CONWAY — Hillary Clinton isn't the only one who thinks Bill Clinton has a "bigger-than-life" presence. So does Conway artist Finton Shaw: He's creating a 9 1/2 to 10-foot sculpture of the former president.
According to Shaw, "Everybody that sees it says, 'You're doing the Man?'
"I say, 'Well, who's the Man ?'
"They say, 'Well, Bill Clinton.'"
Shaw started on the sculpture, made from nonshrink grout, about two weeks ago and already has completed the head. It's unmistakably Clinton.
The thick, styled hair is there. So is the familiar, seemingly effortless smile, with only the slightest gap between the two front teeth. There's a veritable glint in the eyes, not to mention the wrinkles that seem to accompany life in the White House.
The sculpture will represent the 6-foot-2 Clinton as he looked between 40 and 50 years old. Clinton became president in 1993 at age 46.
Shaw is working from a collection of Clinton photographs and has been studying them for the smallest of details, from theformer president's hairline to the veins in his hands.
When complete, the entire statue, including its base, will be about 11 feet tall.
"I thought that Bill Clinton needed to be monumental," Shaw said. "I thought, 'Well, this is a size that I can work with and finish before I have another heart attack." Shaw has had at least four attacks.
The completed work will depict Clinton as people might remember him on the campaign trail, shirt sleeves rolled up and a hand waving as he steps up an incline. At the bottom, leaning against Clinton's left leg, will be a little boy daydreaming.
"It will be Bill Clinton when he was about 6 or 7 years old," Shaw said last week. "He just holds so much connection to his past, and I want to put a part of his past in the sculpture."
Like Clinton himself, the sculpture is starting out in humble quarters - a welding shop along U.S. 64 just outside Conway. A paperback copy of Clinton's autobiography My Life lies on a work table nearthe sculpted bust; acorns clang as they fall onto the building's metal roof.
"[Clinton] came from that [humble background] to the presidency of the United States and just is so popular throughout the world. That is a tremendous success story in my opinion," Shaw observed.
A welder by trade, Shaw expects the sculpture to take about eight months to complete, "mainly because I don't have enough money to do it" all at once, he explained. He estimated materials alone will cost roughly $2,000.
Like Clinton, Shaw is 61. "I'm about 58 days younger than Bill Clinton," he said. But Shaw is a bit less polished, less political, too. He wears a long ponytail and jeans and confesses he finds the political parts of Clinton's book "a little bit boring."
He still remembers the first time he met the man who would become president, back when Clinton was Arkansas' governor.
Shaw had gone to a roasting at a school for his now-deceased uncle, former state Rep. Bill Foster of England, Ark., and Clinton was there.
"As Bill Clinton was walkingthrough the school, he extended his hand and said, 'Hi, Finton, how are you?'
"I was dumbfounded" that he knew my name, Shaw said. Laughing, Shaw said he later realized he'd been wearing a name tag at the time.
Shaw said he wrote Clinton about a year ago to tell him he wanted to do a bust of him. (Later, Shaw expanded the idea to a full statue.) Clinton later replied with a letter thanking him.
Shaw hopes to donate the sculpture to the Clinton Presidential Center or the William J. Clinton Foundation.
"I truly think that Bill Clinton is basically your everyday man but a very extraordinary man along with that," Shaw said. "He relates to the common man."
Clinton Foundation spokesman Jordan Johnson said Thursday that the foundation would welcome the opportunity to consider Shaw's sculpture for a display at the foundation, for itsArt Across Arkansas program in the state's public schools, or for use in some way with the Clinton Museum Store.
"We do everything we can to promote the arts and encourage artists," Johnson said.
Arkansas, Pages 19, 22 on 10/28/2007