In addition to his original designs in nautical sculpture, Osmundsen focuses
much energy on fine portrature.
Each of his three busts in his studio, of his mother, his father, and of Henry Kissinger, which he did as part of a Time Magazine portrait series, seems to have a deceptively real presence. Each looks as it a conversation is but a moment away.
Indeed, Osmundsen looks at portraiture as a moving landscape.
"Everybody has a unique gesture. You don't need to have someone pose. When somebody sits and talks to you, they constantly repeat about six or seven various gestures. So sculpting is like an interview. You watch what they do, what you think brings them out," Osmundsen explained.
"First you get a gesture about how the head comes to you off the neck and shoulders," he said. "Then inside the face, you have a lot going on in between the eyes and the mouth, the way the smiles adjust themselves. How is the mouth gesturing to you? Is the mouth partially open?
I like to have them so that they look as if they are going to talk to you. I like to capture the gesture, the personality of the person, the thing that jumps out at you."