Blinding flashes of light. The whining, high-pitched squeal of a welding machine. The eerie-darkness of a welding mask.Piece by piece, expert hands weld thin sheets of bronze the color of chocolate into place, in a form indistinguishable except to an artist's eyes. The master sculptor waits just behind, surveying the work with a shrewd gaze.The two men step back to look at the progress of their creation, the elegant form of a headless man standing before them, beckoning to them with an arm extended to finish the work they started a year ago.Father/ son sculptor team Erasmo and Alex Fuentes began work on this pioneer family in bronze last year. Commissioned by the Daughters of Utah Pioneers, the family of four will adorn the Spanish Fork Cemetery and honor the pioneer families who first buried their beloved there.\"This man and his son seemed to understand the desire all of us had to honor these people for their hope and courage,\" said Janene Baadsgaard, the chairwoman of the restoration committee for the Spanish Fork Cemetery. \"They had an artistic passion to do what we had imagined in our minds.\"The Fuentes' journey to understanding the pioneer spirit began long ago in the dusty streets of Saltillo, Mexico.HomelandThe Fuentes family lived a simple life in Mexico, uncluttered by the distractions common in today's world.\"Now that I look back, I feel nostalgic about the simple life,\" Erasmo said. \"In our house, like everyone on the street, there were no cars, no televisions. We didn't have anything, but we didn't know that.\"The son of a taxidermist, Erasmo first began forming clay in the shape of animals in his father's shop.\"That was where my interest in modeling, sculpting with clay began,\" Erasmo said. \"It's a talent that comes with your genes. But like with any talent, you have to work at it.\"As Erasmo's honed his sculpting skills, others began to take notice.\"This little, old lady approached me on the street and asked me to sculpt Jesus when he was 12 years old,\" he said. \"She asked for six replicas for her grandchildren, so that Jesus would be their example. I never thought I was gonna do this for money.\"The realization soon hit the burgeoning artist of the difficulties of sculpting for money.\"I sculpted an Adam and Eve carved out of stone,\" Erasmo said. \"I almost sold it once. But I took 200 hours and would have made only 10 dollars an hour if I had sold it for $2,000.\"So Erasmo continued to sculpt on the side, looking for opportunities to better his craft.The call from AmericaErasmo's brother traveled to the United States to work here in 1962. He soon sent word for his brother to join him.\"He kept insisting that I come,\" Erasmo said. \"I didn't want to. I had a life, a girlfriend I adored and I was popular and very happy.\"Despite his reservations, Erasmo agreed to come work in the U.S. for a few months. He said his reaction to the country was not what he expected.\"When I came in 1964, I fell in love with this country and with BYU and Provo,\" he said. \"I just didn't want to go back.\"He began to take sculpting classes at BYU, yet struggled with the teaching style of his teachers.\"I was taking a 100-level sculpting class and hated it because it was all this modern abstractionist stuff,\" Erasmo. \"I can't swallow it all.\"One day, as he was strolling through the halls, he passed by a classroom with a teacher sculpting in the classical style from a live model and he knew that class was for him.\"He let me take his class, even though I hadn't finished all the preliminary work,\" Erasmo said. \"I learned so much ... and I got an A.\"Erasmo continued to create his art for fun until some years later when he and his wife Cynthia moved back to Mexico and the economic tide turned against them.\"In 1984, I was still doing sculpture for fun,\" he said. \"Then my business died and I began doing it for real.\"Full-time artistCompeting against a handful of other artists in Saltillo, Mexico, Erasmo enjoyed moderate success until a contest would improve his fortunes.To celebrate the 400th anniversary of Saltillo, the governor of the province issued a call for entries to make a grand monument out of brass. Erasmo and his cousin won the competition and set to work making what would soon be a landmark sculpture in the area.\"They asked us to change our original design and we ended up making a sculpture of a group — an Indian, a Spaniard, a monk and a little girl,\" Erasmo said. \"The officials felt this represented the history of the area.\"Winning the contest helped the family business immensely, but when Erasmo's children began to be accepted to BYU, the family made the decision to leave the success behind and move once more to Utah, this time for good.The life of an artist in the U.S.\"When I moved here, I was surprised at how many did sculpting — there were dozens,\" Erasmo said. \"Here, they take talent more seriously.\"Faced with increased competition, Erasmo struggled to reach the level of success he previously enjoyed.\"Between two artists, the one that markets better will get the commission,\" Alex Fuentes said. \"And we have never been good at that.\"The Fuentes' backyard is scattered with the statues — two eagles, a majestic Elk, religious scene reliefs — unclaimed pieces that stand as silent witnesses of the hard economic times.\"These pieces were commissioned, but the person who ordered them went bankrupt and couldn't pay for them,\" Alex Fuentes said.Witnessing the difficulties of the life of an artist, Alex went to BYU law school and is now studying to take the bar exam.\"I love sculpting and if I could make a good living from it, I would do that,\" Alex said. \"But that is not the case.\"Despite the difficulties of living the artist's life, the father/son sculpting pair has enjoyed the opportunity to sculpt several well-known pieces in the community.In 2003, they created \"Anxiously Engaged\", a beloved statue to anyone who goes through the Provo Missionary Training Center. Seven-feet-tall in bronze, the sculpture features two missionaries astride bikes. It has reportedly become the MTC's most popular photo spot.Art as a spiritual experienceA life-long member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Erasmo described the spiritual aspect of his artwork.\"When I did a sculpture of the woman at the well, I read the scriptures about her over and over and the story became meaningful to me,\" Erasmo said. \"She has her hand to her chest, like she is asking 'can I have some water?' That was how I pictured the moment.\"As an artist, the greatest complement he said he receives is to see how people are moved by his art.\"Once, I was at BYU showing some of my pieces and I caught the exact moment that a woman looked at the 'Woman at the well' piece,\" Erasmo said. \"She started to cry and said 'I'm sorry, I just got too touched.' It was the best complement she could give me.\"Erasmo exemplified the pioneer spirit in coming to the states and toughing out the life of an LDS artist, preparing him to understand the meaning behind the pioneer family in bronze.For more information about Fuentes art, see their Web site at anxiouslyenagedart.com.
E-mail: cwarren@desnews.com