Stephen Maxon

Max Cast Inc

An individual uses a tool to apply a thick, tan material onto a curved metal handle on a wooden board in a workshop.

Stephen Maxon

Founder and Sculptor

Born into a family of itinerant acrobats, young Stephen went lost in the western wilderness, having dropped out of the back of a medicine-show wagon. Living on snake venom and cactus thorns, the toddler was adopted and raised by wolves. Later, after being rescued by cowboys, he rode from town to town on bucking broncos searching for his parents and eking out a meager living wrestling grizzly bears.


Knighted at 14, he became a mercenary in Central Africa struggling to protect endangered plants and wildlife and continuing his search for his long-lost family. Laboring to discover new strains of communicable diseases, he worked tirelessly to stomp out athelete’s foot and halitosis.


He began sculpting at six months, twisting the bars of his play pen into a striking likeness of the family dog. Later he studied with Donatello, Giacommetti and Rodin, teaching the later all he knew. After years of study and toil, Maxon renounced his MFA to become an outsider artist. Finding casting much less difficult than bending steel bars with his teeth, he developed new ways of melting metal via thought control.


After making and losing several fortunes, he currently lives in a trailer in rural Iowa receiving messages from outer space in his dental fillings. He enjoys telling lies and chewing gum.


Stephen L. Maxon

Phone: (319) 656-5365 | E-Mail: max-cast@kctc.net


Educational Background

  • Graduate of Mason City High School, (1966) Mason City, IA
  • AA, North Iowa Community College, (1968)
  • BA, University of Iowa, Anthropology, (1970)
  • Teaching Certificate Art Education, (1978)
  • MA, University of Iowa, Sculpture, (1979)
  • MFA, University of Iowa, Sculpture, Minors in Drawing and Ceramics, (1980)


Professional Affiliations

  • American Foundryman’s Society, 1979 – Present
  • College Art Association, 1980 – 1983


Honors & Awards

  • Ford Foundation Tuition Scholarship, (1979)
  • InterPace Scholarship, for the International Sculpture Convention, Washington,
  • DC, (1980)
  • Award of Merit, Dubuque Fest, IA, (1988)
  • Award of Merit, Riversance, Davenport, IA (1990, 1993, 1996 and 2003)
  • Merit Award, Uptown Art Fair, Minneapolis, MN, (1993)
  • First Place, Sculpture; Miami Beach Festival of the Arts, (1993)
  • Judges Merit Award, Cain Park Arts Festival, Cleveland, OH, (1998)
  • First Place, Sculpture; Des Moines Arts Festival, IA, (1999)
  • Award of Achievement at the American Craft Council Show, St. Paul, MN, (2003)


Commissions

  • Iowa Public Broadcasting, Ltd. Ed. of 25 bronzes as Fund Raising Premiums (1987)
  • Stanley Foundation, design & cast bronze awards for Global Cedar Rapids (1990-93)
  • City of Ames, IA; design & cast a bronze sidewalk dance step (1995)
  • Stanley Foundation, Muscatine, IA design and cast “Stratosphere” sculpture (2002)
  • City of Iowa City, over life-size bronze statue of Irving B. Weber (2003)
  • City of Kalona, IA; design and cast bronze donor tree for Kalona Public Library (2005)
  • Scenic City Foundation, Iowa Falls; life size bronze statue of Bill Riley (2008)
  • Illinois College, Jacksonville, IL; life size statue of a young Abraham Lincoln (2009)
  • City of DeWitt, IA; life size 1930’s era bronze farmer (x2) picking & shucking corn (2010)
  • Bronze Spanish Cannon for Forest City Veterans. Replica of a 1867 cannon captured in 1898 by Admiral Dewey at Manila Bay. The original was scrapped in WWII (2013)
  • Bronze life size statue of Col. Isaac White, name sake of White County, IN, killed at the battle of Tippecanoe in 1811. Monticello, IN (2015)
  • Life size statue of Hayden Fry, legendary Iowa football coach for the City of Coralville, IA (2017)
  • Herbert Hoover on a park bench, life size bronze for Hoover Elementary, West Branch, IA (2017)
  • Junior Edwards, life-size bronze statue of Medal of Honor recipient, Indianola, IA (2023)
  • Capt. Robert Martin, Tuskegee Airman fighter pilot, bronze relief plaque for the Dubuque Regional Airport, Dubuque, IA (2024)
  • Butch Pedersen, life-size bronze statue of legendary football coach, West Branch, IA (2024)
  • Cornhusker, third version of the DeWitt bronzes for the Moseman Agrarian Art Collection, David City, NE (2025)
  • Lulu Merle Johnson, seven-foot bronze statue of Johnson County, Iowa’s new namesake (2026)


Work Experience

  • Teaching Assistant, Dept. of Anthropology, University of Iowa, (1971)
  • Teaching Assistant, Graduate Sculpture, University of Iowa, Dept. of Art and
  • Art History, (1979)
  • Teaching Assistant, Interdimensional Concepts, University of Iowa, Dept. of
  • Art and Art History, (1980)
  • Work Study Assistant to Installation Coordinator, University of Iowa Museum
  • of Art, (1980)
  • Instructor, Sculpture, Mary Crest College, Davenport, IA, (1982)
  • Self Employed Sculptor-Foundryman, Max-Cast, (1983 – Present)
  • Lab Coordinator for Sculpture, University of Iowa, Dept. of Art and Art
  • History, (1999)
  • Bronze Casting Workshop, Luther College, Decorah, IA (2000)
  • Adjunct Faculty, Environmental Art, Upper Iowa University, Fayette, IA (2004&7)


References available upon request.