commission

I was first contacted by Hendrix College in October of 2001 in regards to doing a sculpture for their new garden area in the Biology Department.

The garden consists of many plants and agriculture that are grown and produced in Arkansas. They wanted a sculpture that would fit in the surroundings of their garden, and so a sun sculpture was selected. The sun sculpture will fit in the natural settings and is symbolic of the life it gives to the plants.

I will be updating this page as I go with pictures of my progress and follow through to the installation.

I began the base with a sketch (which I hope to scan in at a later date). I transferred my drawing of the base onto the concrete with a charcoal pencil and began to bend my metal to the correct angles. I used 3.5" metal to secure the sun onto the 2.5" square tubing that will support the sun. The final sculpture will be about 7 feet tall. Once I bent the sun supports to the correct angles, I placed them on top of the square tubing in order to get the cut exact.

Here are a few more pictures of the progress. Once I made my cuts, I then decided to get the exact height down by creating a 'test run'. I suspended the sun up on a chain hoist to the appropriate height, observed, and made my measurements. The picture on the left should give you an idea as to how the base will look without the sun or the rectangular bottom the poles will be welded to.

Here are a few pictures of Hendrix College with the location of the garden in which my sculpture will be installed. I hope to have better pictures of the site soon.

A few rough fit pictures with primer. The left side of the base goes up to high and I cut it off and bent it to fit the sun shape better. Also, note the seamless welds in the above pic and throughout the base. I like for the metal base to flow as smooth as the organic stone carvings

You can see the markings on the sun for the holes to be drilled. I will permanently set the stone in place with 5 5/8" threaded rods. These are 3" in length and will serve nicely as ancors. This is the final paint color of the base and the ancors will also be the same dark bronze scheme.

Here are some photos of the final piece. I am ready to install the sculpture. Hendrix has already poured the concrete pedestal and the ancors for the base to bolt to. The installation will begin tomorrow, July 3rd at 9:00 am. Everything is ready to go. Once the sculpture is on the concrete and the bolts are through the holes of the bas, I will secure it down with washers and nuts. Once tight, I will weld them in place for added security and potential theft. Then I will touch up the nuts with paint to match the base. I hope the installation process will only take a couple of hours.

Here are a few pictures of the installation of the sculpture. The guy on the left is Jeff Spence of Cision Studios, Matt Moran of the Hendrix Biology Department and me with the hat on. The holes lined up nicely and had a firm fit. Once in place, I bolted it in place, welded the nuts on and touched up the paint where I welded them. I think they sculpture looks nice as they wanted it up high for when they complete the garden and the plants grow up several feet. I will continue to look at the progress of the garden and take more pictures as it develops.

Finally the sculpture is complete. I feel that the base will blend in nicely in the natural surroundings. The dark bronze paint works well with the trees in the back ground and geometrical shapes harmonizes with the architectural buildings in the background. The sun also matches the limestone on the buildings nicely.