By Cindy Washburn

Lanea Price could tell you one thing it's never boring being married to artist Gary Price.

"He will do crazy things," she said. "He has quite a reputation for wearing Hawaiian shirts to church."

But she would also tell you there's more to her husband than his eccentricities. Gary Price, a sculptor from Springville, has a drive to make art that touches people's lives and inspires them to achieve their potential.

His current project, a series of sculptures called "The Great Contributors," features sculptures of celebrated people from world history, such as William Shakespeare, Abraham Lincoln and Mark Twain.

The sculptures place these extraordinary men in ordinary settings where people can interact with the art, such as life-sized figures seated on benches.

"It's about bringing them down to earth and creating a situation where you can talk to them, put your arm around them, relate to them," he said. "If we could sit down with Michelangelo we'd find out he has quirks just like us."

Price said thoughts, quotes and inspiring stories have been an important part of his life, and these great people have been role models to him. It's not about downplaying their legacy; it's about teaching people that although these men did great things, they were human, and ordinary people can aspire to do great things just like they did.

"It puts us all on a level where we can learn and grow from each other," Price said. "Everybody has their own talent, and when we magnify each of our own talents we empower ourselves and we empower others," he said.

Price also said it's important for people to understand the importance of first having confidence in their own abilities.

"First we have to empower ourselves because if we try to give something we don't have, we can't give it," he said.

For a man who is able to give so much through his art, it comes as no surprise that he's had people encouraging him since a young age. Price said his earliest memories involve art, and it defined him from the start.

"It gave me recognition, consequently confidence, and teachers recognized it and kept encouraging me," he said. "From kindergarten on, it was who I was."

After studying art at Rick's College, now BYU-Idaho, Price said he realized he could actually make a living through art and decided to graduate from the University of Utah with a bachelor in fine arts.

Now, Price not only makes a living through art - he makes a difference.

Ken Donnelly, Price's business manager, said his favorite aspect of working with Price is when he hears from people who have purchased or interacted with Price's sculptures and share how the art has lifted their spirits.

"You know the goal has been realized," Donnelly said.

Donnelly told of a town in Massachusetts that purchased one of Price's sculptures called "Circle of Peace" and gave nothing but positive feedback about the impact it's had on the town.

Paul Good, chair of the Needham Community Revitalization Trust Fund, led the organization in raising the money to purchase Price's piece to place in the town commons in Needham, Mass. He said before the statue was placed, people weren't really drawn to do things on the common.

"With the name 'town common' you'd assume it was a natural gathering place, but it didn't have anything that would draw people to congregate," he said.

But after "Circle of Peace" was placed, people started spending time in the commons, and Good said now families regularly congregate there.

"Circle of Peace" portrays seven children of different ethnicities and different levels of ability holding hands and playing in a circle with a space in the circle for an eighth person to join in.

"It's very common to see children run up to the common to be able to hold hands with the statue," Good said.

Good said children aren't the only ones tempted to interact with the sculpture though.

"Parents even do it, if they look around and see no one's looking," he said.

Copyright Brigham Young University 8 Jan 2008