Dick Behrends rises with the sun, walks his eight-pound Shih Tsu around Forest Lake Circle at his Sedgefield Lakes home twice, then descends to “outback” (studio) to spend the rest of the day sculpting.
“I do take off at noon for lunch and a nap,” he admits, but the rest of the day is spent among his sculptures, dozens of them, mostly western-inspired cowboys and Indians. The details in his creations is extraordinary, ranging from a lithe body stricken by a rifle shot to the decorous spur on a cowboy boot.
Lately, he has begun a new project: a seven-foot statue of Levi Coffin, President of the Underground Railroad in pre-Civil War America. Local Quakers are raising money ($350,000) to create the bronze statue, hopefully to be located somewhere around the Greensboro Historical Museum. Meanwhile, from a sketch on a legal pad, Dick has sculpted an 18-inch replica of a stalwart Coffin in a protective stance in front of a slave couple and their baby.
Chicago-born, Dick Behrends moved in the early sixties to Greensboro, hometown of his wife, Jacque, to join an ad agency that he ultimately owned, one of the first and most successful in the state; however, he always made time for sculpting, even in the frenetic world of advertising. Following his retirement 15 years ago, he began to devote full time to his chosen art, including many hours for historic research which is part of what makes his sculptures extraordinary.
But this is more than a story about an artist. Although Dick will be 87 years old in September, his considerable talent has never been more evident, nor the pleasure he derives when he enters his studio every morning. He exemplifies the enhanced potential for creativity that can be realized in the senior years due to the wisdom and perspective that comes with life experiences.
Why should a creative mind matter to seniors? In a recent column, Nancy M. Hall, member of the Senior Tar Heel legislature and a community leader on aging issues in Winston-Salem, quotes from Birren, J. and Deutchman’s Creative Elderhood, What’s Art Got to Do with It? “Art and aging bring us face to face with the unknown. When an artist starts out making something, the unknown weighs heavily on the process and the outcome. It is the same with growing older; we are not sure of what will happen to us. Through creative approaches to everyday life and artistic means of self-expression, we can engage the mystery. We can explain ourselves, our context of being, and discover what it means to be human.”
The normal occupations of living run counter to creativity; however, as the distractions of life abate, the mind is free to soar, to muse to ruminate on the wonders of a past well-remembered.