Stop by Sculpturedale on Route 7

KENT —  Sculptor Denis Curtiss’ front lawn is a veritable zoo, filled with nearly life-sized metal sculptures of elephants, giraffes, goats and other animals — most of which are rarely seen in Litchfield County.

Cars pull off nearby Route 7 all the time and people step out,  filled with wonder, disbelief — and plenty of questions about what they’ve stumbled upon.

Curtiss doesn’t mind. In fact, he welcomes the visits. When he sees a car pull into his driveway, he runs outside with a smile on his face. He’s more than happy to invite visitors to  walk around his property and to share his work with them. They can see his studio, which is in a garage adjacent to the driveway (the same garage that houses his beloved Volkswagen Beetle).

The property is also home to The Dog Show, a mini-museum and shop of canine art and memorabilia that is run by Curtiss’ wife, Barbara.

Together, the two attractions form Sculpturedale, a word the Curtisses made up that pairs “sculpture� with the breed of dog that the two are involved in rescuing: the Airedale.

The property has a lived-there-forever feeling, with each of the Curtisses’ respective collections appearing to be a lifetime’s worth of work. That’s not the case, though. The Curtisses are both from West Cornwall, have had multiple careers and have lived in many places.

Denis, who attended a technical high school, was told he would never be able to get into college. This, of course, inspired him to go anyway.

“I’m one of those people who loves to be told I can’t do something. The word ‘can’t’ is not in my vocabulary,� he said.

While in college, he found himself spending a lot of time in the art department, where he made himself useful by fixing kilns and eventually learned about sculpture and woodworking.

After graduation, he found work as a cabinetmaker specializing in antique restoration.Then one day, he and his wife decided to sign up for the Peace Corps.

“We called the corps on Tuesday, and were signed up by Wednesday,â€� Denis recalled. And thus began  the couple’s 20-year absence from the Northwest Corner region.

Their Peace Corps experience was followed by several years in which the couple traveled around the world, teaching at international schools.

When they decided to return home, they settled on Denis’ family’s property. And they’re still there today.

Sculpture is Denis’ third career. He began by making large-scale wood sculptures of stylized, intertwined dancers. Then he began thinking about how he could make those sculptures appropriate for outdoor display.

“I wanted to cast them, but it was way out of my price range. Also, when you send your work off to someone else, you lose contact with it,� he explained. “So I put two and two together, and figured out how I could make my own metal sculptures for the outdoors.�

Curtiss called a local welding shop and asked if they could offer some guidance and answer some questions.

“I learned to weld over the phone,â€� he said.  

His technique is known as resistance welding: Heat is generated by an electrical current running through the metal and that heat is intense enough to bind two pieces of metal.

Now, years after teaching himself to weld, Denis has made hundreds of metal animals, which have traveled as far as California and Venezuela. He and his wife are both involved with the Little Guild of St. Francis in West Cornwall, and Barbara has taken charge of Airedale dog rescues for all of New England.

Sculpturedale is a beautiful, comfortable, creative and welcoming space.

“A lot of people don’t feel like they can just stop in here, and they should. We’re about to get a new sign, so hopefully people will realize that this isn’t just our private garden,� Barbara said.

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