Sculptor Lincoln Fox sometimes feels guilty making a living doing what he loves to do. Not guilty enough to stop though. Now the Santa Fe artist’s career is getting a boost. He has been commissioned to do a $100,000 sculpture for the Albuquerque International Airport expansion.

His Dream of Flight sculpture was selected from five state finalists by the Albuquerque Arts Board and the Aviation Department for the City of Albuquerque. His winning entry was done as a "maquette", a 24" scale of the finished product that will be 14 feet long and will stand on a seven-foot marble pedestal. It will be a bronze sculpture of a shaman, or medicine man, being pulled through the air by an eagle while a man and his son watch from below.

"I like the idea of people looking at people looking at a sculpture," Fox said. He also likes the idea of flight, one of the criteria for the project. "I think all of us aspire to flight, to do things we can’t do," he said.

Other criteria asked for was that the piece be powerful, have a Southwest flavor and be large. "I’m delighted to be picked, but it’s also a great excuse to be able to do a large sculpture." Larger-than-life-size pieces like this one usually must be done by commission because they are so expensive to produce. "I’m selfish, I like to do it for me. Then if people like it, I make a profit and I like that too."

Fox, 45, received his first degree in fine arts from the University of Texas. He was a senior planning to be a painter and wandered down to the sculpture lab. It wasn’t long before he was hooked on a new medium. He received his two master’s degrees from the University of Dallas and the University of Kansas. His work has been in shows and galleries all over the country. He is represented locally by El Telar.

Now, his interest is mostly in the American Indians. One of his popular series is figures of Indian women made from clay. "The women are simple and solid, handled in an earthy way," he said. With the male figures, the forms are more detailed, and there is more irregularity of forms.

His influence comes from Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) through contemporary sculptors. "Everybody influences me. I’m like a sponge. I go out and experience and see things and then come into the studio and squeeze it out," Fox said.

Other state finalists were Doug Hyde, Larry Bell, Glenna Goodacre and Federico Armijo. "You can’t get much better than the sculptors (the Arts Board) had to choose from. It’s ridiculous to judge art, but sometimes you have to. You’re delighted when a winner comes your way but you can’t be too upset when it doesn’t."

Dream of Flight is scheduled for completion by December 1988.