Bruce Lau's career in sculpting can
be traced back to High school, where he took a ceramics class. He never entertained
the possibility that he would one day make his living out of a hobby that he
enjoyed so much.
Mr. Lau studied broadcast communications at the University of Hawaii, continuing his art
classes wherever he could fit them in. He felt he received the greatest inspiration from
the life drawing studios. He next began working at Landmark Entertainment, where he
sculpted toys and theme park attraction merchandise. Not much later, a friend
introduced him to Willie Ito, a character artist for the Walt Disney Company. He agreed to
review Mr. Lau's portfolio, and shortly thereafter he had his foot in the door, working as
a freelance artist with Disney in 1990.
Mr. Lau found that the scale of the Walt Disney Classics Collection Sculptures were the perfect
match for his skill. Since the collection began in 1992, he has created numerous pieces. His favorite is
Donald
on Drums from Symphony Hour, a whimsical and equally spectacular sculpture that highlights
Donald's most renowned traits: temper and tunnel-visioned focus. This
sculpture captures the intense emotion of Donald Duck, in a way that
has only previously been captured on film. Mr. Lau is also
responsible for the charter member sculpture: "Steamboat Willie". One of his most
challenging WDCC sculptures was that of the
Firebird from
Fantasia 2000, recreating an incredible reproduction of melting
lava.
In addition to creating
sculptures for the Walt Disney Classics Collection, Mr. Lau has
created Disney characters for the Lenox Classics line of
Disney sculptures, as well as creating animation
maquettes for Disney Feature Animation. He is responsible
for most of the animation maquette sculptures for the feature
animated film Fantasia 2000. Mr. Lau has also done many
bronze sculptures in association with many Disney Legends for White
Horse Studio.
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