“One of my greatest passions in life is simply people watching,” says sculptor Roy W. Butler. A genuine student of life and self-taught, he is passionately devoted to his art and possessed with a rare talent for creating sensitive and moving images that touch the soul. As a child growing up in rural middle Tennessee, he began developing his artistic and technical talents at an early age. When money allowed, much time was spent assembling model kits, mostly automotive, with an expertise of build and finish that rivaled that of youth twice his age. During high school, Roy heard of a national competition sponsored by General Motors in which entrants had to totally design, hand fabricate and build 1/12th precision scale automobiles of the future. These were not store bought model kits but automobiles fabricated from components created and fabricated by each entrant. He was eligible to enter three separate years and won nationally recognized awards each year. His talents were also devoted to drawing. “I used to spend so much time drawing everything in sight that I would run out of sketch pads and my mother would often hide the kitchen paper towels,” says Butler. The word quickly spread of his artistic ability and a local contractor commissioned a full color, watercolor perspective rendering of a recently completed home which was to be submitted to a national trade manufacturer. Several months after completion, the rendering appeared in a LIFE MAGAZINE advertisement; Roy was sixteen years old. During high school a local nationally recognized portrait photographer may not have fully realized the significance when he gave Roy the nickname, Da Vinci. As his talents evolved, creative interests developed into a successful career combining the art of the human form, fine art sculpture, painting, photography, computer graphics and architectural design. Many years later in 1988, he found the culmination to expressing his true passion for people through the mediu