Tom's Life Bits

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===== N.C. artist sculpts presidents =====

//BY CLIFF HARRINGTON, Staff writer//\\

A sculpture of President Ronald Reagan that was dedicated Wednesday in Washington has its roots in Charlotte.

The seven-foot statue of the 40th president is the handiwork of Chas Fagan, a Charlotte sculptor and painter who works out of his home studio. Fagan, his wife and three children drove to Washington for the dedication.

"When I'm working on a project, I try not to think about it too much," Fagan said. "I worry about the project and accuracy and making it happen. But when we installed it in the Rotunda, I had some time there after hours. It was amazing. I felt really humble to be standing there. I knew how it all started."

Reagan's statue is part of the National Statuary Hall Collection. It's part of a group of statues placed there to honor outstanding Americans. The Reagan statue was installed the week of May 25, replacing a statue of Thomas Starr King.

The California preacher, who supported the Union during the Civil War, was considered a state hero, and some Californians were offended when Congress voted in 2006 to remove his statue in favor of Reagan's.

The Reagan statue was commissioned and paid for by the privately run Ronald Reagan Foundation. Foundation representatives did not say how much the statue cost.

The foundation sent out 20 announcements to artists, and 10 sent proposals, said Melissa Giller, a spokeswoman for the foundation.

"Throughout the entire process, (Nancy) Reagan and our board of trustees were very impressed with Chas," Giller said.

The foundation has also used him for other projects, including the just-installed bas-relief of Reagan in the Ronald Reagan Building in Washington. A bas-relief is a sculpture in which the figure projects slightly from the background.

Fagan is a self-taught painter and sculptor who got started almost by chance.

He earned a degree in Soviet Studies from Yale University. Then he spent a summer in Russia at Leningrad State University.

"That changed my path," Fagan says. "The living there was really difficult there. There was lots of poverty. ... When I came back, I decided I wanted a change."

Fagan had done cartoons for the Yale Daily News and the New Haven, Conn., Register newspapers.

"I knew I could survive, if I could put ink on paper," he said.

Fagan, 43, has done paintings of First Lady Barbara Bush and former Presidents George W. and George H.W. Bush.

He also has done paintings of U.S. presidents for C-Span. Those paintings were used during the network's "American Presidents" series.

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Fagan's first scuplture of Lexis de Toqueville. He's well-know for paintings and sculptures of presidents

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Charlotte scupltor Chas Fagan

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