Extending the Artist's Hand

A quiet country town nestled at the foot of Washington's Blue Mountains is the unlikely home of a world-class art organization, the Walla Walla Foundry. On one particular day, curious onlookers outside the unassuming building could have observed a crane lifting a woman's torso onto legs to form a giant urethane foam model, several stories tall, now ready to be molded and cast. Once inside, they might have watched expert workers pour glowing molten metal into a monument-sized plaster mold, weld architectural elements, perform wax tooling, or remove a rubber mold from a huge plaster model.

Internationally renowned artists such as Terry Allen, Robert Arneson, Deborah Butterfield, Jim Dine, and Tom Otterness have utilized the firm's services to create, produce, and install finished art pieces worldwide. With full color photography and informative text, Extending the Artist's Hand celebrates the collaboration between artist and technician, explores the fascinating journey of metal sculpture from initial concept to final installation, and documents the history and achievements of this extraordinary Eastern Washington enterprise.

Extending the Artist's Hand received a 2015 Idaho Book of the Year honorable mention from the Idaho Library Association, and the 2015 Dwight L. Smith Award from the Western History Association.