Michael F. Driggs
Sculptor
The art of Mike Driggs is found in his 3 dimensional animal sculptures. Mike has had a long love of art, and he has always had an intuitive fondness and respect for animals. About 4 years ago he brought these loves together by attending a workshop at Scottsdale Artist’s School. He studied with Kathleen Friedenberg, a sculptor and retired veterinarian. Her insistence on “getting things right” gave him a strong foundation for understanding the importance of anatomy in sculpting his subjects. Mike started his first horse sculpture – “Feelin’ Proud” – at this workshop, then he refined it at home and this piece won “Best of Show” in the 2005 Kern County Fair in California. Mike has since taken two more workshops at Scottsdale Artists School from Richard Loffler, a nationally recognized sculptor. Loffler’s approach is to work with live animals. According to Loffler, only a “handful” of sculptors do their pieces from live animals. Mike works with his clay on a turntable so he can spin the piece to the side that the animal is showing him at the time. You can just imagine the spins with fast moving critters - like his warthog! The clay sculptures are then bronzed at a foundry using the "lost wax" process. Several copies of each sculpture can be produced with this method.
Mike is a Flagstaff, Arizona native. In 2005, he retired from Kern County Environmental Health Department, Bakersfield, California, where he worked as a Hazardous Material Specialist. Previous to that, Mike worked as a geologist for Peabody Coal Company and Mobil Oil. He has worked and traveled in Brazil, China, Colombia, Mexico and Australia and throughout the Southwestern U.S., especially near the scenic areas in New Mexico and Arizona that are sacred to Native Americans. Now he resides in Overland Park, Kansas to be near family and to explore another part of this country. In all places he has loved the earth, the animals and the local art. Now it’s his time to create his own art to share with others.
