Alan Cottrill sculpture Gallery

Thursday
On our way back home today, we stopped in the town of Zanesville, the County seat of Muskingham county, to visit the Alan Cottrill Sculpture Studio/Gallery. Alan has an interesting background. He was born and raised in the Appalachian region of Ohio, and was the first person in his family to graduate from High School. After a stint in college and the Army, he founded a successful fast food chain, and soon became an international entrepreneur. He was invited by the US Department of Commerce to participate in various trade missions throughout the world. Through these travels, he was able to visit the world’s major art galleries and museums. He also became an avid art collector, and began to paint in his spare time. In 1990, he touched clay for the first time, and realized he had found his life passion. He would sell his business interests and devote himself to sculpture. To this end, he moved to New York City, and studied at the Art students League and the National Academy of Design, and studied human anatomy at Columbia Medical Center. Today, Alan is known for his large-scale sculpture commissions, and has installations of historical figures across the country. Currently in his early 70s, he still comes into the studio every afternoon, and will discuss his work with visitors. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to see him, since we were there in the morning. A lot of the work in the gallery are maquettes ( models for larger pieces of sculpture), often with a photograph of the full size work underneath. His work includes military figures for memorials, animals, political figures, college mascots, sport personalities and private commissions. Besides the work inside the gallery, the pavement outside is lined with full-size sculptures, and there is one of his Native American figures on the corner of the roof. Once we’d finished there, we drove by the County court house ( very similar in design to the one in Cambridge), and drove up to the viewpoint over the Y bridge.
Then we continued on our journey home, stopping for a late lunch in Columbus at North Star Cafe. We were back home in plenty of time for hand bells and choir
Step count: 3,967