Noted sculptor reflects on remarkable life

In his art studio in northeast Denver he's fulfilling a lifelong dream. Ed Dwight unlocks the door each day on a glistening galaxy of sculptures and kilns, bronze and stone. Walking into his studio, you're overwhelmed by its vastness. In 30 years, he and a handful of workers have sculpted, sold and shipped 19,000 pieces of art.Most of Dwight's sculptures depict the civil rights struggle, the unfairness of the 20th century, the promise of the 21st . He's featured in town squares and museums around the world. A favorite subject for Dwight has always been Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. His sculpture of the civil rights leader in City Park is one of 80 public art projects Dwight has done for the city.Ironically, members of the civil rights movement were not always kind to Dwight. Four and a half decades ago, the sculptor was a top Air Force pilot who appeared destined to become the nation's first black astronaut. But some African American leaders fighting for equality thought the distinction smacked of tokenism. They saw it as offensive. "I was getting the NAACP rolling over me on one side and the Urban League saying OK Dwight, you're our star, go out there out give them the message...and we'll pin our hopes on you, don't screw it up, and yahda yahda yahda," recalls Dwight. "Then I'm getting a thousand letters a week, 25 percent of them saying they're going to go kill me. It was bizarre." The controversy cost Dwight his chance to walk on the moon. He left the Air Force. But fame and irony followed him into a whole new arena.His longtime studio in a northeast Denver airplane hanger sits on the same abandoned runway once used by aviation pioneers like Billy Mitchell and Amelia Earhart.And the same spaceage heat tiles that would have shielded him in the space shuttle are identical to what he now uses as he casts in bronze. There's no bitterness here. Ed Dwight is a thousand times more famous as a great sculptor than as a spaceman. "I'm glad I didn't do that. Because if I had landed on the moon, I wouldn't be doing art today," he smiles. "I'd be running around doing speeches." He still watches all the videos about space, perhaps with a pull at his heart. He was once supposed to climb off a moon lander and leave his footprints for all time on that rock. But clearly, he has still made his mark.