T.J. Neil has found his niche. This 66-year-old former building contractor/iron worker uses his skills to craft concrete sculptures from the ground up for clients all over the country.
“I start with nothing and end up with a beautiful creation,” says Neil. Each sculpture is completely unique, signed and dated. He never uses molds or forms; only wire lath, reinforcing bars, stone, portland cement and sand. His motto: “If you can imagine it, I can create it.”
Neil’s portfolio features characters ranging from Elvis Presley to Popeye and a football-tossing Florida Gator mascot to gargoyle gate guards. Some of his most beautiful works are animals—dinosaurs, dolphins, manatees, eagles, bears and dragons—creations you would never guess were made of concrete until you tried to lift them. Weighing thousands of pounds, each sculpture is so structurally sound it can be lifted by crane and shipped anywhere in the world.
To Neil’s knowledge, he is the only concrete sculptor in the country who works without molds or forms. So how does he do it? It starts with the mix. In different sized wheel barrows he formulates mixes using three grades of sand (very coarse, medium and very fine) and three sizes of gravel (pea, 1/2-inch and 1 1/2-inch). He also uses a range of gauges of galvanized wire lath and rebar to form the structure. “Part of you must be an architect/designer/structural engineer,” he says. “You have to envision what your sculpture will look like before you start.”
Neil begins with a solid concrete base between 8 to 18 inches deep, using a heavy concrete mix. He leaves rebar sticking out of the base ready to bend into shapes, but he cures the base for 7 to 10 days before he bends the rebar so he won’t damage the base. Next, Neil forms a framework of rebar to which he ties galvanized wire lath. He leaves strategic openings to pour in concrete later using a medium weight mix for the center of the sculpture. Neil plans for some parts of the sculptures to be solid concrete with other parts hollow. To create the hollow areas, he trowels 2 to 3 inches of concrete onto the wire lath in 3/4-inch thick layers. He cures each layer before he applies the next, roughening each layer to make sure the next layer bonds well. Finally he trowels on the fine sand mix for a smooth finish.
While Neil started his career in construction, it was his wife Jean and her contractor father who introduced him to his medium and launched his career in concrete sculpting. Now the whole family is in on the act. Son T.J., Jr., who studied at Ringling School of Art and Design in Florida, sculpts with his father. His daughter Tina Hayes is his agent, and daughters Theresa and Angela finish the sculptures with various stains and latex paints. Occasionally, Jean comes through in the clutch, once creating “just the right set of eyes for a dragon sculpture,” says Neil.
Even though Neil and his family are artists, he claims you don’t have to be one in order to create a concrete sculpture yourself. All you need is a little imagination, a lot of guts and my new book How to Become a Concrete Sculptor, Neil chuckles. “If you can draw a happy face with two eyes and a mouth then that is all the talent you need,” he says. His book is scheduled for release Fall 2007.
“Art life is tough,” Neil admits. But right now he says his life is on the upside. His publishing company is already talking about another book and business keeps rushing in, keeping the whole family busy. “I am blessed but you know something?” Neil says. “If I were a millionaire I would still do what I do because of the joy I get by creating something beautiful.”