In a first for DSC, sculptor Raj Paul has been selected as the Artist of the Year for the 2019 Convention, Mogambo: Dagga Boy Danger.
Raj Paul is a longtime donor and exhibitor with DSC, going back 16 years to the first work done for DSC – the Peter Hathaway Capstick Hunting Heritage Award. Paul works primarily in bronze casts and has created many pieces over the years for DSC’s awards program as well as imaginative work that he has donated to the live and silent auctions.
“Never before has a three-dimensional artist been selected as Artist of the Year, and we felt it was time,” said DSC President Karl Evans. “Of course, Raj was the strongest candidate not only for his beautiful work, but also for his service to DSC.”
Raj’s story is an inspiring one. At 19, he emigrated from India to the U.S., taking nearly a year by way of Germany, finally landing a series of jobs that included making forms for the taxidermy industry. Leaving that job, he then began sculpting.
Paul says, “The inspiration for my art comes from nature. Just like in landscape design, I find it very exhilarating to have an image of a beautiful garden or a sculpture in my mind and then recreate it in living form and have the result as I had imagined and hoped.”
Raj has donated some gorgeous pieces that will be featured in the upcoming auctions at Mogambo. His work will also be showcased on the cover of the Convention issue of Game Trails, due to hit mailboxes around December 10, 2018.
Paul’s auction items along with hundreds of others will be available for viewing soon on www.biggame.org, and the full-color auction catalog will be mailed to members in mid-November.
The DSC Convention and Expo will be held in the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center and Omni Hotel in Dallas Jan. 17-20, 2019. Sportsmen and women are invited to be a part of another record-breaking event to help support conservation, education and hunter advocacy initiatives around the world. The theme this year is Mogambo: Dagga Boy Danger.
The four-day celebration of the outdoor lifestyle is open to the public and is one of America’s premier fundraisers for conservation. The DSC 2018 Convention raised more than $6 million for wildlife programs, public education and hunter advocacy worldwide. While membership is not a requirement for attendance, DSC will welcome 45,000 guests and nearly 500 new members at the convention to help promote the mission and programs of the organization.
For more information about Raj Paul, visit www.wildartsbyrajspaul.com.
