Baker City artist and gallery owner Robert Anders has been selected to exhibit and sell his art at the prestigious American Craft Council Exhibition Aug. 2-4 in San Francisco.

Anders was selected from more than 1,200 candidates who applied to participate in the three-day exhibit.

“It’s kind of a big deal,” said Anders. “They jury artists from all over the United States. It’s kind of prestigious to get in.”

His emphasis is on a series of large bowls he sculpted and that were cast in bronze.

“I like working with the shape and the diversity,” Anders said. “You can really achieve a great diversity of styles and characteristics and they’re fruit bowls basically.”

Anders also appreciates the longevity of bronze items.

“They’ll go on way long after I’m gone, so that’s kind of a good feeling,” Anders said.

Each bowl takes about six weeks to make, he said.

Anders’ designs range from nature designs, such as leaves and trees, to fish skeletons. He also has a variety of dark to shining bronze.

He will be featuring about 30 of his pieces to show and sell in San Francisco.

Anders entered the jury process for applying to the exhibit months ago and received his letter of acceptance about two weeks ago.

He said that the quality of art at the American Craft shows is extremely high.

Anders, who works in a variety of mediums, started with bronze about 15 years ago. He was inspired when he was a young man doing hot work in a foundry at Arvada, Colorado.

“I traded all my wages for casting cause it’s quite expensive,” Anders said. “And so rather than getting paid, I was just casting and running work through the foundry.”

For a previous job with the government, he lived in Kansas City, Minneapolis, and Denver for two years each before making his way to Oregon.

He moved to Baker City and bought his gallery, at 1802 Main St., six years ago. He renovated the historic structure and lives on the second floor, above his gallery.