![[Photo of Carl] Carl Ciliax](images/carl.jpg "Carl Ciliax")
Fast forward to 1993 and Carl is visiting his elderly father in the "Old Folks Home". As Carl tells it, he really met his father in those conversations that they shared. He learned that there was a man inside he'd never known, with dreams he'd never shared. A man who had always done what was expected of him but who had never followed his dreams. It was an ending and a beginning for Carl. He knew he had been following his father's footsteps. His family was almost grown and he had been recently divorced. He saw an oportunity to change his life if he had the courage. It took a couple of years, but in 1999 Carl left his career in the plumbing supply business and his home and went in search of the artist he knew was inside him.
What you see in Carl's work today comes from his past, a three dimensional reflection of personal events and stories told. Honoring our western heritage with his creative spirit and fine craftsmanship, Carl creates works of art, beautiful in detail, form and movement. Each piece respectful, each piece telling a story...
![[Logo] Carl Ciliax, Sculpture in Bronze](images/carl_ciliax_sculpture_in_bronze.gif "Carl Ciliax, Sculpture in Bronze")
Carl's journey to becoming an accomplished western sculptor has been unique. His family's roots go deep in the west...three generations deep in the Arizona Territory. In his studio, Carl proudly displays the silver star his grandfather, Jim Kelly, wore as under sheriff of Cochise County, Arizona. The family stories say that Carl's great grandmother was once a "lady of ill fame" in the infamous Brewery Gulch of the early day boomtown of Bisbee, Arizona. The CX brand which Identifies Carl's art comes from a branding iron made for him by his step-grandfather, Ira Proud of Goodsprings, Nevada. Ira arrived in Goodsprings in 1903 employed as a teamster delivering a team of mules and found home. Ira was an important mentor for Carl and his influence can be seen in Carl's work. The small town of Las Vegas, Nevada was still a reflection of it's past when Carl was born there in 1941. Fifty eight years later when Carl left, you couldn't recognize the original small town. In that time, Carl spent as much time as he could "out in the desert". He had become an expert on the Desert Bighorn Sheep and was an accomplished guide by his early twenties. It was this guiding that connected Carl with the horses, and that took on a life of it's own. Carl loved the horse business and the cowboy life. But raising a family soon became a priority and required more stability.