This hand carved horse is a splendid reproduction of the 1909 M.C. Illions carousel carving, "American Beauty".
This was carved by my friend Tim Roberts. We both worked at Frontier City at the time for Premier Parks Inc. PPI is also owns and operates all of the Six Flags theme parks.
I was honored with the responsibility of doing all of the painting and gold leaf finish work on this project. In the above picture you see the carving after the primer and Gold leaf has been applied.
Decorator and Carver with the
Finished Project
Far left you see the original carving. Tim Roberts is pictured on the right. I am on the left of him, and our new reproduction is directly in front of us. After this picture was taken I sprayed the horse with three coats of automotive clear mixed with transparent golden brown to bring the colors into conformity to the original and to enhance the aged look.
Won't you take a ride on the carousel, and travel round and round;
Floating up and down again, but never touch the ground.
Enter a world of make-believe, where nothing ever goes wrong;
Where fantasy meets reality to the tune of the calliope's song.
Artist at Work
Yes, you have caught me at work at last,
but I rarely do I work very fast.
I took this picture about 6 years ago.
It is proof that I am oh, so slow.
The photo shows I am in no rush,
for in eight long years, I've not moved that brush.
