Alena and Ryan Tottle / Peter Kelley Studio

Today we have a very special submission to our Postcard Art Benefit from the gifted dynamic sculpting duo, newlyweds Alena and Ryan Tottle. This exceptionally impressive sculpture entitled Pen Pals is based on the Brownstones To Red Dirt poster illustrated by the talented Willie Real. Though not a postcard, Alena and Ryan's sculpture beautifully captures the essence and spirit of the boys from Willie's original design. Not to be forgotten, the precise molding and casting of this piece was also donated by Peter Kelley of Peter Kelley Studios. We are all so very honored to be able to include this brilliant sculpture as part of the benefit and applaud the artistry and PHENOMENAL effort that went into it's creation.



Alena Tottle
Born in Mississippi, Alena moved across country to Colorado where in 2004 she graduated from Metropolitan State College of Denver with a bachelor's degree in Business Management. It wasn't until her senior year of college she realized her passion for clay. A self-taught sculptor, Alena spent her time learning as much as she could from sculpting forums and sculptors in the industry, including the deviant art community, which helped her land a sculpting job with Blue Sky Studios in New York at the end of 2005. Currently creating character maquettes for films in development, Alena's film credits include Horton Hears a Who!, Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs and the soon to be released Rio. She has freelanced with DC Comics and has contributed her sculptures to many other charity auctions and events such as the Totoro Forest Project and Beautiful Grim. Alena's sculpture has also appeared in the fantasy art annual Spectrum 14 and in the Society of Illustrators 3rd Bienniel Dimensional Exhibition in New York City.

To see more of Alena's art and sculpture please visit her blog.

Ryan Tottle
Ryan was born in South Wales, United Kingdom. After receiving a BA Honors of Animation from Glamorgan Centre for Art & Design in 2005, Ryan started working as a traditional sculptor throughout the UK and Europe. He has created prosthetic makeups for Various BBC Productions such as Dr Who and Torchwood and as well as on location in Madrid, Spain for the recently released film, La Herencia Valdemar. A guitarist and enthusiast of the visionary art movement, Ryan now lives in New York with his wife Alena where he is currently hard at work transitioning into the digital realm creating models and sculptures in Maya and Zbrush.

Peter Kelley
These beautiful maquettes were molded and cast at Kelley Studio in Mount Kisco, New York by toy-prototype sculptor Peter Kelley and his colleague, Shalon Palmer. Peter started his career in art at New York City's School of Visual Arts and now has more than a dozen years experience sculpting toy prototypes for major toy companies like Hasbro, Fisher Price, Mattel, to name only a few. Besides his expertise sculpting in traditional materials such as wax and clay, Peter specializes in high-quality digital sculpture utilizing all the current digital platforms to create exacting replications. As well, he enjoys casting the detailed, terrifically sculpted maquettes that come to him from the talented people at Blue Sky Studios.

For more from Peter please visit his website.