Beetles in the fictional world of Martin Pierce

A lesser-known area of Martin Pierce’s work is the fictional world occupied by insect and humanoid bronze creatures. To better show these sculptures we are adding new pages to our site and will be creating a new collection page and eventually a payment portal.

Since childhood Martin has been  fascinated by  insects and birds and not just by their obvious beauty but by their ingenuity and dexterity. Wasps, butterflies, moths, and swallows are represented in our company’s door hardware and cabinet hardware collections. However, the scale of  door hardware as well as the functional limitations relegate these forms to incidental turn pieces, thumb latches or cabinet pieces. 

As Martin’s art work is not subject to the same restraints he is using this new freedom to re-imagine both the scale of humans to insects as well as their functional and social relationships.

In December 2021 Martin sourced a deceased aqua blue horned rhinoceros dung beetle from a New Mexico  entomologist. Known affectionately to friends  as Phanaeus Pilatei this particular insect is beautifully colored and powerfully built. The powerful front plate and horn is used as a soil digger that is as proportionately powerful as a bob-cat shovel or bulldozer blade.  Alas, the beauty and mechanical dexterity of Phanaeus is rarely appreciated due to his diminutive size. In Martin’s sculptures and paintings he hopes to shine a light on these undervalued scarabs by portraying then as larger than life and by developing a story that he hopes will be captivating.

True size of Dung beetle 3/4”L x 1/2”H New Model for Dung Sculpture 10”L x 6”H Other Beetle Sculptures

Blue Birds Make A Clean Start in 2018

We celebrated 2018 in Paso Robles with close friends and our dog Iris. The hikes, chilly air and the bird life all helped to revitalize our moods and energy and so like these Blue birds we enter 2018 with a refreshed perspective.

We have incorporated bird designs in both our animal cabinet pulls and in our jay bronze sculpture and will be adding a raven to our collections in the months ahead. While the blue birds shown here are vivid colorful creatures they do not make easy subjects for bronze castings as their markings and multiple colors are difficult to create even with hot patinas. The scale of these small birds with their thin legs is also challenging making it necessary to add an artistic mount to support the heavy body weight. 

Ravens  by comparison have a more uniform color range and stronger legs proportionate to their body size making them perfect as free standing sculptures. We live in the Hollywood Hills and have several families of ravens that we see on a daily basis and appreciate their flying skills, antics and obvious intelligence.

 Martin has just begun his initial design for this new piece and  has decided that the piece will be close to life size at 22” from beak to tail feathers and in a pre-flight position. He is currently hoping to find someone in the Los Angeles area who has a captive raven so that he can photograph the bird from other perspectives so if anyone has any suggestions please let me know.