Ray Fedde spent four decades perfecting the alchemy of turning molten metal into fine art.
Sunday, he said farewell to his longtime Denver foundry, Fedde Bronze Works, as friends and fellow artists assembled for a party that was a mix of Irish wake and unsentimental estate sale.
His departure at age 74 is spurred by tough times in general in the art world and the specific vagaries of his own business.
“I should have retired nine years ago,” Fedde said. “But I still want to make things. I always wanted to make something that would outlast me. I’ve made some good things and some awful things.
“I just hope history makes good selections about my legacy.”
Fedde, who was hired by bronze sculptors to cast their pieces, has far- flung work.
He cast the Korean War Memorial in Atlantic City, N.J., and the 12-foot- tall Lady Justice at the Oklahoma Bar Association’s headquarters in Oklahoma City. Donald Lipski’s “The Yearling,” the pinto horse atop the giant chair outside the Denver Public Library? It came from Fedde’s foundry.
“Ray has just been an institution in sculpture here,” said Carol Whitaker, an Englewood artist who has had about 100 bronzes cast at Fedde’s shop in the northern reaches of Park Hill. “He’s a real gentleman and man of integrity. It’s just sad. But this economy has been so hard on artists.”
Fedde has mixed emotions about closing the foundry.
“It’s both ends of the stick,” he said. “I’m really disappointed we couldn’t keep it going and really relieved to be done dealing with payroll and bills and all the things that go into running a business.”
10,000 pieces
Fedde estimates that 1,300 clients have passed through his doors. He has cast upwards of 10,000 pieces through the years, including about 100 he terms “major,” or more than 3 feet tall.
For all that, business was tough. Fedde reckons he is owed $100,000 in unpaid casting fees by various artists, and collecting the money is problematic.
“They’re good guys, and most are sending me small checks each month, but . . . ,” Fedde said with a shrug. “I’m a good artist and craftsman but not a brilliant entrepreneur. That’s cost me. That’s just how it is.”
The weekend saw a three-day farewell and art show, where visitors could sip wine, nibble cheese and bid on equipment such as band saws, sand-blast cabinets and a crucible furnace.
“It’s a disaster for the arts community,” said sculptor Maynard Tischler, who used the foundry for several of his major works. “It’s really sad. Ray’s a great guy and was easy to work with. The foundry was an ongoing artwork in itself.”
Fedde (rhymes with “Teddy”) is a lanky man with gold-rimmed glasses, faded jeans and a thick, snowy beard.
He grew up in the Park Hill neighborhood, graduating from East High School in 1954. But he also attended the former Gove High School, where a shop teacher inspired a love of craftsmanship.
It is the latter quality that has made Fedde a legend in the region’s art community.
“I’m sorry to see him go,” said Rudi Cerri, public art administrator for the Denver Office of Cultural Affairs. “He’s an institution around here.”
Fedde did quite a bit of work for the city. In addition to Lipski’s “The Yearling,” he cast new arms for the statues of cavorting children in Civic Center park.
“Ray always had creative solutions,” Cerri said. “He really cares about the artwork and the city.”
Roundabout route
Fedde came to bronze casting in a roundabout way. He attended the Colorado School of Mines, then did a Navy hitch and got married. He inherited his dad’s oil and gas business — he was a wholesaler — and worked in that.
Art classes at the University of Colorado Denver led to Fedde opening his first studio in 1970, though he still ran the oil business on the side. Then the energy crisis of the early 1970s hit. “That was when I decided to start doing art and have a little more control over things,” he said.
Fedde’s first major client was Edgar Britton, a well-known muralist and sculptor. Britton commissioned Fedde to cast a monumental bronze fountain for Broadmoor West in Colorado Springs.
“Making a living as an artist is hard,” Fedde said. “So I thought I’d be better off making a living by making art for other artists.
“I was wrong about that, too, but it took me nearly 40 years to find out.”
Fedde Bronze Works sits on a stretch of East 38th Avenue where modest homes abut some semi-industrial concerns. It is a two-story, red-brick building, 12,000 square feet of machinery, tools, vats and the powdered detritus of plaster and fiberglass molds. Fedde bought it in 1982.
A recent afternoon found Fedde kicking around his shop, poking among old molds and reminiscing about the history they represented. His history.
“It’s kind of sad to see it end,” said Armand Guerrero, the last of a dozen employees who once worked for Fedde. “It was fun. It was therapy for me.”
Now that run has ended, leaving Fedde with an emptied building but a heart full of memories.
“It’s been deeply satisfying,” Fedde said. “It’s what I was supposed to do, I think. It would have been a little more fun if I could make it a commercial success, but it didn’t work out that way.”
Fedde cocked his head and grinned.
“Fine art is a difficult mistress.”
William Porter: 303-954-1877 or wporter@denverpost.com
