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“THE FORGOTTEN MAN”
One morning, at 6am, I was brought up short seeing a man sleeping on cold asphalt…..he was embracing a bottle of liquor. Where does the mind go with this? “Pity, shame, judgment, step quick and get away from this human debris.” ”What can I do?” “Should I do anything at all?” “How did he let this happen to himself?”
A gentle realization came to me, it was as if I heard a whisper, ”He’s forgotten”. Not that ‘others’ have forgotten, but rather, he’s forgotten himself and has become an island of misery unto himself. Yes! It may take another to show him the way (be an example), but ultimately it is ‘he’ that ‘must remember’. To remember what? To remember that he can exercise the greatest of all gifts…..the ability to choose differently. He can say, “No” to the past. I have felt for years that within the parable of The Prodigal Son, six words hold a secret: “And when he came to himself….”. Could this possibly mean, “and when he awoke to his divine nature”, or, “and when he let go of his ego mind”. Oh, to say, “I have come to my ‘Self’, surrendered to Divine will, and forgotten the natural man.”
I could have easily called this piece….”Judge not the wounded soul”.

SCOTT ROGERS

Scott Rogers’ love affair with bronze began when he bought a bronze sculpture from his uncle, Grant Speed. Six months later in October of 1990, he came home from work one day, looked at that bronze and said, “I can do that”. He sought counsel at the hands of master teachers, Fritz White CA, Stanley Bleifeld, Herb Mignery CA, Mehl Lawson CA and Grant Speed CA.

“My desire is to use art as a vehicle to inspire mankind to see the beauty of life. Artists are prone to leave emotional fingerprints all over their work; hence, what you’ll be seeing, in a way, are self-portraits. I love how shape, line and form communicate. Every line has a spirit and speaks volumes. Put a lump of clay in my hands and a short while later you’ll know exactly how I feel and physically see my soul. I am finding that the key to life is to develop eyes to see what is really ‘there’.”

Scott Rogers loves what he does and portraying the Old West. “I remember, fondly, the hours spent as a youth reading of renegades, rebels, rogues, outlaws, wild men and horses, ferocity, passion, power, cunning, independence, honor, loneliness, fear, rage, courage and freedom. These words worked their way into my soul and now find expression through my fingers in clay. The “West” was about men and women who had courage, who were part of something bigger than themselves. I find great pleasure in doing these people justice by creating a fair portrayal of their characters.”

“I sculpt feelings and not reality. In fact, to me, the words sculpture and feelings are synonymous. I love it when someone says, after viewing one of my pieces, ‘I can feel the bullet hitting him, I feel like I’m on the back of the bucking horse’ or ‘I can hear the roar of the stampede.’ I know art uplifts the spirit, it makes one want to be better, to feel good about themselves and their fellow man, to reach out for that which is good in life. It’s my wish that you experience some of what I feel through my art.”