User:1Redwillow/sandbox

Ralph Crawford is a noted sculptor. His western art won him awards for its detail, authenticity and realism. His most noted benefactor is Arnold Schwarzenegger who most recently had a heroic, eight-foot statue done of one of Arnold's favorite poses, called the "Arnold's Classic" Ralph was born November 05, 1933 in Walnut Park at the home of his aunt, Mae Laws to Johnny Robert Crawford and Margaret Ovilla Sedwick. His early childhood was a happy one. His father was a mechanic for a paper mill. He was injured when a roll of paper fell on him, severely injuring him. He was always in pain after that. It probably affected the marriage which ended when Ralph was 7 years old. His mother was living with his grandparents and she enrolled him in the Ramsey Military Academy. It was a rude awakening for him. After a year, he returned home. He credits his grandfather Will Vance with his upbringing. His mother worked at the Pearl Vance Beauty Salon. Life was pretty secure until his mother re-married when he was about 10 years old. This did not prove to be a happy situation. His mother had a baby girl, Peggy, who Ralph adored but he was nearly 12 and really was not a sibling to her. Margaret divorced not too long after this and returned to live near her parents with her two children. Ralph was already a teen-ager. At age 19 he married Charlotte Bowman. They had 3 children in California but it was not the paradise that Ralph remembered when he was growing up. Some of his dad's family were in Idaho and in 1960, the whole family moved to Lewiston, Idaho. The last daughter, Jessica, was born in Lewiston. For a living he became a roofing contractor, calling his business Advanced Roofing. It provided a good living for the family, though sometimes was lean in the winter months. He loved Idaho, his had cows, chickens, pigs, horses. He loved to hunt and became very interested in western history and western lore. His father died in 1967 and left him $7500. He used this to buy the hill where he presently lives. It was just a bare knob of ground a mile out of Lewiston. He began to build a home. Wells were drilled, a house built for his good sized family. Abruptly, his life changed again. His wife announced that she was moving out. They divorced. It sent him into a wild, deep depression. Though he had always dabbled in art, carving wood, drawing, painting, it now provided him a huge outlet for a talent that had long lain dormant. Two years later, he re-married a Barbara......... She was a nurse, her husband had been a policeman and killed in the line of duty. He had the two boys which were pretty much grown...or gone much of the time, as teen age boys will do. Money was not the driving force for him and he let his busniness go. He turned to sculpting. He took a few classes on mold making, he absorbed everything he could about this line of art. His interest in western art became his main focus. Living within a few miles of the  Nez Perce Indian Reservation was fuel for his talent. He began doing art shows, Many times his wife went with him on thes tours. Life took another abrupt turn. Barbars encouraged his mother, who still lived in California to move to Lewiston. She felt that the marriage which was getting rocky might then, somehow, survive. Ralph felt that he had married because he "should" be married not necessarily because he "wanted to". The marriage fell apart. His third marriage was to a beautiful young girl half his age. She had been a model for many of his sculptures. But this was not meant to be either. In 1982 Ralph and a friend, Jerry Smith were traveling to Montana. Just before they crossed over the Lolo pass into Montana, they were hit head on by a semi truck that was passed another truck--around a curve, with no-passing lines. They took to the ditch. However the paniced truck driver plowed into them head-on. Jerry Smith was killed instantly and Ralph broke most of his ribs, spent several days in the hospital in Missoula and barely survived a blood clot in the leg from the trauma from the accident. Sharr left him. She was young, wanted children and Ralph could not do that. HIs life as an artist was feast or famine. It did not give a secure life style. Ralph continued to sculp, paint do stone carvings. He built a clay shop. With 3 kilns he turned out many vases, figures, dabbled in jewelry making, tried his hand at doing his bronze foundry work, he worked with pewter. He has many stead-fast frieds some who have been his faithful patrons. His mother, Margaret Whitman, was living in the downstairs. She was active in the community with the Red Hat Society, the hostpital auxilary, working out at her gym and traveling. At the same time, she was there to tend the homefires when Ralph wanted to travel. She was good company, helped with cooking and cleaning and entertaining--a good symbiotic relationship. In 1984, Joe Weider, who had had Ralph do a sculpture of him from his body building years, started using the pose that Ralph had created for his ads for body building supplements, for the cover of his magazine. Ralph had copyrighted his work, always was careful to do that. Though he had sold Joe Weider a small version of him as a body builder, he did not sell him the right to the piece.