RESPECT FOR CLASSICS: Dan Spector, above, an artist who received his formal education at the Rhode Island School of Design, has a high respect for the classics and is a stickler for accuracy with casts for architectural restorations. Shown at right are some of the decorative items available at his Broad Avenue studio. -- PHOTOS BY TOM WILEMON

Dan Spector looked out the window at the old rusty water tower on Broad Avenue tagged with the graffiti of street artists, then shifted his gaze back inside to the classic forms scattered about his business.

Wazmo, a white cat, camouflaged himself among the architectural items, bas-reliefs of saints, statues and life casts.

“I have no idea who is the next person will be to walk through that door,” Spector said.

The customers who come to Archicast at 2527 Broad Ave. run the gambit. It could be a random church official, a construction contractor or a walk-in shopper. But this business is more artist studio than gallery.

Accuracy a serious matter

Spector does his work in the back of a shop filled with interesting items. He pointed toward a life cast of a large-breasted woman.

“That woman came all the way from Baltimore to have this cast done before she had her reduction surgery,” Spector said.

The woman never came back so now it’s another life cast for Wazmo to rub against, sitting in a corner with other figurative studies. The price for these body molds can range from $250 to $1,200 and beyond.

However intriguing these life casts may be, Spector typically makes most of his money with architectural pieces: capitals for columns in Tuscan, Doric, ionic, Corinthian or Scamozzi designs, brackets made to resemble mermaids or other fanciful forms, molding that curves in perfect circles and swirls with decorative elements.

“Here’s the basic idea of the business,” he said. “A building Downtown gets renovated. They get masons, sheetrock guys or carpenters, but they are going to have to hire me or someone like me to redo the fancy stuff, the stuff that makes the building different from another. I take the historical accuracy pretty seriously.”

His work can be found throughout Memphis at several of the city’s historical structures and landmark buildings. At the Exchange Building, for example, Spector did the restoration of the big egg-and-dart molding and the giant brackets in the ballroom. At FedExForum, Spector did molding for the big spheres outside the building. At the Memphis Theological Seminary, he recast the large urns adorned with rams.

Spector’s work can be found throughout the continental United States and abroad. He helped a church in New Orleans recast an “upside-down fancy dome” for a restoration project after Hurricane Katrina. He travels sometimes for a job.

“Last year was great,” he said. “I worked in Nantucket, (Mass.,) in the middle of summer, and I worked in Nassau in the Bahamas in the middle of winter. That’s free vacations.”

His own way

So far, this year is a different story.

“Right now, business is terrible,” Spector said.

The good thing about being a one-man operation in an economic slump is the only person you can fire is yourself. Spector isn’t likely to stop being an artist. After all, is there any other specialist in architectural restoration who has a “Jackson Pollock” technique for nude life casts?

“I make colored plaster and throw it into the mold,” he explained.

There are some colors he won’t use.

“I don’t like painting the work to make it look just like flesh,” he said. “It gives me the creeps.”

Spector invented a technique that involves mixing glass fiber into plaster.

“Plaster things used to weigh three times as much and not be as strong,” he said. “That’s my main claim to fame.”

Spector has a bachelor’s degree from the Rhode Island School of Design. A native of Long Island, he first came to the Memphis area in 1974 to design “Wonder Horse” toys for Wonder Products Co. in Collierville.

After realizing that he could make molds for architectural elements and do restorations, he opened his own business in 1984. The shop was first on Madison Avenue, but he moved to the Broad Avenue Arts District in 1991.

Spector said he supports the efforts of the Historic Broad Business Association to promote the area.

“I’ve been pushing for us to get recognized by the City Council as an official arts district,” he said. “We feel like we already are one.”

This area of town is more of a studio district for artists than an art gallery district for retailers, he said.

Spector looked back toward the old water tower, the image that serves as the logo for the Broad Avenue business owners, as a cloud as white as Wazmo drifted by.

“I have actually made about 100 different photos of that water tower with different clouds going by,” he said.