2026 Samba Queen

Every sculpture has a story, and Samba Queen is no exception.

Depending on who you ask, the story begins one of two ways. Jules says that I paddled over to her on a pool noodle during my water aerobics class and asked if she would model for me. I remember it a little differently.

As I recall it, we were talking in the locker room after class when I asked if she had ever modeled for an artist.

“No,” she replied, “but I’ve actually been looking into doing something like that.”

“Perfect,” I said. “I’m looking for a model, and I think you’d be wonderful.”

Either way, we met in a City of Denver recreation center water aerobics class, and I’m grateful we did.

Jules immediately stood out. While many of us were there simply to exercise, she brought an unmistakable energy and confidence. She certainly didn’t fit the stereotype of the typical gray-haired water aerobics participant.

Jules

Jules has studied and performed Brazilian samba for more than ten years and regularly teaches samba classes that are open to the public. She is also classically trained in dance and performs and teaches belly dancing. She was an absolute joy to work with.

Finding the Pose

Our first modeling session took place in May 2025. Rather than beginning with still poses, I asked Jules to dance.

Watching her perform was mesmerizing. Near the end of one routine, she struck a pose with one leg lifted high and her arms stretched outward. I immediately knew I had found it.

“Yes,” I said. “That’s the pose.”

It is a classic samba pose; similar to one featured in one of her professional dance photographs.

At that first session, Jules wasn’t wearing the elaborate feathered headdress. Looking back, I’m actually glad I didn’t see it right away. Had I known I would eventually have to sculpt all those feathers, I might have been intimidated before I even began.

Building the Sculpture

I started sculpting during that very first session.

The sculpture is one-third life size. As with all my figurative work, the process began with a wire armature. The armature shown next to Jules illustrates the scale of the piece, and the third photograph shows the progress made by the end of our first session.

The ten live modeling sessions ran from May through July 2025. After that, I continued sculpting from reference photographs. While Jules was no longer present, the work was far from over.

I completed the clay sculpture in January 2026—nine months after beginning the project.

In total, I worked through 83 sculpting sessions, 46 of them after the live modeling sessions had ended. Altogether, Samba Queen required just over 200 hours of sculpting.

The finished clay sculpture.

Capturing the Costume

The costume presented its own unique challenges.

We took inspiration from another of Jules’s headdresses. I exercised some artistic license to capture the spirit and essence of the costume rather than creating an exact replica. The 6” heals that she dances in became a challenge all by themselves.

From Clay to Bronze

Going into the project, I thought sculpting would be the hardest part.

I was especially nervous about making the mold because of the delicate feathers. To my surprise, the molding process turned out to be the easiest stage.

Creating the waxes, however, was another story.

I enjoy pushing my own boundaries—and sometimes those of my production team—but this time I may have pushed them a little too far. Many of the tiny jewel details pressed into the clay molded beautifully, but the wax didn’t always flow into those tiny cavities. As a result, many of the jewels had to be painstakingly recreated by hand in wax.

Even that wasn’t the biggest surprise.

When I delivered the two waxes to the foundry, I was told they weren’t sure the sculpture could be successfully cast in bronze.

I was stunned.

In all my years of sculpting, I never expected to hear that from a foundry.

They decided to cast one of the two first to see whether it would work.

It did! It worked very well.

With the success of the first casting, they proceeded with the second. I picked up the first bronze casting in April 2026.