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David Frederick Hardy

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David Frederick Hardy

(1974 - )

David Frederick Hardy was born June 17, 1974 in Chico, California. At age six his family moved to Palm Springs, California. The arts were well supported by the community and Hardy took advantage of it. At age 13 he was fully funded to study trumpet at the University of Redlands with Mr. Moore, the teacher of the famous trumpet player and founder of A&E Records Herb Alpert (Alpert is also a renowned bronze sculptor). Hardy enjoyed his trumpet study and won top achievement awards in Southern California-wide competitions. Soon after, his interests shifted to composing music. After completing high school he and his family moved to Utah. Wasting no time upon arrival, Hardy organized a 19-piece chamber orchestra and named it the Utah Chamber Symphony. He composed the music, rehearsed the group, performed and the recordings were broadcast on classical radio. He also began a series of abstract paintings. In 1996, one of them was accepted into the Utah Spring Salon at the Springville Museum of Art and printed in the catalogue. His orchestra, the Utah Chamber Symphony, performed two seasons at the Provo Tabernacle. Later, Hardy began composition studies with Salt Lake City based composer Ann Hankinson PhD, who studied under Pulitzer Prize winning composer Bernard Rands. After an enlightening term of study with Dr. Hankinson, Hardy decided to pursue a college education. Hardy received admission into the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston, Massachusetts. After his first term, and organizing a student orchestra to perform one of his pieces, Hardy decided to change academic directions and study Liberal Arts at Harvard University Extension School in Cambridge Massachusetts. A few years into his study, and after meeting Astronaut Buzz Aldrin, Hardy began making collages. Hardy then put on a one-man solo performance-art show at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he displayed Various Visual Hand Configurations Applied on the Keys of a Grand Piano. In 2001 Hardy moved to New York City and immersed himself in its thriving visual art scene. Hardy rubbed shoulders with great young painters such as Cecily Brown and met preeminent sculptors like Frank Stella, Arman, Robert Graham and Jenny Holzer. Hardy also reconnected with Colin, a sculptor and bohemian socialite who had lived down the street from him during his youth in Palm Springs. A lucrative and successful sculptor in the European scene during the 1970s and 80s, Colin set up studio four houses down the street from Hardy in the 1990s. It wasn't until a few years after Colin arrived that Hardy gained the courage to ask Colin if he could visit his studio. Colin gladly gave Hardy a tour of his collection of beautiful bronze sculptures. Hardy was nearly hypnotized by the grace and flow of Colin's work. Colin invited Hardy to learn the craft of bronze, but soon after Hardy and his family moved to Utah. During the Utah, Boston and New York years, Hardy's desire to sculpt in clay and cast in bronze grew more and more. While in his Brooklyn studio working on a collage, Hardy sent out a wish that he could learn the craft of bronze. A few days later Hardy had a dream: "An Owl flew down to me and through my chest several times. Each time the Owl flew through me it hooted. I held a whip in my hand and cracked it. The Owl flew down and took the end of the whip in its beak and flew off. I held onto the whip and was carried away to distant lands." Two weeks later, at an art opening in Chelsea, Colin appeared. They had not seen each other in over seven years since Hardy left Palm Springs. "Colin and I both felt a higher unseen force brought us together." That night they sat down for dinner in Manhattan. Colin once again offered Hardy the opportunity to learn the craft. Hardy accepted his offer, and in February 2002 he returned to Palm Springs, joined Colin and began his journey as a bronze sculptor. After a very enjoyable and educational experience with Colin, Hardy set up studio in Palm Springs, Los Angeles and Las Vegas, following his own path to develop expression in clay to be realized in bronze. Colin and Hardy stayed in touch until Colin passed away on September 25, 2007 at age 83. He is missed dearly. Currently Hardy casts his work at Adonis Bronze, Alpine Utah. His work reflects interest in comparative mythology and pre-history expressed by the flow of musical lines. The smooth surface offers a clear and elegant language in which he states forms and ideas.


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