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| Everything
is just ducky in artist Doug Baldwin's version of Washington-Grizzly
Stadium, which contains 4,000 tiny ducks. |
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Alum
crafts replica of UM stadium
Doug Baldwin’s
ceramic version of Washington-Grizzly Stadium is for the birds.
Well actually, ducks.
A retired art professor and UM alumnus, Baldwin has spent more than
30 years sculpting tiny duck-like figures out of red terra cotta clay.
One of his latest creations is a table-top-sized replica of UM’s
football stadium — filled with more than 4,000 ducks.
Duck players, duck coaches, duck spectators and even duck referees.
“I usually try to put some humor into my work,” the 65-year-old
Baldwin says. “I like to chuckle when I work.”
Baldwin, a big Griz fan who lives just blocks from the UM campus,
has made hundreds of duck stadium replicas out of clay. But Washington-Grizzly
Stadium was his most challenging project.
“I thought I would do something different,” Baldwin says.
“But I had never tried to do anything that big.”
A
career of ducks
Baldwin, a Missoula County High School graduate, earned a bachelor’s
degree in art from UM in 1961 and a master’s in 1965, studying
under Missoula artist Rudy Autio. He taught at the University of Wisconsin
for three years before heading east to the Maryland Institute College
of Art in Baltimore, where he taught ceramics for 33 years. He was
honored by UM with a 1994 Distinguished Alumni Award.
During his early years of teaching, Baldwin also worked at a mold
factory outside of Washington, D.C. It was there, more than 30 years
ago, that he discovered a mold for “a human-like figure with
a beak.”
Since then, Baldwin has made a name for himself making ducks the focal
points of his art work.
Baldwin moved back to Missoula after retiring in 2003, establishing
his studio in the living room of his University-area apartment, which
is filled with duck stadiums and an array of ceramic duck characters.
“It’s good to be back,” Baldwin says. “Now
that I’m retired, I have more time to work.”
A
meticulous process
Many of the stadiums Baldwin has sculpted are fictitious, following
his own design. But with Washington-Grizzly, Baldwin wanted to be
as precise as possible.
“I looked at a lot of photos and drawings. I spent hours and
hours studying the stadium,” he says. “It really messed
me up when they expanded the north end zone.”
It took Baldwin about four months to build the replica stadium. Each
duck figure was made individually.
Baldwin first made a cardboard model, before pressing it with red
clay. He then fit more than 60 pieces together to complete the stadium.
“It kind of looks like Fred Flintstone built it,” Baldwin
says with a chuckle.
The duck stadium is amazingly detailed. It includes two teams on the
field, goal posts, a scoreboard, press area, private boxes and even
vehicles parked outside.
“It doesn’t really represent anything. It’s just
ducks going to a game,” Baldwin says. “But I don’t
think there’s anything quite like it.”
Baldwin hasn’t really displayed his finished product. He says
he would eventually like to exhibit and sell the stadium. But he makes
it clear that making a profit didn’t motivate him to build the
stadium.
“It combines my interests in ceramics and football. If someone
looks at it and smiles, I’m happy,” he says.
— By Gary Jahrig
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