffer attended the University of Nebraska -Lincoln and received two art degrees (34 years apart). In between those degrees he moved to Seattle where he worked in graphic design. He lives in Omaha, Nebraska.

From Happy Trails Estate Sales:
“Movement,” says Bill Shaffer, when asked to sum up his feelings about his sculptures. “To take metal, pour it at 2,100 degrees into a mold and have a bronze figure emerge that has the essence of motion – that’s what it’s all about. In painting you can create the feeling of motion with the action lines, blurring, and dust. You can’t do that with metal. To me, the more detail one puts into a bronze, the more static it becomes. I suggest detail, leaving a lot up to the viewer’s imagination. This invites a partnership between the artist and his viewer, letting the viewer add their imagination to the piece.”

The subject (from Craft In America):
Louisa Keyser also known as Dat So La Lee was a Washoe Native American basket maker. She was born in Nevada as Dabuda, which means Young Willow, but later changed her name. She learned to weave baskets at a young age but did not weave baskets exclusively until she was about 45 years old.

She is famous for her degikup baskets. A degikup basket is a larger basket that has a small, circular base which then coils up and outward to a maximum circumference, which then decreases until the opening at the top is the same diameter as the base. The design on the basket covered most of the surface. She created these baskets for about 30 years for Cohn’s Emporium.