Paul Lotz
1966–
“I want my whimsy to have dignity. My pieces still have that old patina and the old feel of classic bronze with a bit of a dignified whimsical twist.” – Paul Lotz
Look closely at a bronze sculpture created by Paul Lotz and you’ll smile, really smile. Some of the details may catch you off guard, in a good way. His work doesn’t just sit on a pedestal and look pretty. It leans in, invites you to stay awhile and tells a joke, like hiding a tiny fly behind the monkey bartender in a sculpture titled “barfly.”.
Lotz calls his artistic endeavors “Whimsical Worlds,” and the name fits perfectly. His sculptures are playful but never silly, imaginative but never careless. They fuse classical bronze patina with unexpected narratives: a monkey mixing a martini, a Dr. Doolittle built from four interlocking pieces, a white rabbit inspired by Jefferson Airplane rather than Lewis Carroll. Each piece carries a story, and often a hidden detail waiting to be discovered.
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A Lotz sculpture tells a story that can be found in the details as he taps into things that were historical and fun or that come from games or music. Sometimes his concepts are just based on a dream he had. But to help people see what was going on in his head, Lotz often will write a poem or story that goes with each artwork. It is his way to tie it all together and show they are deeper than just fun, whimsical sculptures.
It was once said that if you put together Nano Lopez and Michael Cheval, Lotz’s work would be their love child. It’s a comparison that still humbles Lotz, who has done sculptures as a tribute to painters that he has gotten close with and appreciated their work. These sculptures are not copies of the paintings; they are just inspired by the painting as a tribute. When Lotz ran into Cheval at a gallery, it turned out they both admire each other’s work.
“I told him I want to sculpt one of your paintings,” Lotz recalls. “And he goes, ‘please do.’ That was such an honor for him to say that. His stuff inspires me and I would love to tribute him.”
Personal History
Growing up in a rural Pennsylvania farm town, Lotz knew ever since he was three years old that he wanted to be an artist. His parents were very supportive and encouraged him to make life what he wanted it to be. He took art in elementary, junior high and high school. Then his parents helped him look at art schools, eventually they settled on the Tyler School of Art at Temple University in Philadelphia. While at Temple, he found they had a program in Rome, Italy. When Lotz told his parents he wanted to go, they said yes, please do and enjoy it.
Getting into a totally different city and culture and learning their stories really impacted Lotz and helped him form the basis of his art today. He loved the Renaissance study in Italy and the stories behind it, so his work started very classically. But people would look at his classical figures and think they were nice, but nothing really captured them. So, he started doing some more whimsical stuff. People seemed to like it and it just evolved into the whimsical fantasy his art represents today.
The Crash into Brass
When he started sculpting, Lotz worked in traditional ceramics. He was working on some classical dance forms in ceramics that were very fragile. He had one piece that he was very proud of that was a couple feet tall. He got it to the ceramic studio and put it on the table before it got fired and it just collapsed and shattered.
At that point, he felt he was done with sculpture, but there was one guy who happened to be there that day who suggested he should try bronze. He told Lotz, “when you have finished a sculpture, I will take you down to a foundry and see if they can make it in bronze.” Lotz insists he probably wouldn’t be sculpting today if it wasn’t for that one guy randomly being there that day.
The guy took Lotz to a store where they found some special clay that could be worked into a sculpture. Then a mold created around it that became the basis for the final brass sculpture. It was clay that never dries out and can be used over and over again – which is good since it was unmarked and nobody knows what it is or how to get more.
“It was these little blocks, like the size of a laptop, only thicker, shrink-wrapped with $50 on it,” recalled Lotz. “And there was no label, no nothing. They were on the floor under a shelf in the corner of this ceramic studio. I bought a bunch of them and then went back about six months later and they told me, ‘we don’t know what that stuff was called. It was here forever. We don’t know who makes it or anything.’ So, I bought all they had and have been using the same clay for the past 12 years.”
Process
Each finished original sculpture takes around three to four months to create and involves about 15 artisans to complete. Taking his time with each piece is important to Lotz’s process. He often gets so wrapped up in it that he keeps playing with one and then the other and sometimes combining all the works into one big artwork.
The finished sculpt in clay might have wire running through it to hold it all together. After it gets molded, Lotz will smash up the clay and start to make his next piece. The mold goes on to the foundry where his team of trained artisans will apply the bronze.
The foundry that does every Lotz artwork is in Mexico. After the original foundry that Lotz was using went under, he came in contact with a Mexican artist who had some bronze foundry stuff. This artist pulled in people from all over Mexico and put together the team and equipment to work on Lotz’s craft. The people there grew into the business with Lotz and are all dedicated to the craft and making sure the finished sculpture is exactly as Lotz intended it to be.
“I’m so grateful to their dedication and their craftsmanship,” said Lotz in praise of the foundry artisans. “Without them, I would have nothing. These people showed me how to do it. Now, I’m showing them how to take it to the next level.”
