St. Charles Native Artist Leaves Mark on his Hometown

Depicting images such as Indians, moose and bear, Ray Kobald's sculptures conjure up visions of the American west. But as you look a little deeper, Kobald's attachment to his hometown of St. Charles comes through in his creativity.

Kobald, who grew up in St. Charles and now lives in the city's far northwest side, sculpts dramatic bronze pieces such as "From the Waters Comes My Bounty," a male figure draped in fishing nets and wearing a large fish headdress. He also was commissioned to create stately statues of St. Charles benefactors Colonel Edward Baker and Dellora Norris, both of which are in downtown St. Charles. Kobald's artwork also can be found in the St. Charles Public Library and at Mount St. Mary Park.

 "I love almost every minute of it," Kobald said of sculpting. "Artists, we're nothing more than storytellers. I feel we should tell our story through our art."

Kobald's story started in St. Charles, where he attended Lincoln Elementary School and graduated from St. Charles High School. He also belonged to various scouting groups and worked at the former Bagge's Pharmacy in downtown St. Charles.

 "There were only 3,500 people in town when I was a little boy," he said. "I graduated from St. Charles High School in 1949 and I was in the first class that had over 100 students. We had 102."

Art was a major part of his formative years, partially due to his father's job as a printer.

"We always had paper around and I was always drawing," he said. "From first grade on, my teachers encouraged me."

Kobald studied art at Bradley University in Peoria, graduate school at Northern Illinois University and eventually attended The Instituto Allende of the University of Guanajauto in Guanajauto, Mexico, where he earned a master's degree in fine art. He initially specialized in printmaking, but after the mentor he was going to study with unexpectedly died, Kobald was encouraged to take sculpting more seriously.

"I had sculpted before and worked in three-dimensional, but I was not into metal at that point," Kobald said. He soon realized he not only preferred sculpting, but working in bronze.

"Bronze endures forever," he said of the medium. "And people like it, too." He regularly sells his through six galleries, most of which are in western states, including Colorado and Wyoming.

The Friends of the St. Charles Library liked Kobald's work enough to have commissioned him to create a piece for the library's loft area, which is where books for teens are shelved. Kobald customized a version of his sculpture, "Keep Your Balance," for placement in the library in 2002.

The piece in the library depicts a frog standing on one leg, balancing on the axel of a set of wheels while reading a book. The frog is wearing a tie inscribed with "SC" for St. Charles and it's also wearing a tennis shoe and a vest.

Diana Brown, executive director of the library, said the piece was requested with young readers in mind.

"We wanted something playful and eye-catching that would appeal to teens," Brown said. "We liked (Kobald's) other work, and felt his style and technique were what we wanted."

Kobald calls on multiple sources of inspiration for his work, such as visits to Colorado and with Sac and Fox Indian tribes in Kansas.

 "When I see the mountains, I get inspired," he said. "I come back here and I'm ready to go...Right now, I'm thinking of the American Indians and how they suffered and what they went through and what they are going through and how they have been betrayed by us."

The inspiration for "From the Waters Comes My Bounty" came during an overseas trip when Kobald saw a fisherman who had gutted a large fish and wore it on his head like a helmet.

 Once he decides an idea such as the fisherman is worth pursuing, he "does a sketch and picks up a piece of clay to see where it's going." He sculpts a miniature version of a piece while spending eight to 10 hours a day working in the studio next to his house.

His creation process includes the lost-wax method of casting a piece into bronze. Some of Kobald's bronzes are about 2 feet tall, while others are as large as 7 feet tall. Some weigh nearly 1,000 pounds.

He also draws inspiration from his skull and mask collection hanging on his studio walls. Some of the masks he has collected from Mexico are hundreds of years old and are made of wood, animal hide, feathers and various other elements.

"I love skulls," he said. "It's the mystery of them. They're very intriguing. There's some beauty to them as far as I'm concerned ... The masks are all one of a kind. You can put a mask on and be anyone or anything you want to be."

To view more of Ray Kobald's art, visit www.raykobald.com.