Body Casting Kim for American Beauty  |  developing the image

An Ardmore, Oklahoma art collector contacted Phelps about commissioning a double life-size bronze of herself similar to Nancy. During an extended studio visit, she expressed what she was looking for in the sculpture that she wanted to install next to the swimming pool at her new Los Angeles home. Armed with this information, Phelps enlisted Kim to pose for some photographs for a proposal. After purchasing a different large scale sculpture from Phelps,  the collector eventually decided not to go forward with the commission but Phelps was so pleased with the proposed image that he sent it out to his art galleries. He quickly got a call back from art dealer Matt Vickers asking if it was possible to sculpt this four times life size rather than double life size. A Houston couple loved the image, wanted it for their new Florida beach home, wanted it based on the same model, and wanted it four times life size. Phelps was able to get Kim back to the studio for body casting in order to make that happen. The entire process is outlined in the image galleries above.  American Beauty is sculpted in two different sizes, The twenty four feet long sculpture is in an edition of 5 bronzes and the forty inch long version is in an edition of 35 bronzes.