Three Statues

Three Statues By R. Juan Harris It’s hard to pin Max down. His adventures fly through the air and land like gooney birds at every turn. But, even when he appears to be a man of the open road, his roots fan deep into the central California soil where he farms every imaginable crop, including grapes that find their way into fine California wine. His mother dies without warning and his father is driven by heartache to find a new life in Idaho. Max stays behind and finds contentment with life on the BAR-4 commune farm where he was born. He works with partner Josh to grow grapes that are processed into top-notch California wines. During the off season Max goes into Los Angeles and works as an engineer ..but at the ranch he meets a gorgeous grape picker, and the sky becomes the limit. He marries lovely Raquel who dies in childbirth leaving partner Josh and Josh’s wife Alecia to rear Max’s daughter. Max heads back to LA and his high tech job but after a major downsizing he is unemployed. He collects metal buckets and other scraps at flea markets and tries his hand at sculpting. He commandeers an abandoned funeral chapel on the beach and makes it his studio where he creates unusual works of art. Walking on the beach he meets Betty and they fall in love, but their time together is cut short when her father, without warning, passes away. One of his lovers gives him a Great Dane that he names Van Gogh. Profound heartache lingers from the loss of his wife and Betty’s untimely departure fuels his creativity to new heights, resulting in an amazing life-size female nude. He meets Paula who fuels his passion for metal sculpture and he finishes a second piece. The third piece he believes to be of the assistant to his mentor. She poses nude for him and departs California to make a life in Florida, leaving them no time to explore their attraction to one another.