The Man With All The Answers, a Will Rogers Parody.

I started out wanting to do a self portrait and it is for the most part. I made an adhesive cast of my face and attached that to a styrafoam head. I didn't want it to be all that realistic because that would be unrealistic, afterall I don't view the world that way, I see only the end of my nose and my hands mostly. So I did not look in a mirror. I had a basic impression of my cheeks, nose, mouth and forhead and oh yes, my eyes which were closed; now what I wanted was the artistic me to come out, the one that is me not the one that I see. Since the sculpture can transfer feelings to me and me to it, I gave him the blonde curly hair I would have liked. In some ways his little smirk and hair remind me of my uncle Jerry.
I made this man in the garage while listening to the musings of my mind and the music of Cindy Lauper, Billy Joel and Andre Boccelli. Now days I listen to John Mayer's Continuum and the sound track from "Finding Neverland". During the work, I would show my mother, who would say "Oh my God, Michael, I don't know about him", and I'd beam back and say "he's my little buddy" and she would laugh and it made us both feel good. When I finished the painting this man I drove with my wife and mom over to my brother Danny's house to see him and his wife Cathy. Dan would always come out to help mom walk up to the house and he leaped two feet that day when later he went back out to the car and saw this man sitting in the back seat of our car, he thought he was real. Scared him good he laughed and laughed, we all had a good laugh.
I envisioned this man as a sort of a wry spokesman who shared his observations on the quandries of our life and times. On the bottom of this unusual sculpture, I wrote these comments: Why is it that we get to vote on only the presidential candidate and his running mate and not his whole cabinet? Afterall, it's like buying a baseball team with only the pitcher and the catcher and then the rest of the team is just thrown in there after the deal is done. Secondly, why were Martha Stewart and her ex-boyfreind the only two found guilty in their case? Someone in the securities departmant leaked information or why would they have been so hasty to sell their stock? The securities department is supposed to protect people like Martha and Sam by not letting out the results so they will not be tempted to do anything wrong. What you do not know cannot tempt you. Someone leaked information about the results of the food and drug administration's testing.

I am trying to find out where this "Will Rogers-like" man is? If you know or have seen this sculpture, please contact me. I miss this work very much and just want to know who owns it. I made it in 2002 and 2003 and he was sold at the Steve Slotin Folk Art Auction in 2003. I also sold two sculptures that were called "The Walkers" and two paintings called "Rowanda Man" and "Rowanda Woman" (that can actually be seen on my website). I would like to know the whereabouts of those works as well. It is just nice to know, as an artist, who has collected your work.
Mostly, I want them to know who has This Man With All The Answers? I can never get the walkers back because that what they do, walk away but this man means so much more to me now that our mother is no longer with us. To whoever owns it, I would like to buy him back if they are interested and make them another one.

Mike The Sculptor
www.michaelschramer.com