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M.L. “Sonny” Moss Artist of the Year

Eight years ago Larry cleared a small area out the native Post Oak and Yaupon forest at his home in south College Station to begin work on a sculpture studio. 800,000 lbs. of stone and 900 square feet of glass later —- it’s nearly finished.

Larry grew up in Buffalo, New York where 6 foot snowfalls are not uncommon. He migrated south to attend Texas A&M on a swim scholarship and graduated with a degree in Landscape Architecture. The next 32 years were spent designing and building outdoor spaces that people interact with, move through, and discover; functional spaces with an awareness of balance, harmony, uniqueness, intrigue, and always beauty.

The decision to begin a new direction in life was a major decision but with the support of family, Larry began exploring life as an artist —- a fulltime sculptor. “I have always loved landscaping but felt that I needed greater challenges. Being an artist is a dedication to yourself, to use every ounce of energy and discover something new every day. It’s not really a choice, it’s that I can’t not do it.”

Larry’s favorite medium, warm soft clay, can be manipulated into expressive lifelike figures. The figures are then molded and cast into the long-lasting finished bronze sculpture. The sculpture can now last 1000 years.

Much of the work completed by Larry is sold through galleries and disappears into homes and faraway places but there are three sculptures which were completed this year that were created for everyone:

– Our Lady of Victory, bronze cast and gilded, adorns the top of the dome of newly completed St, Mary’s Church in College Station.

– For 115 years, Saint Mary’s Cathedral in Austin, Texas was left unfinished. The missing limestone sculpture of Saint Michael the Archangel has been carved from a single 4000lb block of stone and the historical limestone structure is now completed.

– A bust of Paul and Merrill Bonarrigo has been created to be placed in the vineyards at Messina Hof.