John DeAndrea (1941- )

Raised in northwest Denver, John DeAndrea
embraced painting as his medium while a student at the University of Colorado at Boulder in the mid-1960s. It wasn't until graduate school at the University of New Mexico that he first turned seriously to sculpture when he saw a friend casting fiberglass to make kayaks. 
    While still in Albuquerque, DeAndrea began to use fiberglas
to make life casts of body parts. He dropped out of UNM and returned to Denver, where he soon produced the signature work that would bring him worldwide recognition. The first sculptures to anticipate his mature style were realistically cast nude figures finished in automotive paint--just like kayaks. But soon DeAndrea was carefully blending latex acrylic paint into realistic flesh tones, making his sculptures look more and more like real people.