Rick Price was a figure maker, good friend, and cherished colleague. He left us way too early. I strongly believe that my book would never have been published without his encouragement and help. Here is something I wrote shortly after his passing....
Rick used to call me Mikey, and he affectionately called my wife 'Blondie'. He had a great sense of humor and made me laugh quite often. I remember when I first joined the vent list (late in 1997 I recall), Rick wrote me right away to see if I was the same Mike Brose of 'Prop Works'(from back in the early 90's). We struck up a friendship immediately and talked much about figure making. Rick was always very direct (never pretentious) when expressing an opinion and did not pull any punches. He always told it like it was. I greatly appreciated this about Rick. I always knew where I stood with him and if I asked his opinion on something, I knew I would always get an honest
(sometimes blunt , but very helpful) answer.
Rick really encouraged me to finish my book on figure making. One time when I was feeling very discouraged about it (because it was such a monumental task and the remuneration would probably never be equal to the time put in), this is what he wrote to me...............
"I would imagine that your book would largely be a labor of love. I know that you want it to be the best and I feel in my heart {yup ,got one of them too} that it will be {the best}.Writing ANY kind of vent book , be it "instructional" or specialized stuff like yours is probably a somewhat risky undertaking....... maybe you might ask other published authors who have written "How to books" about what to expect, then again on the other hand, maybe you shouldn't because how can anyone know for SURE.....I think you should DEFY them all and any possible negative nay-sayers and go ahead and complete your book and publish it. History is replete with examples of people who have believed in something SO strongly that they went ahead with their dream and accomplished what they set out to do despite set-backs,
obstacles and disappointments."
"I have much faith in you, Mike. I really do."
That's just a smattering of the encouragement I received from Rick over the course of several years. In addition to all of his encouragement, he read through all of my rough drafts for each chapter of
the book and would give his unguarded opinion on all of it (even though it was quite lengthy) which was invaluable. I did not need a 'yes' person to tell me what I had written was great or something. I could always count on Rick to be brutally honest and tell me what needed fixing, which was more helpful than anything anyone else could have done.
Not only that, he provided much information from his very diversified figure making background to contribute directly to the book, as well as quite a few photos. Rick knew that he was never going to write a book on figure making. He told me so. But he really wanted to see a comprehensive book on the subject published however. From our conversations, I think he felt that by helping me (besides genuinely just wanting to help me), that quite a bit of his thoughts, knowledge, experience, and personal standards on quality and craftsmanship on figure making would end up in the book.
So needless to say, there is quite a bit of Rick Price in the pages of my book due to his generous input and influence. That's not to minimize the help that I received from others, but I think it needs to be known that Rick really put in the lion's share as far as help with that project. I honestly believe there's a good chance that my book would never have been finished without Rick's help, and at the very least would not have been as complete a volume without his generous help. For that I will always be grateful. I let him know on many occasions how I felt about that.
He continued to gently (well gentle for Rick! ) push me to get the book done. Ironically, he would always say, "I want to see the book done before something happens to me! When are you going to get it done
Mikey?!?", he would tell me. When I visited him in CA, Rick and his family (Jackie and his daughter Sarah) made me feel right at home (Jackie gave me a big hug), although we had not ever met in person before this. I have very vivid memories of sitting at the dining room table and feeling very welcome in their home. Rick very generously spent a few days with me discussing all we could on figure making as it pertained to completing my huge book project. We spent a lot of time looking at the inside of dummy heads discussing various techniques in figure making. We talked about dummies until the cows came home! He shared his wealth of figure making experience and as well as things he learned from working with Chuck Jackson.
Rick knew that my wife and I were looking to return to CA at some point, and that we were thinking about relocating in northern CA possibly. He was excited at the prospect of getting to visit more often
and possibly getting into some figure making projects together (or some other kind of adventure! ). I am greatly saddened that can not happen now.
Rick had indicated to me too that he was wanting to make some figures again and was asking for my help to make some parts, and possibly some castings and molds, etc., to make that end of it easier for him. I was greatly looking forward to working with him on that. How wonderful it would have been to have him making some more figures.
I don't think a day will go by in the shop here without thinking about Rick and the influence and impact he's had on my life, especially in connection with figure making. I will miss him greatly. I will miss his emails and phone conversations, with him teasingly harassing me about something!
Mike Brose
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