Crazy Craig's dream
is about to come true.
Naples glass artist Craig Colquhoun's passion
for his latest creation is palpable as he bounds around his workshop,
pointing out the different
parts of his glass rendition of Churchill Downs.
The racetrack
replica is 30 feet long by 10 feet wide and stands 10 feet tall.
The track itself is made of bronze mirror and has
20 glass horses being ridden by jockeys positioned on it. The
stands are made of glass and mirrors and have more than 5,000 handmade
glass
spectators standing and sitting in them.
Colquhoun, 41, hopes to complete the project by mid-March so
it can be shipped in sections to Louisville, Ky., in time to
be displayed
at Churchill Downs during this year's Kentucky Derby, to be run
on
May 7 this year.
The derby will mark Colquhoun's 25th anniversary
as a glass artist and the 25th year since it was his dream to
re-create Churchill
Downs in glass.
Churchill Downs recently completed a $121 million
renovation and built a new clubhouse, which is where Colquhoun's
work will
be
displayed, said John Asher, vice president of communications
for Churchill Downs.
"
Mr Colquhoun's project is truly exciting and I think it will
be a very popular addition here," Asher said. "His
work pays reverence to a great sports event and a track that
is a sports shrine,
bringing it to life in a very original, inventive way."
Colquhoun's
passion for horses began when he was a youngster growing up
in Newcastle upon Tyne, England.
"
I used to go to the Newcastle racetrack and sketch the horses.
I was entranced by their beauty and the grace of their movement," he
said in his thick accent, which sounds more Scottish than British,
as he did live near the border of Scotland.
He loved to watch
the Kentucky Derby on television.
"
The greatest race in the world is the Kentucky Derby; it's the
greatest two minutes in sports," Colquhoun said.
In school,
Colquhoun excelled in art classes and photography, but he always
thought he'd be a soccer player when he grew
up.
When he finished high school, though, he ended up
working as a glass artist in a small gift shop. He learned how
to use
glass tubes and
rods that he heats over a propane and oxygen torch, then
sculpts into shape, and he got pretty good at it. That was in 1980,
when he first sparked the idea of doing Churchill Downs in
glass.
He set out on his own after earning a grant from
the Prince of Wales Trust, set up by Prince Charles to help young
people
get
their own
businesses going. A life-changing event for Colquhoun (ignore
the qu when pronouncing his name) came in 1986 when he
got to meet
Princess Diana at an event connected to the trust.
"
She was there to open a facility and I got to meet her since
I had received the grant. She wanted to know my ambition and
I told her
I wanted to recreate Churchill Downs. I knew I wanted to
make something on a grand scale instead of just production
work," Colquhoun
said. "She said, 'Craig, follow your dream,' and that's
rung in my ears ever since."
Colquhoun has two huge
pictures of him with Diana on an easel positioned by the
rendition of Churchill Downs. He
recently
completed a wreath
of roses in two hues of gold and frosted white that he
plans to hang between the famous twin spires of Churchill
Downs
in honor
of her
memory.
"
You know the Kentucky Derby is referred to as the 'Run for the
Roses' and Princess Diana was the English Rose," Colquhoun
said.
Colquhoun created a niche for himself by making
sports objects out of glass. He made football players and golf
players.
Different sporting
events would pay him to make glass trophies for them to
hand out.
"
I traveled up and down the country demonstrating my ability and
selling my wares, but I was always working to survive. I had
no financial
comfort level," he said. Then in 1999, he and wife
Gail and daughter Charlie moved to Naples to complete
a commission for a man associated
with the
Nuveen Masters
tennis tournament. Colquhoun built a 12 foot square tennis
stadium entirely of glass.
He stayed in town and began
producing glass objets d'art and trophies.
Colquhoun pays the
bills with commissions such as these and sundry other projects
such as Christmas ornaments,
sculptures
of racehorses,
glass roses. His pieces sell at his east Naples studio
for $35 to $40 for something like a Christmas ornament,
to $3,000
for
a racehorse
mounted on a mirror. He charges at least $100 an
hour for his custom work.
|
