John M. Soderberg, Ph.D. Service and Achievement
Painted and Sculpted since age five in India
Best of Show, High School, Bangkok, Thailand
Honorable Discharge, United States Marine Corps, 1973
One year volunteer, Arizona Family halfway house, 1974
Taught Martial Arts as therapy, no charge, challenged children, adults
Made logo jewelry for service organizations, 1974-1975
Began teaching Sculpture at no charge to individuals, groups, 1977
Resident Artist, Northern Arizona University, 1980
Sculptural Commission on Apartheid in South Africa for Amnesty International, 1985
Sculptural Commission on war atrocities targeted against children in Soviet occupied Afghanistan, 1985
Sculptural donation, re: Soviet occupied Afghanistan, Washington, D.C., 1985
Jubilee Year Distinguished Alumni Award, N.A.U., 1990
Kiwanian of the Year, Camp Verde, AZ, 1990-1991, Sculptural donation to benefit local community
President, Red Rocks Arts Council, Sedona, AZ, 1991-1992
Two year Board Member of the Verde Valley Shelter for Domestic Abuse
Supporter / Board Member of Victory Ranch shelter for at risk children
Original member and 17 years of service with Rancho Feliz, Scottsdale based non-profit support group (three orphanages in Mexico, 40 Duplex housing project, child-care center, soup-kitchen for children, medical, dental, help. Rest home, Famine relief for Tarahumara Indians in Copper Canyon, Mexico
Official Santa Claus for Rancho Feliz, thirteen years
Three Sculptural donations to benefit Rancho Feliz
Southwest Arts in Action, Sedona, AZ, donation
Ordained by Dr. Robert Schuller, 1997
Doctorate in Humane Letters, Northern Arizona University, 1998
N.A.U. Centennial Alumni Award
Sculptural donation to benefit N.A.U. education
Sculptural donation to support The Status of Women, N.A.U.
Sculptural donation to support Valley Big Brothers and Sisters
Donation of studio space, mentoring, help to benefit Sedona Buddhist Community/ 35 ft. high Stupa Project
Sculptural to benefit International Film Festival, Sedona, AZ, 2004
Sculptural donation to benefit JCS Synagogue, Sedona, AZ, 2006
12 ft. high Sculptural donation, Rancho Feliz, Agua Prieta, Mexico, 2006
Knighted by Swedish Count Ulf Hamilton and honorably inducted into the Hamilton family, 2006
Teaching at various art academies, workshops, and privately for 20+ years
Core member of The Uhuru Ascent team, climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro with Darol Kubacz, paraplegic, 2006
Sculptural and other donations to benefit Northern Arizona Poet's Society, and the Poet's Corner, Sedona, Arizona, 2006
Mentorship of 20 to 30 professional sculptors, also apprentices, students, protégés
Inventions and innovations to advance the state of the art of sculpture include: Classic Clay (now used by sculptors world wide,) pioneered armature concepts and working techniques for Classic Clay, multi-colored patinas with sealing techniques, fragmentation concepts, tools for sculpting the human eye, pre-cast sales technique, innovations in texture, hair, drapery techniques, etc.
Completion of many Sculptural commissions of notable historical or culturally influential persons
25 years of fine-art sculpture designed to document, encapsulate and convey the timeless power and drama of the human experience and potential
Artist Bio: JOHN SODERBERG
John Soderberg - had circled the world eight times and visited more than 80 countries before graduating from high school in Bangkok, Thailand. The King of Afghanistan had recruited his father, a U.S. Foreign Services Officer, to build that nation's first engineering school. John lived his first eighteen years in Afghanistan, India and Thailand. He was exposed to the great art and architecture of ancient Egypt, Israel, Greece, Rome, Imperial China, India, the British Isles and other countries he visited.
As a result, John knew from a very early age that he wanted to live with art and from an equally young age was fired with the urge to become an artist. His first sculptures, "commissioned" by his mother, were executed in mud at home in Kabul, Afghanistan. John was two years old. In the family's next home, India, he took up oil painting at age five; and at age fourteen he studied with a Buddhist monk who was the leading master of teakwood carving. In Thailand as a martial artist he also studied what he recalls as a true initiation into that most difficult of things for an artist to capture - motion.
After graduation from high school in the 1960s, John came to America for college, but veered from the academic path by painting on the street in Berkeley during the riots of the late Sixties. Then in late 1969, for a change of pace, he volunteered for service in the U.S. Marine Corps.
Upon his honorable discharge, John focused on metal. He worked as a tool-and-die maker machinist, fine art jeweler, and custom knife maker. In 1976, he committed himself wholly to sculpture, and has since worked exclusively in the bronze medium.
Recognizing the value of the artist as communicator, Dr. Robert Schuller honored John by ordaining him as a minister in 1997. In 1998 John received his doctorate in Humane Letters from Northern Arizona University.
Internationally collected, John has gained recognition through the rare depth of human passion and empathy consistently evident in his work. He and his wife Traci live and work on their small ranch in Camp Verde, Arizona, near Sedona, where John has completed several monumental and life-size commissions for private parties and organizations such as Amnesty International, PepsiCo, The Crystal Cathedral, Gore-Tex International, Honeywell Corporation, Burger King, Falcon Publishing and Jacmar Foods, among others. He has sculpted the portraits of notable national and international figures such as Christ, Steve Biko, Al Stein, Mark Honeywell, Dr. Norman Vincent Peale, St. Catherine of Siena, Bill and Vieve Gore, Dr. Robert Schuller, James and Naomi Wilden, Archbishop Fulton Sheen, Dr. Billy Graham, Moses, Merlin and Sacajawea. His bronzes, including commissioned portraits, are storytelling in nature and his inspirations often come from ancient mythology and fascinating historical facts.
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