Marla Samuel

  Marla Samuel discovered her love of figurative sculpting in 1983 while attending The University of California at Santa Cruz. She spent most of her time in their bronze casting foundry working on all aspects of the sculpting and casting process. After graduating with a BA in Fine Art she moved to Pietrasanta, Italy to study stone carving through a private apprenticeship at the Antognazzi family studio. Six months later she returned to the US where she lived and worked in California and New Mexico. In 1998 she found her home in the Rogue Valley of Oregon where she currently lives and creates her beautiful sculptures.

Marla works collaboratively with the models she chooses, as all of her pieces - whether torsos, busts or full figures - portray the spirit of the person she is working with: the subtleties of their inner world blends with her own.

The sizes she has worked in range from miniature to twice life size, and her mediums of choice are bronze and stone. Although most of her work has been from her own explorations, she enjoys working on commissions as well.