Wildlife Art
September/October 2006
"Leather Fish Hook Collectors"
Leather Fish Catch Widespread Acclaim
By Paul Sinclair
pp 44-47
Hour after hour, young Lance Marshall Boen would lie face down on the deck of his father’s home on the slopes of 10,000-foot Mount Baldy, northeast of Los Angeles, peering down into a pool 20 feet below, intently watching the fish he had caught and stocked there. He would watch every lazy curl of the tail, each graceful twist of the body, each glint of light on the multicolored scales, each tilt of the head as the fish broke the surface to take an insect. He never realized during those quiet afternoons of his youth that he was creating a memory bank that, in later years, would blossom into rare and unique three-dimensional leather fish sculptures, which today are collected by anglers from around the world.
For Boen, art is a combination of hard work, pleasure and satisfaction. It’s hard work because his medium is unforgiving, and the process of unbending thick, high-grade leather can be very difficult-often needing up to four people to hold it while he works on it with procedures that are punishing on the body. But his art brings him pleasure, because of his love and fascination with fish that he learned from his father and grandfather, and satisfaction, in the creation of one-of-a-kind sculptures that range from just inches to many feet in length, and cost thousands of dollars.
Now 34, Boen found success straight out of California’s prestigious Claremont Graduate University, quickly being recognized with an acclaimed solo exhibition- a rarity for a fresh graduate in the Los Angeles art world. From his early years, Boen’s talent was nurtured by family and teachers, following a traditional path from art courses to graduate school, with both two- and three-dimensional works. But his love of fish and fascination with leather didn’t come together until 1997, when he created his first grouping of small leather fish that he thought might make attractive gifts for people.
Fishing has been, and is, an essential part of Boen’s life. In his mind’s eye, he can re-create the stories of his grandfather who, with fly rod and reel in hand and a wicker creel on his hip, happily fished the streams around Mount Whitney. For his own part, young Boen would tease the fish out with a wor
later learning to make primitive flies, and using an orange bucket to get his catches to the pond below the deck where he could study their behavior. In seventh grade, he thrilled classmates and annoyed his teacher by catching and releasing the classroom goldfish, using a straightened paper clip for a rod, thread for a line and a staple with carpet fibers for a fly. Today, he fishes from the lakes of British Columbia to the rivers of Russia, and has plans to cast his line into the waters of the world.
Speaking about his fish art, Boen says, “I was not inspired by anything that I saw out there; in fact, I don’t recall seeing anything quite like what I do. “The fish came from his long love of fish, and as for leather, Boen says it is the natural medium for fish. “You can sculpt fish in wood, bronze, glass, clay, neon lights- anything you want- but the more you look at it, feel it and think about it, leather is the natural substance for fish; it is close to the fish itself. There is something very tactile about leather that makes you want to touch it, very much like the feeling of a saddle or a baseball glove.”
Every single scale on a small fish or a 10-foot trout is meticulously hand tooled or hand scribed. Every step of every process is done by Boen himself- nothing is outsourced. “There was a time when I had some help with some of the very repetitive stuff,” but he brought all the work back into his specially built studio alongside his home in Carmel Valley, not far from Monterey, Calif.
Three Dimensional Sculptures
And Boen’s fish are not images tooled on leather- they are fish sculptures, made of leather, sometimes using other materials for highlights. “Neither myself nor my patrons are looking for photo-realism in the fish I create,” he says. The size of the finished work can range from life-size to three or four times life-size, but the proportions are always correct, the movement a pure reflection of the fish. “Often someone will bring a picture of a fish they caught and my goal is to re-create the memory of being there. When they look at that dorado on the wall, they can mentally relive the trip to Mexico. When they see the brown trout on the desk, they can hear the gurglingof the crystal clear stream and almost feel the clean air or New Zealand’s South Island on their skin,” says Boen. “The goal is to go beyond the sculpture to encompass the experience.
For some of his pieces, all of which are hand drawn and carved, Boen provides different perspectives. From halfway across a room, one sees the overall form, grace and proportion of the fish. But up close, details incorporated into the surface of the fish may speak of its entire life cycle or maybe the fish’s natural environment, says Boen. For example, a dorado may have flying fish carved into its back, reflecting part of its environment and part of what it eats.
Details Tell Stories
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I may incorporate some appropriate river rocks down the side of a fish,” Boen says. “There may be small fish superimposed on a large fish. Eggs from the fish, or some of the insects the fish eats might be tooled in and partially hidden along the sides. Water ripples can put the fish under water, leaves can float along the top of it, or there can be reflections from the riverbanks. Stand back and you can see the beauty and symmetry of the fish. Up close, you can see all the surrounding life that I see as I walk the pathways among the streams, trees and meadows, or wade the streams and rivers as I fish.”
Though his parents separated, Boen says he finished up with the best of both worlds. His mother lived in Claremont at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains, giving him exposure to urban life and good education centers, while his father lived 4,000 feet up on the mountain to the north, giving young Boen free and widespread contact with nature and the environment. “They were really incredible parents. They gave me the freedom to wander and explore the countryside in ways that we unfortunately cannot allow our children to do today. Neither was really artistic, but they were both very creative and we all did creative projects together.”
Boen began to think of art as a career while a sophomore at Upland High School, near Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. In an advance placement art program, he had to submit a body of work for college credit using pen and ink, watercolors and acrylics, as well as sculpting in clay. “I got the highest marks possible and knew then that art was my future.”
It was in junior high school that he experienced the world of hands-on, start-to-finish projects that characterize his work today. “Every Friday we went to the Chapman Ranch School in the San Gabriel Mountains where they had fabulous workshops for us in wood, metal, clay, cloth, whatever. We made some of our own tools, grew the vegetables for lunch and made the plates and dishes we ate off,” says Boen. “I think the Chapmans wanted to give the kids from down the hill a chance to get in touch, appreciate, and maybe learn to protect nature.” There young Boen was exposed to a multitude of disciplines and in his seventh and eighth grade years, learned to teach some of the younger students- another skill that has stood him in good stead.
After high school, Boen went to the University of La Verne, a small, private school with a small art department which offered a lot of support and attention, and it was here that an art professor persuaded the 6-foot-7-inch basketball and volleyball enthusiast to turn away from sports and concentrate on ar. For four years he was involved primarily in painting, but as the years passed his work started to become more three dimensional, especially with materials that he could sew. “And by my second year, I knew I was going to graduate school. I would visit the Claremont Graduate University and the work inspired m.” With his bachelor of arts from La Verne safely earned, he was admitted to a master of fine arts program at Claremont where he concentrated entirely on sculpture, with no more two-dimensional work.
“At graduate school, I focused entirely on my art. I was not married; I had no children, no responsibilities, other than to explore art. I knew I had a great opportunity, and my artwork was flowing. The faculty was incredibly supportive. We had studios on campus to display student’s work. Many displays rarely changed. Mine had new stuff in it virtually every week- I was on fire with my art,” recalls Boen. “My mother is an educator and my father, a business major. Both are optimistic, positive people with a strong work ethic. They saw my commitment and stood by me. I don’t think they knew anything about how hard it is to make a living as an artist, and had I been less committed, they might have suggested I go into art education or something else. But they didn’t- they pressed me on to follow my dream.”
Boen began selling his work immediately on completing graduate school. He started with a gallery close to the Los Angeles market but soon moved to the Carmel area with a studio adjacent to his home, where this intense, devoutly Christian, family-oriented man can be close to his wife and two young children. He now spends much of his time on commissions, with each piece completely finished-front, rear, top, bottom and sides. Some artists leave the back unfinished as it probably will not be seen. Not Boen-even the back is beautifully signed and finished. “I know nobody may ever see that side, but I just like it that way,” he says.
Now Boen is thinking of incorporating other materials with the leather- maybe bronze, and maybe bronze without leather but with other metals. “Leather is not very good for outside art- the weather isn’t kind to it,” says Boen. And such an extension to his repertoire might open the opportunity for limited editions alongside his one-of-a-kind leather works. But in the meantime, there is fishing to be done. Today he fishes the globe with some of the world’s most skilled and famous anglers. “I may not be able to out-fish them,” says Boen, stretching up to his full 6 feet 7 inches, “but I can sure out-wade ‘em.
Captions
p. 44 top - This 10-foot-long leather steelhead with a Western saddle represents "my ultimate ride down the river, my fantasy steelhead," Boen says.
p. 44 bottom - (Opposite page at top) Peacock Bass (leather, 36" long); detail of a 36" long silver salmon (left) and 39" long Atlantic salmon (right).
p. 45 – Lance Boen is shown with a few of his leather fish sculptures: a 7-foot sailfish, two 3-foot barracuda to his left and a 3-foot steelhead above his head.
p. 46 top - Silver salmon detail with bait fish and riverbed patterns (leather, 5' long)
p. 46 middle - Dorado with flying fish and palm trees (leather, 4' long)
p. 47 top - Steelhead with leaf pattern (leather, 7' long)
p. 47 middle - Tarpon with coconut palm pattern (leather, 5' long)
p. 47 bottom - Brook trout (leather, 28" long)