The hard part for sculptor Lou Moore Hale isn’t modeling a lump of clay into the medley of bone, hair and skin that make up the face of her human subject.

The hard part is making the portrait show character, such as age or innocence, as well. The hard part is making right the wrinkles that crease the cheeks or that surround the eyes.

“The final ten percent of the work can take ninety percent of the time,” says Hale, asking herself, “Am I finished? Would working longer make it better?” She says it doesn’t help being a perfectionist, but knowing when to quit is vital to the creative process.

Hale recently finished a project, Facing a Century: Life Stories in Sculpture, which features 12 clay busts of 90- to 100-year-old Oklahomans with stories to tell.

She worked with her husband, retired OSU history professor Doug Hale, who interviewed the subjects while she photographed them. They posted his biographical summaries of each subject beside the terra cotta sculptures while on display. In some cases, viewers were more interested in the stories behind the faces than in her work, she says.

History comes across in the faces, especially in Hale’s sculpture of 104-year-old Tulsan Otis Clark. Clark witnessed the 1921 race riots that killed dozens and burned the city’s burgeoning black business district.

Since the show opened in Stillwater’s Sheerar Museum in 2005, the dozen sculpted portraits have been shown in a number of galleries throughout Oklahoma, including the Malinda Berry Fischer Gallery at the OSU Foundation.

Other portraits in the series feature subjects with ties to OSU, from faculty and staff to former students. Hale’s bust of Angie Debo, on loan from OSU’s Edmon Low Library, was included with portraits of retired professors Lionel Arnold, Harry Brobst, Alex Ospovat, Harry Wohlert, Roy Gladstone and her husband, Doug Hale.

The Oklahoma City native moved to Stillwater in 1986 following her retirement from teaching and has been sculpting since 1999 at the Studios at Berry Ponds in Stillwater.

“I do enjoy the challenge of portraiture, which is ancient and honorable,” she says. “But is it art? It often isn’t, but it certainly can be.”

Hale’s hobby has become a second career that has brought her accolades. She studied with a number of artists including Paul Lucchesi in Pietrasanta, Italy, and his father, Bruno, at the Scottsdale Artists’ School in Arizona.

A portrait of Horace Surratt, a burly Stillwater Mercury Marine employee, won a spot in the 2001 National Sculpture Society shows in Brookgreen Gardens, S.C., and New York City. She considers being included in those prestigious exhibits the highlights of her career.