Award-winning artist Kitty Cantrell is best known for her striking sculpture of North American wildlife. Intricately designed and detailed her sculptures capture the true expressions of animals that have never known human touch.

Wolves, eagles and humpback whales are just a few subjects this native Californian has chosen to sculpt since beginning her professional career. Cantrell believes that the art she creates is a tool for spreading a deeper understanding of the earth’s creatures. “If my sculptures can make people think about wildlife,” Kitty says, “then maybe they will feel compelled to help protect it.”

As a native of Southern California, Kitty Cantrell attributes her respect for all living things to a childhood spent in the Mojave Desert. It was in this arid environment that she became acutely aware of the rhythms of nature and she constantly challenges herself to incorporate this understanding into her artwork.

Kitty Cantrell has had a lifelong fascination with everything wild. She has studied the behaviors of animals with an artist’s eye and imagination. Her driving passion has been to capture the essence of the animals she chooses to depict in her artwork. As a self-taught sculptor, she has refined her skills as an artist for nearly a quarter of a century. It is her unique ability to capture the emotion of how we as the viewer feel about the animals she chooses to create, which has won her countless awards and critical acclaim. Her identification with the subject matter has led her to be one of the most widely collected wildlife artists working in the United States today.

Click here to learn more about Kitty and take a visit to her studio.

Dan Medina’s award-winning artistic genius has proven that he possesses genuine God-given talents. A self-taught illustrator, painter, and sculptor, Dan has earned numerous awards in a variety of acclaimed state competitions, including the prestigious City of Los Angeles Bicentennial Award.

Strongly influenced by artists of the Renaissance period, such as Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo, Dan also attributes some of his artistic influence to his close association with artist Christopher Pardell. “I envision sculpting as an exciting three-dimensional extension of my illustrations. The ability to create overpowers me, whether it pertains to science or the arts.”

Before creating any new work, Dan thoroughly researches his subject. Dan takes this often overlooked step in order to ensure the authenticity and undeniable sense of motion that is found in each of his magnificent sculptures. “To portray emotion and form in metal-that is the essence of art,” says Medina, “it all starts in the mind.”

Dan’s work reflects the fact that his purpose in art is to express the human experience. “I want to incorporate the feeling of hope, and search the other side of our physical existence.”

Christopher A. Pardell, one of the first artists to join the Starlite Studio Family, began sculpting at the tender age of four, and cites his family as one of his first major influences. By his teenage years, Pardell had come to the realization that sculpting was to become his life’s work. Influenced by the work of renowned sculptors Russell, Remington and Rodin, Pardell wanted to pursue his passion for realism. His formal education was laid aside in favor of an apprentice mold maker position with a commercial statuary company, and it was there that he received what he considers to be his “real education in art.”

As an apprentice to the Italian master artisans who ran the statuary, Christopher rapidly learned the skills that would enable him to excel as an artist and earn the stature that has come with his success. Christopher’s exceptional style and special talent have served to impress even the most discriminating collector.

Upon reflecting on what his art means to him, he states, “I try to express myself through sculpture. It’s all I’ve ever done. It’s all I know how to do.” Respected and admired by fellow artists, craftsmen and collectors of fine art, Pardell tells us that he will always do sculpture because it allows him to live. “Sculpture is very meditative and cleansing for my soul. In the concrete slab that lies by my studio I have engraved the phrase life is a performance artwork, make yours beautiful. That’s the principle I live by.”

John Cuevas was an eager young artist fresh out of art school when he joined Starlite Originals in the summer of 2005. His story is an inspirational one, demonstrating that
success is the result of diligence and determination.

John was a seasoned painter, but a newcomer to the world of clay sculpting. It was through drawing and painting, that he discovered the world around him. Cuevas comments, “It was how I made sense of the world. I do not remember a time that I did not draw. The talent developed and evolved as I used it. I spent many hours drawing as a child, and still do. Through art I am able to realize a sense of belonging, and satisfaction; I create objects of beauty that will survive beyond my physical presence on the earth. Art for me is a conversation with humanity about beauty.”

Back in 1973, I opened John Perry Studio understanding that sculptures do not have to be cast in bronze or carved out of marble. I knew then that there were more price conscious and accessible ways to make inspiring sculpted art. My hunch was that alternative materials and the very latest molding techniques would be able to bring sculpture within the reach of almost everybody. During the nearly five decades, I have been able to put this idea into practice, and have had the satisfaction and pleasure of seeing my work find its way into millions of people’s homes.

The forces behind my work have been and continue to be my love of the natural world, the wild creatures that inhabit the natural world, and my desire to see these creatures protected. I have always felt that the most helpful use of my abilities is to create beautiful and moving renditions of these creatures for people to bring into their homes and lives. Ultimately, by putting people in close proximity to my re-creations, I seek to foster in them empathy for these creatures.

As I head into my "mature" years, I am motivated by a sense of urgency to sculpt as many new beautiful, fascinating, and fragile creatures as possible. Also, I want to re-imagine many of the pieces that I created decades ago when I was just starting out as a sculptor.
-John Perry

Click here to learn more about John Perry and take a visit to his studio.

An avid SCUBA diver and world traveler, the Detroit-born artist has been hailed a "Marine Michaelangelo" by USA Today and recognized for his art and conservation efforts by the United Nations and on the floor of Congress. His giant ocean mural on the convention center in Long Beach, Calif., covering over 3 acres, landed him in the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest mural ever painted. Several years later in recognition of Earth Day, he doubled the size of that mural by completing the largest portrait of the earth on earth on the building's three-acre roof - in only twenty-four hours. In fact, no artist in history has painted more surface area that today is now measured in acres.

His newest public art project, 100 Monumental Sculptures in 100 Great Cities around the world, includes plans to sculpt all the great whale species, as well as endangered and threatened animals from the IUCN Red List. Ten of these monumental sculptures will be underwater. "My art has always been about art and conservation," Wyland says. "I was inspired in the early 70s by Green Peace, the first Earth Day, and from watching my hero Jacques Cousteau's Undersea World television series. I was simply an artist in the right place at the right time in history, and I felt strongly that art could play an important role in bringing attention to environmental issues."

Wyland's early inspiration grew upon seeing the ocean for the first time during a family visit to Laguna Beach, Calif., in 1971, when he was fourteen years old. The sight of a mother and baby gray whale migrating near the shore eventually inspired him to paint those same two whales on a life-size scale on an adjacent building in 1981. After the completion of the mural, he committed himself to creating one hundred ocean murals around the world as a gift to communities. He painted his 100th Whaling Wall mural in Beijing for the Cultural Olympics as the official artist for the US Olympic team. Today, Wyland art is collected in all fifty states and more than one hundred countries. He founded Wyland Galleries in 1978 with his first studio gallery in Laguna Beach where he lives today, and has influenced numerous traditional and street artists, including L.A.-based O.G. Slick. In 1993, he founded the non-profit Wyland Foundation as part of his continuing effort to inspire millions of people to take action to ensure clean water and a healthy planet through art, science, and conservation. The Wyland Foundation has partnered with the UN for the Wyland World Water Pledge to encourage all seven billion people to be water wise.

Today the artist is one of the most collected and appreciated artists in the world with artwork in museums, corporate collections, private homes and more than 100 countries.

Click here to learn more about Wyland and take a visit to his studio.

For the past three decades, legendary artist Christian Riese Lassen has been known all over the world for his majestic works of art.

His world is a blend of the real and the imaginary, with magnificent underwater scenes with dolphins and other sea animals, as well as seascapes and landscapes of unparalleled beauty and harmony.

His white horse paintings are considered to be the most complex and breath-taking depictions of the animal known as one of the most difficult to portray. Christian’s brushes and paints make them come to life; you can almost hear them galloping when staring at those glorious creatures.

Christian loves, creates and needs perfection, so his world is exquisite, bright and colorful, like angelic dreams. His palette conjures true magic with his spectacular colors and unparalleled precision of techniques.

He was born with an innate sense of beauty and an otherworldly knowledge of techniques and methods, as if taught by supernatural beings. He never went to art school nor apprenticed. He is strictly self-taught and his talents have always surprised everybody since his early childhood.

Nobody could explain how he possessed these mystical gifts. His knowledge of both human and animal anatomy comes as a puzzle even to himself, as he was never taught any of this.

The precision of his work showcases his amazing ability to schedule ahead and his extreme organizational skills. Being an artist is the only career he has ever had. He was born to be an artist and his paintings are in museums and exclusive private collections all over the world.

Click here to learn more about Christian Riese Lassen and take a visit to his studio.