For one Auburn native, the chance to study art in China has not only exposed him to a new culture, it has exposed his art work to the entire world.

The work of Joe Ellis, 23, has highlighted the stage for Bank of America-sponsored Olympic athletes, adorned the dinner tables for corporations such as Chevron and has been presented to former President George H.W. Bush.

Bank of America was so impressed with a statue Ellis made, that they decided to give a bronze replica to the former president as a souvenir, Ellis said.

“They told (Bush) a local artist had made the sculpture when they gave it to him and he said it was a nice moment,” Ellis said.

The statue was a miniature replica of a 7-foot-tall centerpiece Ellis created, which portrayed a man diving into water. Two other statues, one of a gymnast and another of man jumping a hurdle, were also on the bank's award stage.

When the Olympic games end, the three statues will be shipped back to the United States and placed into the company's private collection, an honor usually reserved for well-established artists, Ellis said.

Making the statues even more special was that they bore a striking resemblance to their creator.

“The close up of the face on one of them should look a lot like me, since (the bank) wanted the athletes to look American,” Ellis said. “I was the only American around so I sculpted myself.”

The chance to make the pieces of art for the Olympics while studying ceramics at China's Central Academy of Fine Arts has given Ellis a new perspective on the world and his hometown.

“When you're away from where you come from, you view things in a different way and understand more,” Ellis said. “It makes you more aware of the way the class structure in Auburn is broken up and how segregated things can be.”

Part of that observation, Ellis said, came from his experience in Beijing where you could see a bicycle, a rickshaw and a Mercedes driving down the street next to each other.

“When people see Beijing on TV, they see a fake Beijing,” Ellis said. “It's not the Beijing that I have seen everyday and have fallen in love with.”

Joe's mom, Johanna Smith Ellis, said she could tell her son had taken a liking to China when she last visited him.

“I went over there about two years ago,” Smith Ellis said. “He picked us up at the airport in a cab and he was in the front seat joking with the driver in Chinese. In high school, he had problems with French 101, and Chinese is difficult in comparison.”

When he first went to China to study for a semester, Ellis said he didn't know a single word of Chinese. But he still fell in love with the culture and decided to transfer from Alfred State to the academy.

Ellis spent the first year learning Chinese, before entering the two-year program which he will graduate from next summer.

For Smith Ellis, her son's accomplishments are proof that parents can help foster a child's hobby into a successful career.

“If you have a kid who has a love you have to help them pursue it,” she said. “When Joe was a kid, I took him to all of the local museums and bought him lots of clay. We still have tons his clay in our basement.”

Staff writer Nate Robson can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 248 or nathan.robson@lee.net