Hands of Stone: Jackie Chan’s face and hand prints for the professional collector

When you have reached the lowest point in your life, there is nowhere to go but up. This is where a person’s true character is revealed. In 1994, New York artist Joseph Malara made a virtue of necessity and worked his way up from flea markets to the living rooms of the stars in just a few years with a clever business idea. A true American story.

“Joseph Malara aka “The Artist of The Stars” was the founder of Hands of Stone. He had dreams of opening the first of its kind Museum consisting of those who excelled in their fields. However that Museum unfortunately never opened. This collection took many years, time and out of pocket financing for Malara to create.”

Joseph Malara

In his early 30s, Joseph Malara was a successful businessman in New York. As the owner of his own maintenance business, he enjoyed the good times and made the decision to move to Florida permanently. He left the business to a relative in New York.

After a bankruptcy, Malara decided against rebuilding the business. Instead, he borrowed USD 100, set up a table at flea markets and offered his new service: Plaster casts as family keepsakes. Business boomed. Malara was able to pay off his debts, afford a company car and office and actually develop a lucrative business model for plaster casts. His company “Hands Of Stone” was born.

What set Malara’s work apart from others was quite simply his ingenuity. He developed new techniques that allowed up to ten people to put their hands into moulds at the same time in the most complicated poses. After only a short time, the blank was ready for further processing. A spectacle for customers and an absolutely individualised memento.

“You have to make more out of this,” thought the artist. A licence process for handprints of stars and starlets was developed. After many detours and several attempts, Malara finally succeeded in transforming the first celebrity into an art object: Aldo Bogni.

Athletes who put their hands in prints so detailed that their fingerprints could be recognised were thrilled. For them, but also for the sports-loving Americans, these were very special unique pieces. Some even had their faces immortalised in stone. More celebrities wanted to immortalise themselves with Joseph Malara’s unique process. Everything was documented and licenced with original signatures.

And then along came Jackie Chan

In his book “Celebrity Sculptures & Hands of Stone, My Story”, Joseph Malara writes in several chapters about his encounters with Jackie Chan. At the time of their first meeting, in November 1997, the success of “Rush Hour” (1998) was still a long way off. In fact, Malara and Jackie’s manager Willie Chan talked about this new attempt to make it in Hollywood.

„I observed in the next room that there was a set up for sparring, like a Dojo. This intrigued me since I had 20 years learning and teaching Mixed Martial Arts and Boxing! I asked Jackie Chan „Can we spar?“ He said „Sure!“ I thought I was dreaming.“

In his book, he goes on to tell how Malara and Jackie talked at length about martial arts, Bruce Lee and filmmaking. Jackie was very interested in the artist’s method and enthusiastic about how quickly it works. This also appealed to Willie Chan, who knew that his protégé had very little time at his disposal.

First meeting of Joseph Malara and Jackie Chan on 26 November 1997.

It’s one thing for an artist to be able to present their services to one of their own idols and work with them. It’s another thing when that star likes the work so much that he commissions more work. The next meeting between Malara and Chan took place nine months later, in August 1998, in the middle of the “Rush Hour” stress.

Willie summoned Joseph Malara to the Hilton Hotel in Miami, Florida. As thanks for his prompt acceptance, Jackie presented Joseph with his new autobiography, signed by him. That day, Jackie wanted a very special object: Jackie’s hand holding a basketball. While Malara worked out the best way to do it, the two of them talked about films, martial arts and all sorts of other things.

Jackie doubled his order and so Malara managed to make the matching trophies for the basketball tournament of the second “Jackie Chan Challenge Cup” in 1998. Even though these two custom-made pieces are not for sale and Joseph Malara was never able to fulfil his dream of having his own Celebrity Sculptures Museum, he still owns original Jackie Chan prints and invites fans of his work to visit his virtual exhibition at www.CelebritySculptures.com.

Jackie Chan’s hand and face prints

In his book “Celebrity Sculptures & Hands of Stone, My Story”, Joseph Malara doesn’t just talk about the rosy side of his collaboration with Jackie Chan. There is also some criticism in the artist’s lines. If you want to form your own opinion, I highly recommend reading it. Over several pages and in two chapters, he takes the reader on his very personal journey as a struggling yet successful artist of the 90s and 2000s.

For the professional collector of memorabilia, the question naturally arises as to whether it is worth investing in an original print of Jackie Chan’s hands or face. After all, these are unique pieces that were personally worked on, commissioned and certified by Jackie himself.

Here is a small selection of the items in stock. You can find more items at www.CelebritySculptures.com.

Jackie Chan Bronze Face ($5,399)

Jackie Chan Fist Light Gold ($1,999)

Jackie Chan Peace Silver Right ($3,999)

The cheapest object offered by Joseph Malara is Jackie’s right hand with a thumb up in gold. At 1400 USD, this is still a hefty sum, you might think. But I was able to negotiate a deal with Joseph for the readers of this article:

Each item can be purchased directly from the artist at a 10% discount if you quote “HANDS OF STONE” when placing your order in the current calendar year of 2024. Of course, Joseph Malara will also include a signed copy of “Celebrity Sculptures & Hands of Stone, My Story”.

You are interested?

Then write me a message and tell me which works by Joseph Malara you would like to have. I will then get in touch with the artist. And if Joseph Malara wants to sell, I will put you in direct contact with him.

Watch the book trailer

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Contact the artist

Joseph Malara
E-Mail: JosephMalara [ at ] yahoo.com
Website: www.CelebritySculptures.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/celebritysculptures