ANAHEIM : Carving an Art Form From Plastic Foam

Prinya (Joe) Rimchala’s sculptures stared down on him Wednesday in the Anaheim Hilton and Towers’ lobby as he carved the last intricate details onto a life-size deer.

There was also the American Indian chief, whose stomach muscles rippled as he arched his neck to let out a silent war cry. Dozens of etched feathers marked the wings of a bald eagle, the U.S. flag clutched in its talons. There was an oversized penguin, a gargantuan strawberry, a Christmas reindeer.

But Rimchala’s medium is not wood, granite or stone. It is Styrofoam, or plastic foam. Hired by the hotel a year ago as a cook, he now spends little time in the kitchen and almost all of his time carving the plastic-foam sculptures that grace the hotel’s restaurants and skylights. From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. today, he will again be in the lobby, carving with his finely honed and razor-sharp butcher knife.

“I love my work, that is why I work so hard at it every day,” said Rimchala, 42, who moved to the United States in 1980 from his native Thailand. “That is why I practiced 14, 15, 16 hours every day, so I could get better and better.”

Rimchala, who says he studied engineering at a Thai university, got his start carving plastic foam in 1982, while working as a cook at a Los Angeles hotel. The hotel’s master chef, who was also a Thai, sculpted plastic-foam replicas of food and began tutoring Rimchala.

“It took me seven years to get as good” as his instructor, Rimchala said.

Rimchala normally works in a room at the Hilton, spending from several hours to several days to finish his creations. After carving, he paints the sculpture.

He also does ice sculptures for weddings and other events at the hotel, but they are not as intricate as his plastic-foam pieces.

“Ice is heavy; it weighs 300 pounds and you only have two hours to do your work or it melts too much,” Rimchala said.

In contrast, even his biggest foam piece only weighs a few ounces, although they appear much sturdier.

“They have a lot of depth--they look like they would be very heavy,” said Eva Dudley, a hotel visitor from Santa Cruz.

Ray Bynum, a North Carolina video game distributor, offered $500 for the eagle, although it, like all of Rimchala’s works, is not for sale.

“I have never seen anything like it,” Bynum said.