R. Z. Zoot is in real life me, Tom Hornyak, a local Frederick, Maryland self-trained sculpture artist and in my spare time make little sculptures from limestone. I believe that anybody can make art if they really want to, the desire was there in all of us when we were little kids but somehow got covered over along the way. We need to uncover that artistic calling and the joy of making art before the desire to make art is rendered forever meaningless by AI to everyone but the artist!

Inspiration comes from anywhere- a doodle, nature, a cool mechanical device, architecture, a hood ornament. Art and design are all around us. I take particular interest in sculptures from antiquity of everyday objects, animals, and people that were so common then but foreign to us today, and it gives me an odd delight in knowing that in a thousand years from now one somebody may stumble across one of my limestone pieces in the dirt, in an attic, or who knows where and wonder what it means and who made it.

I think that along with inspiration should also come a story, so I have tried to provide a little background into why I made the piece in the first place. An object with a history is infinitely more interesting.

Somewhere on this web page (and I am no web page designer as it may become very plain to see) you can also find a series of little sculptures that were left around Downtown Frederick over the last two years. I have since stopped doing this because those who found them more often than not would not let me know that they found them! Very disappointing- you got a free sculpture, wasn’t so much to ask. Anyway I have put that project on hold for now but you can see those that were left out to be found. For those that did let me know, thanks! Someday I may try again. Who knows.