What started as a chance meeting at an art show has turned into an opportunity of a lifetime for Columbia sculptor Ben Watts. He just completed his third statue of country music legends for the famed “Icon Walk” at the Ryman Theater in Nashville, Tenn.
The first two Watts did were of Little Jimmy Dickens and Bill Monroe. The latest statue was completed in honor of Loretta Lynn which was dedicated Oct. 20.
The process is lengthy, taking nearly a year to do, Watts said sitting in his Second Street studio last week.
For the statue of Lynn, he was given a copy of a picture from the album cover “Honky Tonk Woman.” He also has many other pictures of Lynn that he used. With Lynn having a career that has covered six decades, there are a lot of pictures of her. How she looked when she first started out and how she looks now are totally different. Then you add in makeup, airbrushing and Photoshop, and suddenly you are faced with many different looks.
For Watts to do his work correctly, he has to go with a subject’s natural look, including wrinkles and an overbite for Lynn. He creates a bust, and takes a picture of the bust and places it side by side with the picture he will use to do her face.
From there he begins to fine tune the features.
One of the first things he does is sculpts a small statue with clay.
“The little ones don’t really matter because all I am doing is from the small (statue) is I’m looking for posture and position,” Watts said.
He then creates the actual size of the statue out of clay. One thing he likes to do is to meet with the family of the one the statue is being done of. The family can then tell Watts things that need to be changed. However, Watts was never able to connect with Lynn or any of her family members. He did take the statue to Nashville for the Ryman to approve. Pictures were sent and the family approved it, but it’s not the same.
“Pictures never do tell the story for the most part,” Watts said.
Watts said he feels the work would be even closer had he if an audience with the family. He said it helps to have family involved in commission work all along the way. That way if the smile isn’t right or if a facial feature is off, he can tweak it to their approval.
The actual size clay statues are filled with installation foam, Watts said, because the weight of the clay would be too heavy.
Once the statue has been approved, he said he then meticulously cuts it apart. He then covers the piece with a latex rubber paint. He covers the part in a casing and sends it off for lost wax casting, the same procedure used for dentures and jewelry. They pour wax into the hard plaster and dip it in plaster and silica, which is glass, once a day for about a week. Watts said it builds a hard shell of glass and puts it in a kiln upside down. The glass will fuse together and the wax will melt out, creating a mold.
Once the mold is created, the bronze is melted at 1,800 degrees and poured into it. After it hardens, Watts said they break the mold with a hammer, sandblast the statue and put it together. Hot acid is added to create the patina.
Watts said it takes about four months for him to do the sculpture, then it takes him about a month to create a mold. From there, Watts takes it to a foundry for the rest of the work. The process at the foundry will take between four to six months.
How Watts was chosen was something that happened at a chance meeting 15 years ago at an art show at Beaver Creek, Colo. Another artist showed Colin Reed, the CEO of Ryman Properties (Gaylord Properties then), Watt’s display. That artist said Watts had a small bronze statue of a duck and was from Mississippi. It turned out Reed owned a duck hunting camp in Mississippi, and Reed purchased the duck.
Watts and Reed got to talking, and Reed asked Watts if he was interested in doing something big. He said he was working on something big at the moment, and Reed told him to send him pictures. Watts was working on a statue of Fred Bear for the Archery Hall of Fame. Reed told Watts he was going to go hunting with Johnny Morris, the owner of Bass Pro Shops, and wanted pictures.
He said he put together a portfolio and sent it to Reed, believing Reed or Morris would never see it.
A few months later while at a three-month art show in Scottsdale, Ariz., Watts received a call from his wife, Lori, telling him that Morris was wanting to talk to him. Morris asked if he was still interested in doing something big, and Watts said yes. After he got off the phone with Morris, he was walking around the art show and a friend of his asked if he was alright that Watts looked like he saw a ghost.
He told his friend about his conversation with Morris and, the friend said to Watts that Morris would be at that art show the following week. Watts attended the show three years in a row, and three years in a row Morris sought out Watts.
Fast forward to seven years later, Watts received an email from Gary Levy, who works for Reed with Ryman Properties. Levy said Reed wanted to know if he had time in his schedule to work a couple of pieces in for the Ryman Auditorium. Watts responded yes he would, and that is how Watts began his work with the famed Icon Walk.
The plan was for the statue of Lynn to be revealed in June at the beginning of the annual CMA Festival. However, due to the coronavirus the festival was canceled.
Watts has done more than 20 large statues and said doing the face on Lynn was the hardest. He had to do a lot of research because most of her pictures were tweaked.
He said the fact that he was doing a sculpture of someone who is living and has over a million followers on social media also added a little more pressure to it.
Watts said he has not been told who the next “icon” will be, but he has to sign a non-disclosure agreement so even if he knew he could not share it.
In the end it does not matter. No matter the assignment being given to Watts, he will research it and work on it until it is perfect to be “iconic.”
