cast iron sculputures in Thousand Oaks at The Lakes

We were in Thousand Oaks last week for a field trip to California Pizza Kitchen (yum) and afterwards we went with the other moms and kids in our group to the little play area. This strip-mall area is called The Lakes. There are a few cast-iron sculptures there of children playing, squirting each other with hoses, digging in the sand, and having fun.

Little D wanted to know more about them so we read the dedication plaque and tried to read the artist's signature on the side of the sculpture but we were unsure of the spelling.

He actually asked me if we can research the artist more when we get home by looking him up on the internet. WOW! Yes, I was surprised (in a good way). It isn't often that either of them ask to learn more about something by doing more research.

A day or so passed and I found the scrap of paper in my purse that I had written down the artist's name on.

del E'sprie, which, I found out later is actually, De L' Esprie

I looked everywhere but could find nothing at all. I tried it as all one word, tried to see if it was 'de' and not 'del' and my writing was wrong, and a few other ways, since, like I said, I was not sure of the spelling. Google, Wikipedia and other searches came up with nothing.

I looked up City of Thousand Oaks and searched that website. I typed in The Lakes, the artist's name, cast-iron sculptures, etc... nothing.

So, I clicked on the 'contact us' and wrote an email asking if someone could point me somewhere to learn more about the artist.

Stacy Minasian replied with this; www.delesprie.com


The site is AMAZING! Little D and I spent over an hour mesmerized at all of her work. I think Little D liked the ones with Jesus and the mermaid ones the best. He found it amusing that such great talent was spent on mermaids (typical boy?) but he was still impressed by the quality of work!

Great coming from an 8 year old! :-)

Here is a little bit from the official site;

Bronze sculptor De L' Esprie's classical art training has put her in the unique company of past historic Bronze Masters with her talent, hard work and dedication. Her portraiture and figurative bronze statues are "painstakingly realistic," magnificently combining strength with beauty and vision with history. De L' Esprie's classical art is dynamic, explosive, and self-sufficient.

Her bronze sculpture subject matter varies from religious works to whimsy, Native American subjects to children, and animals to romantic figures. However, no matter what the theme, art collectors, museums, libraries, cities, corporations, private collectors, and bronze sculpture enthusiasts prize her work.


I have since emailed the 'contact us' on the that site to learn a little more about De L' Espirie that Little D asked me about. I'll re-post or edit this post if I learn more!

I have some photos of Little D and Baby K with the sculputures too that I will post soon. Durning all of this Baby K was here too but was playing!
:-)