Jeff Carol Davenport looked around her studio, trying to see it through new eyes as she tidies up in anticipation of hosting VIPs from Arizona State University’s baseball program.
Keeping her studio neat is a constant challenge; pottery materials, paints and sculpting tools are scattered across various work stations. But she must get her creative space looking organized and welcoming; a big sculpting project is on the line!
Will she get the commission from ASU to sculpt a life-size likeness of beloved baseball Coach Bobby Winkles? What an opportunity that would be for Jeff!
Bobby Winkles coached ASU’s Sun Devils baseball team from 1958, when the school adopted the varsity sport, until 1971, taking the team to the national championship three times. He’s considered the architect of ASU’s baseball program… and also a legend.
When she had received an email two weeks before — asking if she was interested in the sculpting job — Jeff responded with an immediate “absolutely.”
When the three baseball reps were shown into Jeff’s detached art studio filled with colorful paintings, ceramics and sculptures, they immediately saw the maquette of Coach Winkles that Jeff had been working on. She has a gift for capturing faces in clay and she had Coach Winkles looking just like he did in a photo sent by the baseball committee.
Many artists won’t even sculpt a maquette as a prototype if they haven’t secured a contract. But Jeff does. She doesn’t mind doing a little work for a potential client without receiving money or without an upfront promise of getting the job. Not many people in any field think like that.
“They walked into my studio and seemed very happy with the maquette,” Jeff says. “They liked it, and I thought ‘this is going to be a go.’”
“Thanks so much,” one man said to Jeff. “We’re looking at two other artists and will be in touch.”
“That made me feel down,” Jeff says. “I thought, ‘maybe I won’t get the commission.’”
They knew that Jeff had already sculpted Pat Tillman, former ASU football star, for a life-size bronze sculpture installed at ASU, so that would hopefully help sell her to this committee. Yet, even with creating Pat Tillman’s sculpture, Jeff didn’t take the Coach Winkles prospective job for granted.
“I don’t expect these things,” she says.
Jeff had also created the bronze Pitchfork sculpture placed in ASU’s Mountain America stadium.
Her mode is to keep working, no matter what, and that’s what she did until the day in early 2024 when she received word that the committee had selected her to sculpt Coach Winkles!
At the unveiling ceremony in April 2024, one of the committee members said to Jeff, “The minute we walked in and saw the maquette, we knew you were the artist for the job. We had to follow our formal selection process, though.”
“But, they knew,” Jeff says, enjoying the thought of their immediate acceptance of her skills, even if they couldn’t say anything at the time.
Those are the lows and highs for artists who put their art out into the world. The highs and lows never really stop, even for seasoned artists, but they hopefully become less intense with time and experience.
Jeff was on a high at the unveiling ceremony and she was honored to meet Bobby Winkles’ family, including his grandchildren.
She considers her Bobby Winkles sculpture to be her “star accomplishment.”
“But what about Pat Tillman’s sculpture?,” I say. “That’s a star accomplishment, too.”
“Yes, but Pat’s sculpture is in an area of the ASU stadium where mainly the staff and team have access, so the general public doesn’t always see it. Coach Winkles’ sculpture is on the third-base concourse at the entrance of the Phoenix Municipal Stadium, ASU’s home park. Everyone attending a game will walk by Coach Winkles’ statute when entering and leaving the stadium.”
This news article from ASU gives a great overview of the sculpture and its unveiling celebration.
ASU plans to add more sculptures on the stadium’s walkway and they’ve indicated they want Jeff to be involved.
“Adding new sculptures may not happen for a while,” Jeff says. “These things don’t always happen fast, but I’m happy that more good things might be coming.”
Jeff Carol Davenport’s tireless creative force was on full display in my first spotlight of her in 2017. Back then she was still teaching ceramics at Sandra Day O’Connor High School in Phoenix, counting down the days until she could retire and throw herself completely into sculpting, both bronze and ceramics.
While teaching high schoolers during the day, Jeff’s time in her home studio was busy, busy, busy.
Now that she’s retired, she’s unstoppable!
Jeff might be your creative kindred spirit if you wake up wanting to get to work on a project and go to bed thinking about tomorrow’s projects… while art ideas pop into your mind night and day.
She’s usually working on several pieces of art in different mediums, spread out in her studio at designated work areas: the pottery wheel area, the glazing area, the jewelry-making area, the painting area.
“Making art fulfills the need that I apparently have,” Jeff says, “to always be creating and be productive. Creativity breeds creativity.”
Since retiring from teaching in May 2022, her production rate has sky-rocketed, just as she had yearned for during those working years. Jeff paints, makes ceramics, creates sculptures to be cast in bronze — managing them through every step of the casting process — and now makes jewelry. She’s even learning to weld!
Yet, as productive as she is, there’s never enough time to make all the beautiful things flooding her brain.
Jeff and her husband Mike have an off-grid vacation home in New Mexico that they’re building by themselves…and they bought another nearby lot so Jeff is now hankering to build a small dwelling there, too. By hand!
She somehow remains focused on her multiple art projects but one distraction she finds pleasant is her two-year-old granddaughter, Adaliya, who lives with Jeff’s son, Jeff, and his wife Aiya in Flagstaff. (Jeff, the mom, is also a hunter and for years has gone on multiple Elk and deer hunts with her son Jeff.)
When not with family, Jeff is in her studio making things like:
• Branded ceramic mugs as corporate gifts for her son Cori’s clients
• Ceramic bells
• Small branded ceramic coffee cups and bee earrings for a local boutique
• Paintings of giant saguaros that live near home in New River, AZ
• Small animals from clay to fire at her next Wood-fire Workshop in Northern Arizona
• Maquettes of commissioned statues to be enlarged and cast at the local foundry (where Jeff worked for 20 years)
Most of Jeff’s art is inspired by her Sonoran Desert surrounds, where she grew up and has lived her entire life: 66 years so far.
She has a distinct aesthetic style, able to create adorable desert animals like javelina or bunny rabbits that look soft and realistic, even in bronze.
Sure, she’d like to participate in some of the annual winter art shows in Phoenix, Scottsdale, or Wickenberg. She plans to continue applying to those shows until the organizers recognize her tenacity and invite her to exhibit.
But Jeff doesn’t want fame and fortune at this stage in her life. She just wants to keep making all her wonderful creations and have people appreciate them… and purchase them so she can buy more supplies and make more beautiful things!
“I don’t know how to get where I’d like to be,” Jeff says. “I don’t look at rejections, though. Instead I look at what works for me. Like the Bobby Winkles sculpture. I just keep working to get those kind of jobs. In the meantime, I keep my creativity going and keep making art.”
STUDIO
Jeff admits her studio isn’t organized like one might see in a magazine. Stuff is everywhere, stacked in containers, stuffed into drawers, sitting on desks and tables, all akimbo. But it works for Jeff.
“I have Dis-organizational Organization,” she says with a chuckle. Her different work areas may be cluttered but she gets lots of work done at each one.
“I’m a visual person so it helps me to see my supplies. If I were to organize them into a tidy little space, I’d probably lose everything. If my glazes are on the table, I’m more productive versus having to go search out where I put things.”
If she puts things away she forgets about them.
“I found a box of jewelry-making supplies at a yard sale and was going through it,” Jeff says, “when my neighbor Brent suggested I just offer them a price for the whole box, and I did. The other day I found that box and started pulling out silver solder and some cabochons, which I can use in pieces right now. But I had forgotten about the supplies in that box! What else in the studio is tucked into boxes that I’ve forgotten about?!”
The cost of materials is a huge part of making art for any artist, especially when they’re trying to set prices for their work. Also included are the thousands of hours of training and dedication that an artist puts into mastering their craft. As patrons of creative people, we’re buying that skill and expertise when we purchase a piece of their art.
“It sometimes feels like I’m paying people to buy my art,” Jeff laughs, “because maybe I can never get back the money I‘ve put into all my endeavors.” She has multiple pottery wheels, mounds of clay, several kilns, and materials for jewelry that include precious gems and fine metals. The cost of building a creative space to work in must also be part of the calculation.
“For one of the ceramic bells I make, it’s not just about how much clay the bell takes, “ Jeff says, “it’s also about electricity to fire the kiln, studio space, and the time it takes to sculpt and then assemble the finished product.”
Every little expense adds up, especially when she’s working across multiple mediums. Luckily Jeff and Mike love to shop at yard sales and thrift stores and that helps in financing her art.
STAND-OUT SCULPTOR
Of course more good things, and more great sculpture commissions, are coming to Jeff.
No other sculptor can produce what she does for what she charges.
“I provide a great product for the cost,” Jeff says. “No one else would do what I do, like making prototypes without an agreement in place. My prices are reasonable. I come highly recommended and know how to manage my time and meet any client’s deadline. I always do things on time.”
Jeff has been building a reputation for doing these public projects for decades. After working at the local foundry for 20 years, she knows every process of casting bronze. She can do the physical work of mold making and cleaning seams, etc. Being local, she can meet her clients at the foundry at any time during the process and explain each stage. For local clients, delivery fees are not as expensive as delivery costs would be from an out-of-state artist.
“People respond to my style,” Jeff says. “My work is realistic but I have a really nice style. Plus my large body of work with sculptures installed around the state and elsewhere demonstrate my expertise and talent. I can stand up with the best of artists.”
What Jeff doesn’t mention is her positive attitude and sunny outlook. Or her kindness. She is a pleasure to be around and a complete sweetheart for her clients to deal with.
Jeff is a sculptor who can design in a short period of time with minimal input from clients and nail their concept from the start. It’s rare that a client asks her to redo her original design. Jeff’s relationship with the folks at the foundry make it easy to process any statue from start to finish. She knows the foundry, its people and equipment. They know her and trust her.
Jeff does all of this with a smile, offering great ideas and delivering more than she promised.
Jeff has created two sculptures for Creighton University, a Jesuit Catholic institution in Phoenix with a large focus on their nursing program. St. Ignatius was the founder of the Jesuits and his sculpture stands at the university’s entrance.
As a sculptor, Jeff has much to recommend her for any size projects. And that’s just her sculpting. She is as talented in her other artistic pursuits.
create this sculpture as an award.
Popular by Vote
Jeff’s sculptures often capture the public’s imagine and take on a life of their own. For instance, she created Learning Together, a sculpture of a boy and his dog, modeling the figures off of her son, Jeff, and their family pet, Cisco.
“We got Cisco as a rescue,” Jeff says, “and in the sculpture you can feel his anticipation of Jeff throwing the ball. My son was known for taking his shoes off wherever he went, so to add to the story I placed his shoes at the base of the sculpture. Also, if you look in the eyes of the dog, you can see the reflection of the boy.”
Three of these sculptures stand in Arizona; in Oro Valley, Prescott Valley and Mesa.
“The Learning Together sculpture in Prescott Valley at the Civic Center overwhelmingly won the Public Choice Award with the purchase agreement for the city,” Jeff says. “The one in Mesa also won the public choice award.”
So add “award-winning sculptor” to Jeff’s resume!
WOODFIRE WORKSHOP
For the last five summers, Jeff has made her way up I-17 to Flagstaff and the Northern Arizona’s ceramic workshop comprised of a series of wood-fired kilns set beneath towering Ponderosa pines. She attends the two-week class, working from sunup to sundown every day, ready to fire as many pieces as possible in the large kilns.
All workshop participants pull together, taking turns to load and unload the various brick kilns day in and day out to ensure everyone’s complete collection is fired by closing day. Participants create all types of pieces, from dish ware to vases and everything in between, when they’re not tending to the kiln.
Jeff made a promise to herself that she would sculpt one small animal every day of the year to take to Flagstaff.
“I’m known for my animals in the kiln,” Jeff says. “I started out just wanting to make a quick clay sketch but then started spending an hour a day on each one, so I’ve slowed down on them and plan to pick out my top 50 to take to Flagstaff in the summer.”
Those small sculptures could be the start of something bigger. “I can scan each one and enlarge it to make something big, like a bronze statue,” Jeff says.
Often it seems like the older people put in the most effort, but maybe that’s just because inexperienced students are surprised by the amount of physical work it takes to fire a piece in a wood-fired kiln, which is much different than using an electric kiln.
People have to physically load the kilns, crawling inside to stack pieces just right, and folks must also stay throughout the night to keep the temperature up.
“Working with a wood-fired kiln is enormous work,” Jeff says. “A kiln is a living thing. It must have oxygen and wood. A kiln might stall in the middle of the night and you have to get it back to breathing.”
Many workshop participants have been attending for years, some longer than Jeff, and this group of returnees have the process down. They know what needs to be done and they make it happen.
“We have a big chart on the wall of what we need to load, unload, bisque fire, etc.,” Jeff says. “There’s nothing worse than someone not having fired all their pieces by the end.”
Jeff prepares ceramic items for months in advance to take to the workshop, and she brings home a good many beautiful pieces, but she’s also simultaneously making other items in other mediums.
BOUTIQUE WARES
Sharron Brenning, an artist friend of Jeff’s known for her lovely paintings of Native American children, opened a boutique in Verde Valley, taking over space in her son’s adjacent gun shop, “Deuces & Aces.”
Sharron’s little shop is cleverly called “On the Softer Side” and has a flower-and-bee theme. Sharron asked Jeff to make tiny coffee cups with a Bee motif to use as necklace pendants. And little bee medallions for earrings. Sharron offers handmade soaps in her shop and asked Jeff to make ceramic soap dishes to pair with the soaps. To complement the gun shop’s theme, Jeff makes a ring holder with a large-gauge bullet as the center post.
“Sharron and I are just starting out with this collaboration,” Jeff says, “and we’re learning what sells and what prices to charge. She’s trying to make a go by offering unique handmade products as a draw for customers.”
the PAINTed desert
Jeff has been painting for years, though it sometimes takes a backseat to ceramics and sculpting. There are only 24 hours in a day, after all.
Sadly, one massive Saguaro on Carefree Highway in Cave Creek went down a few months after Jeff painted it. It can takes hundreds of years for a cactus to grow to that size. Saguaro cacti are only found in the Sonoran Desert, nowhere else in the world, and they are a protected species. In this case, the cactus’ demise is even more sad because Jeff suspects it was possibly removed to make room for power lines.
If a Saguaro must be removed, it is usually carefully uprooted, gently transported and then planted elsewhere, as part of the laws to protect them, but moving a cactus as large as this one must be impossible, hence its treatment.
“All the arms were cut off,” Jeff says, “and were left piled up next to the road.”
Thank goodness Jeff preserved the cactus’ image before it went down.
“I feel by painting the cactus, I’ve documented it in history, in a way. To think of all the years and progress that saguaro had lived through. It’s sad.”
BELLS atolling
How did Jeff come up with the idea of making the ceramic bells, one of her more recent and popular inventions? She received a wedding invitation from two former students who had met in her class. After much thought, Jeff decided the bell would be a perfect ceramic gift to represent how the couple had met.
“We’re going to their wedding next month so I made the bell and inscribed their names and wedding date on it. I also made one for my son Cori who married Rachel in July. People love these bells, and every time I post them on social media, they’re bought up quickly.”
Perhaps people want a piece of affordable art made by the great sculptor Jeff Carol Davenport, who is making a name for herself through her public sculpture commissions. Plus, Jeff prices her work so reasonably, charging only $40 for one of her handmade bells; a true bargain for a handmade piece of art.
OFF-GRID VACATION HOME
Several years ago, Jeff and Mike bought a lot in a remote neighborhood near Ramah, New Mexico. Regulations allow only “sheds” on-sight; a “shed” is a building of 200-square-feet or less. Jeff and Mike have made trips to the lot and built an off-grid 12 x 16-foot shed/cabin/bungalow from scratch, and they love how it’s cozy enough for them plus their dogs Eli and Maya.
“It’s like a hunter’s cabin,” Jeff says of the little space outfitted in blue pine walls and rustic flooring, and made comfortable with a large bed and pretty decor. “We bought another property up there and will build another little place so friends and family can come visit.”
When Jeff says they’ll build another hunter’s cabin, she’s gleefully saying that she can’t wait to get up there and cut boards, build the walls, put on a roof, outfit a porch, etc. She’s eager to build the new shed/cabin with her own hands.
DAD, WADE HOFFMAN
If Jeff’s dad, Wade Hoffman, is any indication of her potential longevity, she could have many more years of good health in which to create things. Born in 1932 in North Carolina, Jeff’s dad is 92 years old and still working two days a week as a security guard.
“We want to put a 35 x 40-foot building in our backyard,” Jeff says, “to act as an apartment for my dad and a garage where we can restore his 1930 740 Roadster Packard, which he’s owned since he was 17 years old. I’m looking for a civil engineer to get the building started.”
Mr. Hoffman, a veteran of the Korean war, has all the parts for the Packard and has restored individual pieces over the years. Eventually they’ll transport the car and its parts to Jeff’s house so she and her father can restore it.
“My dad bought a travel trailer to live in as we’re building his apartment and garage,” Jeff laughs. “Parked in our yard, he says he’ll be our onsite security guard.”
PETS aplenty
Also onsite at Jeff and Mike’s house, in addition to their dogs Maya and Eli, are chickens in a coop and their two aged turtles, Indi and Tony, who live under a Paolo Verde tree in the front yard. Indi and Tony love a lettuce snack and an occasional spraying with the water hose.
Jeff has had chickens for years and one of her hens recently hatched two rooster chicks.
“I felt badly that only two of her eggs hatched,” Jeff says, “so I ordered four baby chickens and snuck them under her in the middle of the night. When she woke up she thought she had six babies.”
Jeff manages to care for her husband, her grown children and grandchild, her turtles, dogs, and chickens, all while producing great amounts of great art. And enjoying life with a big laugh throughout it all.
the FUTURE’s so bright
In between sculpting, painting, ceramic projects, building “sheds,” assisting her father, encouraging other artists, tending to her animals with lots of love and caring for her extended family, Jeff has begun experimenting with making jewelry. She took a course in college and has now taken a local refresher course.
“I made four silver rings, one with a cabochon, and then came home and made turquoise rings,” she says of her refresher course experience.
Jeff plans to grow her jewelry-making skills while also pursuing participation in local art shows and maybe getting her work into a gallery in Cave Creek, a popular western-themed town near Jeff’s home.
“At this stage of my life,” Jeff says, “I’m comfortable because I don’t need the money. If money comes, that’s good. But I don’t make art for the money. If I was doing it just for the money, I simply would not be doing it. There’s something deeper than financial gain for me.”
Hear, hear!
And there’s something deeper for the folks lucky enough to experience Jeff and her art… in all its many forms.
RESOURCES
Website: jeffcaroldavenport.com
Instagram: @jeffcaroldavenport
Cre8-Space 