DAN MURPHY SCULPTOR
www.danmurphysculpture.com
My 47th year as a full time metal sculptor has begun. In 1976, while a student at UNC's School of Law, I completed my first sculpture. During that summer, I took my work to New York and got a good response, so I decided to be an artist.
By 1978, my work was being shown from NYC to San Francisco, and is now in private collections in nearly every state and in many other countries. Movie/TV use of my work started in 1979, totaling 27 times that I know of. My first national award came in 2002.
There was no art or technology in my background. So, in the beginning (and still) I stumbled through the design/execution process, using instinct and trial and error and a whole lot of effort, investing more time than anyone could imagine, to get the results I wanted. In the process, I designed and made all my metal forming equipment.
Before being an artist, I had 10 extremely enjoyable and meaningful years as a teacher and coach at Mount Carmel High School, in Chicago. The athletes on the Swimming & Water Polo Teams that I coached there are wonderful people and many remain good friends. Probably the biggest honor of my life came in 2014, when they mounted a campaign that named me to the school's Hall of Fame.
Life during my sculpture career has been very enjoyable. I live above my studio and gallery. That allowed me to be in on everything my 2 fantastic daughters, Lauren & Colleen (now adults) did as they were growing up. And the location, just 1 block from UNC's campus, is a great place to live. It made it easy for me to join the Masters Swim Team at UNC. Still, I compete in Swimming and Tri's, and have won 6 US Masters Swimming National Championships and 2 USA Triathlon Age Group National Championships, so far, and have competed as a member of Team USA in London in the World Triathlon Age Group Championships (2013). I am thankful that life has been very good to me.
Hope you enjoy looking at my sculptures on this web site.