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TODD WARNER
Todd Warner
When Todd was growing up in rural central Michigan, he had two focuses in life that still hold strong, his art and his animals.
As a four year old and the oldest of three boys in the family, he got into trouble with his mother for going door to door in his neighborhood selling his drawings for a penny apiece. A year later, when he was old enough for kindergarten, his teacher, Phyliss Wiggins, called his folks in and told them that Todd had a special gift in art and that they needed to nuture that gift.
From that day forward, Todd was unstoppable. He drew whimsical pictures everyday as advertisements for his parent's restaurant and was often asked to make illustrations for other local businesses. When all the other students got in trouble for having girlie pictures in their lockers at school, Todd was found with his own lifesized drawing of a wrinkled up old woman in a bikini.
After it was confiscated, Todd saw it hanging in the teachers lounge. For many years he drew and painted, but his talent for sculpting is what created the constant demand for his art that exists today.
Todd spent his entire childhood drawing animals, playing with animals and raising animals. While roaming the woods behind his house everyday after school and all summer, he adopted and raised every stray animal he could sneak into his parents house. His grandmother helped him hide chipmunks in sweatsocks and frogs under beds and his father still complains that it was impossible to take a shower without having to empty the bathtub of reptiles before getting in.
These years spent so close to animals taught him the intimate knowledge of their physical build and the way they moved that he would need for his future as an animal sculptor. He studied the way their hair coats grew and how their feathers folded together never knowing at that time that the day would come when he would be creating his own versions of each one of them.
By the time he finished high school, his appreciation of animals had been recognized and Todd was offered a full scholarship in veterinary medicine which he turned down in order to become first an art teacher and later a full time working artist. He loved being a teacher and especially loved his students.
Many of his old students from Freemont and Midland, Michigan schools still attend the one man shows put on by some of the galleries so that they can visit with him and share old times. Every now and then, one will drop in at the farm and spend a few hours. Todd is always glad to see them and interested in how their lives have progressed.
In the late 60's, while still teaching, Todd built his first studio, pictured here. It was a less than palatial 8 by 10 feet, but it allowed him to have a place of his own in which he created the first inhabitants of the wonderful whimsical world he is now famous for. In Todd's world the animals were all healthy and happy and well fed and loved.
On Todd's Lake Charlevoix Farms in Charlevoix, Michigan, and on his farm in Boca Raton, Florida the animals are all exactly that today. Todd and his wife, Linda, raise Mammoth Donkeys (endangered farm species), paint horses, spotted draft horses and rescue abused and neglected animals. Their managerie includes 20 Iguanas (all over 5 feet), an emu who guards the gate, land tortoises, 10 cats, 4 dogs, peacocks, ducks, geese, and many many more.
Todd and his animals have come a long way from that first little studio. Millions of dollars worth of Todd Warner art is sold and shipped every year through over twenty galleries around the world. Although the times and numbers may have changed, at the root of it all, you'll still find Todd and his greatest loves, his animals and his art.
In August of 2000, Phyliss Wiggins, Todd's kindergarten teacher paid a visit to Todd's one man show at Masterpiece Gallery in Bay Harbor, Michigan. It had been half a century since they had seen each other, but Todd had always remembered her fondly. Wiping away his tears, Todd was able to finally thank the person who first recognized his talent.
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