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Tim Parks (left) and his statue of Arnold Schwarzenegger, along with the real thing (right).
Schwarzenegger visited TW Bronze to check on progress of the project. Parks will personally
deliver the statue once its patina is applied.
T.W. Bronze casts Schwarzenegger
By Steve Tool
Wallowa County Chieftain
If you happen to take
a visit to the T.W. Bronze
foundry and gallery, owned
and operated by Tim Parks,
at 202 Golf Course Rd. in
Enterprise, be prepared. On
walking into the foundry’s
roll-up door, the entrant is
accosted by actor and for-
mer California governor,
Arnold Schwarzenegger —
all eight feet and three inches
of a bronze sculpture in the
making. This one, the fourth
taken from the same mold, is
going to the actor’s place in
Los Angeles.
Schwarzenegger visited
the foundry for the second
time on Aug. 9. The actor’s
fi rst time at the foundry was
in 2011. Someone bought
Schwarzenegger’s
boy-
hood home in Thal, Austria,
and decided to turn it into a
museum. The owner engaged
sculptor Ralph Crawford to
sculpt a bronze of the actor in
his Mr. Olympia heyday, he
also wanted Schwarzeneg-
ger’s blessing on the art.
“He fl ew in to La Grande,
and I picked him up and
brought him here,” Parks
said. “When he saw it, he
said, ‘This is fantastic; I’m
telling you!’” That was in
2011. As the actor had the
copyright, and owned the
mold, he originally thought
of taking it with him, pos-
sibly to engage a bigger
foundry than T.W., but Parks
told the actor that a dif-
ferent foundry with multi-
ple people working on the
bronze wouldn’t give the
personal touch that he could
guarantee.
“I’ve got responsibil-
ity for it because I’ll be the
one building it,” Parks told
Schwarzenegger.
The actor agreed and
even posed for photos with
a few local fans who caught
glimpses of him from the
Safeway parking lot.
Parks said that it took him
about seven weeks to com-
plete the fi rst bronze, which
included two weeks mak-
ing the silicon mold, about
two weeks of wax work, a
week in the slurry room with
metal pouring and sand blast
cleanup taking another week.
It took another two weeks to
weld and tool the 35 parts
that make up the bronze
and a few days to patina the
work.
Although the bronze
is obviously three-dimen-
sional, what most would
think of as the front of the
bronze is actually the back.
The bronze is intended to
depict
Schwarzenegger’s
famous “back pose,” which
was his meat and potatoes
pose back in the day.
Crawford engaged Parks
to apply the patina to the
sculpture.
Schwarzeneg-
ger was so impressed with
the work as a whole that he
bought the copyright to the
bronze. He also must have
been impressed with Parks’
patina work as he engaged
Parks’ services for the other
bronzes ordered as well.
“He continues to do busi-
ness with me,” Parks said.
When the actor’s representa-
tives called about 18 months
ago to see if Parks was inter-
ested in producing another
bronze, Parks replied that he
already had one fi nished that
the actor had ordered sev-
eral years before and never
picked up.
“It had been here for
years,” Parks said. “I haven’t
rattled their cage because I
didn’t care.”
Other bronzes from the
same mold include one
placed at the “Arnold Clas-
sic” bodybuilding competi-
tion in Columbus, Ohio, who
also wanted a piece of the
action. So far, the foundry
has completed three bronzes
of the actor with a fourth
ready to receive a patina. In
addition to the actor’s home-
town and the Arnold Classic
in Ohio, the artist received a
copy as well.
Schwarzenegger stayed
for about two hours on his
Aug. 9 trip. Parks gave the
actor and his retinue a tour
of the foundry and explained
the process of creating a
bronze. They also went
through Parks’ gallery, which
impressed the woman who is
the actor’s personal assistant.
“She said, ‘Wow! This
looks great. It could go right
down in Beverly Hills. Nice
presentation,’ I was thinking
I’d make it a little more elab-
orate, but really, it’s all about
the art work,” Parks said.
While the other bronzes
were crated and shipped, this
latest bronze is going to the
actor’s place in LA; Parks is
delivering it himself.
“It’s going bye-bye after
I get the patina on it,” Parks
said.
Has it led to more work?
Not yet, but Parks remains
hopeful.
“It’s cool that it was done
here,” he said. “It’ll put us a
little more on the map.”
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