A bull elk sculpture in the front window of Tony Mills’ downtown Coeur d’Alene gallery did more than catch a customer’s eye.<\/p>\n
It sparked an unexpected partnership.<\/p>\n
“It’s been pretty amazing,” Mills said Thursday.<\/p>\n
That new partner is Mark Russo, one of the nation’s premier bronze sculptors.<\/p>\n
On Monday, Russo and his family were visiting Coeur d’Alene when they passed Mills’ gallery and noticed the bull elk sculpture displayed in the window. Curious, Russo stepped inside.<\/p>\n
“That’s a nice piece in the window,” he told Mills.<\/p>\n
“You think so?” Mills replied.<\/p>\n
“Absolutely,” Russo said.<\/p>\n
Then came the surprise.<\/p>\n
“My dad made that piece.”<\/p>\n
Russo’s father was the late Lorenzo Ghiglieri, the internationally acclaimed wildlife sculptor whose works have been presented to President Ronald Reagan, Pope John Paul II and Queen Elizabeth II, among others.<\/p>\n
As the conversation unfolded, the two artists quickly discovered common ground. Mills is known for his photography, while Russo has built a reputation as one of the country’s leading bronze sculptors. Both share a deep commitment to their craft and a passion for creativity.<\/p>\n
While looking around the gallery at 205 Sherman Ave., Russo noticed there were only a handful of bronze sculptures on display.<\/p>\n
“You need more,” he told Mills.<\/p>\n
With the annual Street Fair, Art on the Green and Taste of Coeur d’Alene beginning Friday and thousands of art lovers expected downtown, Mills was interested.<\/p>\n
Russo had a proposal.<\/p>\n
He invited Mills to meet him Wednesday at the StanCraft Jet Center, fly with him to the Portland area, visit his facility in Battle Ground, Wash., and load several sculptures into a U-Haul.<\/p>\n
“You can take it back and go from there,” Russo said.<\/p>\n
Mills didn’t need much convincing.<\/p>\n
“I’d love to grab them,” he said.<\/p>\n
The plan came together exactly as envisioned.<\/p>\n
Mills flew west Wednesday, loaded up the sculptures and returned to Coeur d’Alene late that night, pulling into town around 1:30 a.m. Thursday. Three hours later, he was still unloading artwork.<\/p>\n
“It’s definitely worth it,” he said.<\/p>\n
Today, several of Russo’s bronze works, including bald eagles, grizzly bears and a stagecoach scene, are displayed alongside Mills’ photography in the gallery.<\/p>\n
“So now we’re business partners,” Mills said.<\/p>\n
He said he’s honored to showcase the work of an artist he considers among the very best in the business.<\/p>\n
“He’s very gifted,” Mills said.<\/p>\n
What makes the story even more remarkable is that the bull elk sculpture that started it all almost wasn’t there.<\/p>\n
A friend had the piece sitting at home and asked Mills if he would display it in the gallery. Mills agreed, placing it in the front window.<\/p>\n
A few days later, the son of the sculptor who created it happened to walk by.<\/p>\n
Mills is glad he said yes.<\/p>\n
“It worked out great,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A bull elk sculpture in the front window of Tony Mills’ downtown Coeur d’Alene gallery did more than…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":799039,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[228,226,227,229,88],"class_list":["post-799038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=799038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/799039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=799038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=799038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=799038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}