Balazs' sculpture hangs in Budding Rose Gallery

Harold Balazs’ sculpture in styrofoam, Pontchartrain Sun King, can be seen in Rosalia’s Budding Rose Gallery.

A work by Harold Balazs, a Sun King sculpture, has been on display at the Budding Rose Art Gallery, Rosalia, since 1999. Balazs in the mid 1990s created approximately a 5-1/2 x 3-1/2 feet the white styrofoam sculpture. He called it "Pontchartrain."

Balazs, a celebrated Spokane artist and sculptor, died Saturday at his home in the Mead area. His passing has led to listings of his works around Spokane and the state.

How the Rosalia gallery ended up with Harold’s sculpture is a story in itself. Around 1994, gallery co-owner Jim Nebel attended an outdoor enameling class in Balazs’ backyard in Mead. While walking with other students out to the art studio, Jim, along with a couple other students, noticed the above noted styrofoam sculpture lying on top of a burn pile and quizzed Balazs about it. After Harold told them that he didn’t particularly like it, Nebel and other students piped up and asked him if they could have it - rather than it being destroyed.

At that point, to be fair, Balazs asked those interested in it to draw the longest straw (which he had picked up and held in his hand.) As luck had it, Nebel won the straw pull and brought "Pontchartrain" home to Rosalia, where it has been on display along with a couple other Balazs creations at the Budding Rose Art Gallery & Clayworks, a non-profit art gallery for kids of all ages (and is part of the 1999 General Colin Powell and five U.S. Presidents Campaign aka America’s Promise Discovery Project No 270.)

Even though Nebel passed away in 2016, his wife, Diane, still runs the gallery and provides an annual art scholarship to Rosalia High School students who have displayed their artwork at the gallery during Rosalia Battle Days, held on the first weekend of each June.

The annual Student Art Show that shares the walls with Balazs’ art. marked its 18th anniversary in 2017.