About the Author: Eugene F. Fairbanks

Eugene F. Fairbanks, the second son of Maude and Avard T. Fairbanks, was born in 1921 in Eugene, Oregon, while sculptor Fairbanks was teaching art at the University of Oregon. During an appointment to the faculty of the University of Michigan, 1930-48, his sons often helped at the studio, assisting with modeling and plaster casting. They also learned about photography for sculpture. There was a progressive expectation of skill and responsibility for both sculpture and photography. This continued from grade school through high school and into college. An older brother chose engineering as a vocation. Younger brothers studied engineering, art, and medicine. The family, in time, had eight sons and two adopted daughters.

Eugene chose to study medicine. He married Florence Sundwall in 1944 in his last year of the University of Michigan Medical School, graduating in 1945. He interned at Wayne County General Hospital near Detroit, Michigan, and started raising a family. After internship he served in the Army Medical Corps as a transport surgeon on a troop transport ship. Following military service, he practiced medicine as a family physician in Pasco and Kennewick, Washington. After an anesthesiology residency in Seattle, in 1959, he moved the family to Bellingham, Washington, and practiced anesthesiology, then again as a family physician. He became a diplomat of both the American Board of Anesthesiology and the American Board of Family Physicians.

In time Florence and Eugene became the proud parents of five sons and five daughters. He practiced medicine in Bellingham until retirement in 1995. With Dr. Charles J. Flora, he co-authored a marine biology species identification handbook in 1966 and 1977, The Sound And The Sea. His first book about Avard Fairbanks' sculpture, A Sculptor's Testimony In Bronze And Stone (1972 and 1994), featured sacred sculpture. In 1995 he was asked to create a monument honoring fishermen of Bellingham lost at sea. This figure was modeled in a web locker (a net warehouse), at Squalicum Harbor and cast in bronze. It was erected and dedicated on Memorial Day, 1999, in Zuanich Point Park, Bellingham.

During spare moments in the practice of medicine, Eugene has composed poetry to complement his father's fantasy sculpture. He has collected photographs and made many enlargements of Fairbanks' sculpture for this and other projected publications. In 2001 he published A Sculpture Garden Of Fantasy, featuring the fantasy sculpture of Avard Fairbanks.

The newest book, Abraham Lincoln Sculptures Created by Avard T. Fairbanks, is now available. It was compiled over a number of years, and produced into a hard-bound book during the later part of 2002. It contains more than 170 photos, some in color. It illustrates and details stages in development of monuments and lists sources of information to future sculptors.

Other planned publications about Avard Fairbanks' sculpture include the study of human proportions; Avard Fairbanks' technique of modeling statuettes and portraits; and an illustrated documentary book of many public monuments.

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An online gallery featuring the artwork of Avard T. Fairbanks; includes selected major works and locations and selected museums, sites, and gardens. Features a slideshow gallery of fantasy sculpture, historical sculpture and sacred sculpture and ordering information.
http://www.fairbanksart.com/

This website is a tribute to the sculptor Avard Fairbanks, his life and his art. This website is non-commercial in nature, and was not created for the purposes of selling art.
http://www.avardfairbanks.com/