Sculptures

George Gershwin

(18981937), American pianist and composer of the opera »Porgy and Bess«

In his »Message of the Divine Iliad« Walter Russell answers a question about Gershwins music as follows:
George Gershwin varied intensely from the traditional classic music of Wagner, Beethoven, Mozart or Chopin. When he first began to compose, he was heartily condemned because his music was not in line of tradition. But he gave the world a new idea. He gave it an idea in motive and rhythm which uplifted it; but it was strongly physical as well as spiritual. The music of Wagner can make you absolutely forget the body and bring you into the presence of the Divine within yourself.
George Gershwins music did that, also, but it made you feel aware of the life and power flowing through your body because he syncopated the Universal tones to some extent, but he kept motive, rhythm, law and order in his music. So who is to condemn a person for creating that which he, himself, desires to create, whether he breaks tradition or not? If at first one cannot turn ones art into money, find money some other way, but never sacrifice ones ideals for money.

Mark Twain

Bust

Russell describes the beginning of his lifelong friendship with Mark Twain in his Home Study Course (p. 221) as follows:
As a young illustrator, I was asked to illustrate a story called “Ten Little Pigs. After completing my drawings, I was not satisfied with them. They did not excel. I spent a week in the country studying pings and did them all over again. More love went into them. I worked with Gods hands in mine instead of with mine alone. They excelled. The love I gave them was reflected in Mark Twain, who regave it to me. Work done worthily brought Mark Twain into ma life. He consulted with me regarding The Jumping Frog of Callaveras County.

Tom Sawyer

The novel The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, sequel of his famous book The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, has been considered a key contribution to American Literature and is still amongst the most popular American novels.
Mark Twain is one of the most outstanding writers of American narrative literature, combining rich humour, sturdy narrative and social criticism in a way that is almost unrivalled in world literature. Ernest Hemingway once said: All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn all American writing comes from that. There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since.

 

Thomas Alva Edison

(1847-1931) American inventor

He developed devices like the electric bulb, an electrical generating station, a film projector and a phonograph, which greatly influenced modern life in the 20th century. Walter Russells very first bust was in 1927 the bust of Edison, who became his friend. Russell wrote about him:
Edison, building upon foundations laid by Franklin and Faraday, prepared the way for a new comprehension of this electric universe so that we know that anything which happens anywhere, happens everywhere. He prepared the way for our present radio-consciousness which gives us a new concept of energy and of the universe in general
As you all know, I made a portrait bust of him and very often, when I was working with him, I could see the light in his eyes that proclaimed him to me a super-genius, bordering on the mystic. He told me that everything he had ever invented or thought of came to him in timeless flashes.

Sculpture in memory of Mark Twain

The writer is seated in the centre and the characters from his books are standing around him.

Mr. Russell had only made the change from painting to sculpture a few years when he was commissioned to do a monument of Mark Twain with twenty-eight figures. To paint one figure two-dimensionally is difficult; but to do two isnt just twice as hard, it is four times as hard. It increases as of the square. In sculpture, which is three-dimensional, the difficulty increases as of the cube, and it is eight times as difficult. He had never done a monument and to undertake this was a bit of insolence so far as the sculptural world was concerned.
Other great sculptors said: Fools rush in where angels fear to tread. No one has ever done a successful group of twenty-eight figures.
It was another proof of Mr. Russells conviction that one could create any product he desired to create if he started doing it with knowledge of the underlying principle of balance which is fundamental in all things, and with the feeling of certainty that he can do tit, for he is not alone in that task; the whole universe is working with him to help him continue the orderly growth of the WHOLE, of which his little part of the structure is as necessary as any big part.