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Justin grew up on an island northwest of Seattle, WA called Orcas Island. From a young age he was constantly exposed to some form of creativity, from his mother’s pottery to his father’s custom home building as well as always being around other artists from the island. The island itself is its own work of art. Island life is a slower life style and you can’t help but absorb the natural beauty God has created on and around the islands. When Justin was a sophomore in high school his family moved to Mapleton, UT. He attended Springville High School in the "Art City" of Utah. When he turned 19 Justin served a 2 year proselyting mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS) in Washington where he served for several months on the very island where he had grown up. It was while he was a missionary that Justin briefly met 2 San Juan Island Bronze Sculpters Dwight Duke and Jason Napier, both artist showed him their work and how the ancient bronze process worked, and planted a seed of something that didnt sprout for a few more years. When he returned home he started attending UVSC and after about a year and a half he married his beautiful wife Keary. One day, while Justin was out talking to his mother in her studio where she was throwing a pot, he started playing around with the clay. An idea came into his head to sculpt the Manti Temple for his wife, where they planned to be married soon. Since that day the ideas just keep coming into his head so he just keeps sculpting.
Eventually Justin moved from the water based clay, which had to be fired in a kiln, to working in bronze. Justin got a job in a foundry working for Gary Lee Price doing wax work then later learning patina. Justin also did some point up work for Nnamdi Okonkwo, where he learned a lot. while working in the foundry Justin was able to stay long hours after work and on the weekends and do some of his own work. In that time Justin developed his own very unique style where he sculpts a scene casts it into bronze and does a patina finish on it with his torch, chemicals and paints. We like to call it " a new twist on an ancient art".
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