Bill Hunt |
Bill Hunt was born in Bremerton, Washington
in 1944 and grew up in China Lake, California on the Mojave Desert.
His conservation ethic and a deep appreciation for the natural
world grew from boyhood Scouting experiences, including backpacking
in the High Sierra and sailing on the Pacific. 
Bremerton, WA 1946
Boy Scouts 1956
This sparked Bill's keen interest in Biology and Natural History. Enthralled with the sea, he joined the Navy in 1963, and spent almost 4 years aboard the aircraft carrier USS Essex, CVS-9
Bill, IC2
- Uss Essex, 1966
In 1968 he resumed his education, first at DeAnza College in Cupertino, where he met Zoology and Ecology Professor Doug Cheeseman. Then, in 1971 he transfered to Humboldt State University in Arcata, California. There he was influenced by Dr. Warren Houck, a leading authority on Marine Mammals. He graduated from Humboldt State in 1974 with a MS in Fisheries Management. Upon graduation Bill took a job with Duke Power Company in Charlotte, NC. Bill worked as a Fisheries Biologist for Duke, doing baseline, pre operational work on Lake Norman as Mcguire Nuclear Power Plant was under construction. After three years with Duke Power, Bill returned to California where he worked first for San Diego State University. He helped to build, then operate an Aquaculture facility at the Ormond Beach power plant in Oxnard, CA, Heated effluent from the power plant was mixed with cold sea water to control water temperatures within the Aquaculture Lab where Maine Lobsters were raised from egg to dinner plate size. As the feasibility of raising lobster was demonstrated, the grant monies dried up and the Aquaculture facility was turned over to commercial interests. Bill ended up working for Occitental College in Redondo Beach, CA doing thermal effects reserch at So Cal Edison's King Harbor Power Plant.
Bill has also had a lifelong interest in antiques, special interest automobiles and street rods. He builds, restores and maintains his own cars. While attending Humboldt State, Bill was impressed and intrigued by the art of a local metal sculptor named Hobart Brown. Because of his automotive interests Bill was already familiar with the materials and welding skills that Hobart used to create his fabricated metal scultpures. In 1979, Bill first used an oxygen /acetylene torch, steel welding rod and bronze to construct a scale model of a humback whale. The result was an anatomically accurate, sixty inch welded and braized metal sculpture. Displayed for the first time that spring at the Cabrillo Beach Whale Fiesta, the sculpture demonstrated Bill's unique talent for blending scientific detail with graceful movement and evocative beauty. On the strength of this first piece, the Cabrillo Marine Museum and the American Cetacean Society commissioned Bill to build a series of 1/12 scale whales that now make up a part of the museum's permanent Great Whales Exhibit. New ideas and private commissions on a wide variety of subjects followed, including more whales, dinosaurs, marine birds, fish, sea turtles, birds of prey and African mammals. Bill was soon working as an artist as well as a biologist.
Bill and Rebecca met on a Whalewatch trip early in 1980, and married later that same year. In 1981, at the urging of fellow Wildlife and Whale sculptor Randy Puckett, Bill and Rebecca left all regular employment behind and moved to the Monterey Bay area to take advantage of the Art Bronze Foundry there. Bill began working full time as a professional sculptor, developing pieces that could be cast in limited edition bronze. His personal experiences watching birds and wildlife in the field are the inspiration for the design of his pieces. Building on visions of his obervations, he uses careful measurements of actual subjects, and painstaking examinations of scientific illustrations and photographs.
As he worked, his art was refined and matured in both style and finish, and by 2006 he and Rebecca had over 70 bronzes in limited editions. Their works are included in the private collections of musician Smokey Robinson, oceanographers Sylvia Earl and Jean Michael Cousteau, entomologist and naturalist Edward O. Wilson, marine wildlife photographer Bob Talbot, economist Art Laffer and Louisiana Governor Edwin W. Edwards. His wildlife bronzes have been shown in a number of prestigious galleries across the United States, including the Mystic Maritime Gallery in Mystic CT; The Red Piano on Hilton Head Island, SC; The Darvish Collection in Naples, FL; Christopher Bell Collection in Monterey, CA and Visions Gallery in Morro Bay, CA. In 1986 Bill was named Outstanding Wildlife Sculptor of the Year by Seagate Foundation for the Arts in Houston, TX and in 1988 he received an award of excellence for new work at the Mystic Maritime Gallery. During the '90's Bill and Rebecca made their home near Paso Robles on the central coast of California.
In 1995 Bill and Rebecca purchased land in Northern Colorado, about 50 miles from Loveland, CO; location of 3 world class foundries and all the support businesses necessary to their business. In 1999 they sold their home in Paso Robles and moved to Colorado where they built a Timberframe home in the mountains north west of Fort Collins.
Rebecca Hunt |
Rebecca Hunt was born in Dayton, Ohio and grew up in upper state New York, Tennessee and Tulsa, Oklahoma. While the year of her birth is classified, She began her career as a stained glass artist/designer in 1974 when she apprenticed under her then husband, Master Craftsman Tom Carpenter. They spent two years restoring antique church windows in West Virginia before moving to Fort Smith, Arkansas and co-founding Merry Go Round Glass Co. She has studied advanced glass techniques; painting on glass, slumping and fusing glass, with Masters Paul Marioni, Dan Fenton, and glass design with Italian designer Narcissus Quagliata since 1978.
In 1980 Rebecca met Bill Hunt, a budding wildlife sculptor on a whale watch trip in Southern California. They were married later the same year. Together they have collaborated on several unique pieces; fabricated metal sculptures by Bill, incorporating Rebecca's slumped and painted stained glass as major components of the sculpture. For example, in 1982 they used slumped stained glass shell plates and copper and bronze scales on a large sculpture of a Hawksbill Sea Turtle. This piece is illuminated from within and suspended from a high ceiling in the home of noted economist Art Laffer.
Rebecca continues to work in stained glass, but in 1984 she returned to college to pursue her education in Fine Art on a part time basis. She is an accomplished graphic designer and watercolorist. In 1986 she sculpted the first of her limited edition bronzes, a Pintail Duck which later graced the pages of the Mystic Maritime Gallery Desk Calender, 1989. She graduated from Hartnell College in Salinas in 1989 with an AA in Fine Arts. She has created five more limited edition bronzes since her first, and in 1990 she and Bill again collaborated on an original work, this time an Art Nouveau inspired bronze Mermaid with an illuminated Nautilus Shell (see "Fantasea" under the Figurative category below). Rebecca sculpted the female figure, and left the fishy tail and kelp fronds to Bill. Bill and Rebecca make their home at Lake Naciemento, just outside Paso Robles on the central coast of California.