From the front, Dean and Judi Estes' home looks typical enough. But as you walk past the living room and wander through the kitchen, you discover a whole new world behind Dean and Judi's garage.
In the center of the room, a sculpture-in-progress sits on a pedestal, illuminated by an abundance of overhead lights and plenty of sunlight shining through a wall of floor-to-ceiling windows. The other three walls are covered with sketches, quotes and scripture verses. Scattered on the floor are bits of clay, metal and wood. Here you start to understand what makes Dean's heart beat.
But art is only part of his passion. The other part involves his deep love of God and a desire to "speak words of life" into the world.
"I want to go out into society with my art - or science or medicine or whatever God has given me; in my case it's art - and bring people life, joy, peace, contentment, and not oppression," Dean says.
For him and Judi, ministry is not confined to a specific task or time period. Instead, they see ministry a natural outflow of their lives, a byproduct that comes as they focus on the unique talents and passions God has given them.
Earlier this month, the couple showed three of Dean's pieces at Artscape, a two-day event held at the Idaho Botanical Gardens. The public response was very positive, not only toward Dean's talent as a sculptor but also toward the theme he chose - "Dancers That Dance Upon Injustice."
The series started with three bronze busts (on display today at Vineyard Boise): Mother Teresa, Abraham Lincoln and Anne Frank. Dean plans to add other individuals to the series, including Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi, St. Francis of Assisi and Jesus - plus some people whose stories are not so familiar to the public.
He also wants to complete the series with life-size figures cast in bronze shown together in an installation that allows viewers to walk among the "dancers" and learn their stories.
Those stories, Dean says, are full of life and hope. Before he started sculpting, he spent many hours reading about
Lincoln, Anne Frank and Mother
Teresa. The intense research into their lives, he says, helped him capture more than just their physical appearance.
"I was looking for life. I was looking for something more than a stoic figure," Dean says.
For Lincoln, Dean went beyond what you see in historical photographs - all of which show him with a closed mouth - and gave him a hint of a smile. "It's more animated, more life-like," he says.
Dean is also working on several other sculpture series. "Family In Time" will capture 13 people from his family tree. Another series will illustrate short stories (Dean has started on a piece based on a Christmas story by Bob Huckins, Vineyard Boise's executive pastor).
A set of character studies in clay will capture great faces but won't be based on actual people. "They're a lot of fun because, unlike Mother Teresa, you don't have to worry about whether their nose really looks like their nose," Dean says.
Art has been one of the great loves of Dean's life since his childhood in the Palouse, the wheat country in northern Idaho and eastern Washington. He married his other great love, and they
moved to Boise in 1964. Six years later, Dean graduated from Boise State University with a degree in Fine Arts, emphasizing sculpture and ceramics.
In the years that followed, Dean developed his interest in architectural, sculptural, industrial and graphic design, and in 1984 he joined Hewlett-Packard as an industrial designer.
In 1996, with two sons raised and married (Chad and Trevor both are pastors at Vineyard Boise), Dean and Judi decided it was time to pursue art full time. While he focuses on the creative processes, she works on the marketing end of things.
"I couldn't do what I do without her," Dean says.
Although Dean isn't setting out to be an evangelistic artist, he anticipates that his work will create opportunities to speak to people about the answers they're looking for in life.
"I think if you take any cultural search, no matter who it belongs to, somewhere there's a search for the Prophet, the Savior, the Redeemer. There's a spot in their gospel for that, but they just don't know who it is," Dean says. "Rather than saying they're all wrong, I just want to connect them with what they're searching for. One of the things I want to do is get into the culture itself and say, 'There was someone who came ...' - and you can't do that inside the church."
"I want to be built up in faith and hope and compassion and joy, and I don't want to become a religious bigot. If you go out into society and you're a religious bigot and put everyone else down, what doors are you going to open?" he says.
"People who were dancers upon injustice were ministering, they were focusing on saving lives. Mother Teresa wasn't trying to change some big philosophy; she was focusing on one person at a time."
You can contact Dean
& Judi at deanestes@email.com
