This new scupture has just been installed in Sidney, BC., Canada.
It sits at the end of Beacon avenue down by the water.
The sculpture is twenty three feet tall and is made of stainless steel.
It is a collaborative effort by both of us but on this one I have to give Samuel most of the credit for the design.
When we laid it out on the wood support structure attached to our workshop, I took a deep breath and wondered if we might have over stretched our abilities to pull this one off. This was mostly because of the sheer logistics of the weight of the materials. Our workshop is only fourteen feet and so we had to add a bench like structure outside the window to take the entire length of the piece. Samuel looked at it and imediately said let’s do it. He made suggestions on the steps we would take and I have to agree with him that he was right. It actually went together quite well with no hitches other than the problems of lifting the structure as we added more steel. We don;t know how much it really weighs but it has to be over four hundred pounds at least. It was a hoot to see it come together and we enlisted the help on my daughter Amy’s husband and their friend Trevor. They made it possible for us to turn the structure over and over when needed and to move it from the backyard workshop to the front of the house. (One foot at a time:) Even Amy got involved and inched the support table along ahead of the sculpture as we manhandled it from the back workshedshed to the front yard. (Thanks Amy:)
Anyway……..it was nice to see it erected in Sidney and thank the people at the public engineering department for their work on creating a deep concrete base to receive and support the weight.
We are really proud of the work and it was interesting to stand and look at it and to hear comments from people. You have to have thick skin to be an artist! Most people had big smiles on their faces and said wonderful things. But one person walking by said to her husband…….” I wonder how much that cost us” and then said…….”why couldn;t they have put a horse on top…..at least then it would look like something”. So I had to laugh. They had no idea that we were the artists. Public art is always like that. Some people will like it and some people will hate it. Any kind of art is like that. I used to laugh at Henry Moores work. Now I love it. The same with Emily Carr……. at one time I couldn’t stand it. Then…. over time…..I grew to love her work. In fact now I love her work more than anything. So there you go.
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