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Photo by Bob Pennell Ben Richards, 19, of Ashland works in the shadow of an 11-foot sculpture of Hercules wrestling with a snake in Daniel Miller's studio. Sculptor builds statues for Tokyo mall Giants grow in Ashland studio By BILL KETTLER Daniel Miller thrives on grand illusions. The giant sculptures in Miller's Ashland studio look like they came from ancient Rome, but they're brand-new. Neptune, the Roman god of the sea, stands nearly as tall as the 13-foot ceiling. Beside him a giant figure of Hercules, the mythical strongman, wrestles a writhing serpent as thick as a man's waist. The huge forms look like they weigh tons, but two or three strong men could carry them away. Miller carved them from urethane foam and covered them with a thin layer of clay to create figures that will one day decorate a Tokyo shopping mall. "What you end up with," said the 46-year-old artist, "is a sculpture that weighs a couple of hundred pounds instead of a couple of thousand pounds. "You have a piece that looks like it weighs several tons, but it's easy to move in a modern environment." The project is the latest in a series of grand illusions that Miller has created over the past 15 years. Working in the entertainment industry in Southern California, he built larger-than-life objects for films such as "Coneheads," "Stargate" and "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids." His success in film also won him other projects, including a commission to create fake marble statues for a shopping mall adjacent to the casino at Caesar's Palace in Las Vegas. The mall's success convinced Japanese investors to recreate it in Tokyo. They looked for Miller where he had worked in California, but discovered he had moved to Ashland with his wife, artist Kerri Gifford. "My wife and I wanted a better place to raise our kids than L.A.," he said. Miller's interests had turned to computer-generated painting and sculpture, but the Japanese talked him into making another series of oversized faux-marble sculptures. Now he is creating the giant figures in a workshop on a quiet Ashland street. Photo by Bob Pennell Jay McEwen of Medford puts a coat of lacquer on a cast for one of Daniel Miller's sculptures. Working with a crew of four, he shapes the figures' rough forms from blocks of urethane foam. Each rough figure is sprayed with a thin coat of clay. Miller sculpts the fine details into the clay, with help from Ashland sculptor Kevin Christman. When the large clay figures are finished, Miller cuts them into pieces that ordinary humans can handle. Then his helpers build a mold of each piece. The molds are shipped to Los Angeles, where each mold is cast in fiberglass. When the fiberglass dries, the molds are removed and the pieces are reassembled and painted. Miller recruited three local assistants from hundreds of people who answered his help-wanted ad back in December. One of them, Linda Wayman of Central Point, drove a school bus before she entered the art world. "We'd all work here for free," said Wayman, as she painted shellac into a mold to prepare it for casting. "There's nothing better than this energy. "It's always different," she said. "It's an adventure every day. I can't wait to see what's changed." Miller's shop steward, Jay McEwen of Medford, said the artist has a rare combination of talent, business sense and positive attitude. "`No' isn't in his vocabulary," said McEwen, who himself earned a master's degree in fine art and designed custom floors before coming to work with Miller. Miller also hired Ben Richards, a 1998 Ashland High School graduate who aspires to a career in art. "It's really good for me to see what it takes to be a successful artist," said Richards, as he cleaned a mold. Working far away from his clients has more advantages than disadvantages, said Miller. "I'm so far removed from my clients' haunts in L.A. that they can't come and bug me much. "The only real downside is paying the shipping costs." The sculptures are scheduled to be finished by April to meet the Tokyo mall's projected summer opening date. Miller said he looks forward to the time when his 12- and 14-hour days will end. "I'd much rather be in my computer studio at home," he said, "working on my own schedule." Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA