Noted artist to tackle new Bram Stoker bust project.
Celebrated master sculptor Bryan Moore made a splash a few years back with his stunning bronze bust of iconic dark fantasy scribe H.P. Lovecraft and later, of Gothic godfather Edgar Allan Poe. Now Moore is about to mold another master of horror, that of DRACULA author Bram Stoker.
Says Moore:
“The character of Count Dracula embodies what we’d all like to be: sexy, immortal, wise from centuries of lost l’amour, status hard won and enduring to the last. The undead Count represents everything timeless and deathless that never goes out of style throughout the romantic ages.”
With this latest bust, Moore will continue the trend of casting the statue in the city of his subjects birth, in this case Dublin, Ireland.
“Fans across the globe helped me to place busts of Lovecraft in Providence, Rhode Island and Poe to Boston, Massachusetts. It seemed only fitting that Bram Stoker should return to the Emerald Isle and will be donated to the Dublin Writers Museum in Parnell Square.”
Placing a bust of Stoker here puts emphasis not only on his personality but also on his nationality said Robert Nicholson, Curator of the Dublin Writers Museum. Being born and bred a Dubliner was just as important to Stokers genius as it was to that of his contemporary and acquaintance, Oscar Wilde, and to many other writers born here on the cultural fault line.
Joining Moore in his literary quest of honoring Stoker is no less than Bram’s great grand-nephew Dacre Stoker, who manages the Estate of Bram Stoker as well as co-author of both the sequel to DRACULA entitled DRACULA: THE UNDEAD.
“The Bram Stoker Estate is very pleased to endorse the Bram Stoker Bronze Bust Project. The Stoker family would ultimately like to see a statue of Bram displayed in a prominent location in Dublin. A bronze bust is certainly a fitting tribute and this effort by Bryan Moore is to be commended and is worthy of our family’s support.”
Also on board is noted DRACULA scholar, author and filmmaker David J. Skal, whose book HOLLYWOOD GOTHIC: THE TANGLED WEB OF DRACULA FROM NOVEL TO SCREEN paved the way for his much anticipated biography, SOMETHING IN THE BLOOD: THE UNTOLD STORY OF BRAM STOKER, to be published by Liveright next year.
As with the Lovecraft and Poe projects, Moore will be launching a Kickstarter campaign to crowdfund the costs of the bust as well as personally making a financial donation to Children’s Books Ireland, a local organization that promotes children’s literacy.
“It’s an incredible amount of work for many months to plan and launch these bust projects with the project team, but also incredibly rewarding” says Moore. “So many fellow fans from across the world rally to the cause and help me turn this vision into a reality, which is to celebrate these legendary authors of works that mean so much to the public consciousness and to pop culture. It’s about time that the authors of these classics of horror literature were seen as legitimate scribes of something really special that never becomes dated. Horror will outlast us all.”
