Oak Park Sculpture Installation

It was finally time to deliver and install my sculptures for the Oak Park Sculpture Walk.

Monday, I rented a flat-bed truck from Thrifty, loaded up 2 stone sculptures and made the 7 hour drive to Oak Park, Illinois (just a few miles due west of downtown Chicago). (photo Meg White)

It's a bit of a change in scenery, to go from this...(the Ohio River valley). (photo Meg White)

...to this. (The Windy City)

Tuesday morning, I arrived at the first site, where I was met by some of the members from the Oak Park Public Art Advisory Commission: on the left is the commission member Bruce Samuels, in the center Colleen Berg (who has been my contact person and project coordinator), and on the right, the commission chairman David Sokol.

A 40 ton crane arrived from P&G Crane Co. The operator, Jon, was excellent - smooth as silk! (photo Colleen Berg)

We set "Entwined Seedlings" in front of the Unity Temple. It was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. You can see some of the architectural elements, in the upper left, that are signature to his style. (photo Colleen Berg)

Then, everybody went 1 block west, where Shawn Morin (from Bowling Green, Ohio) was installing his sculpture. He set a concrete base...

...and then a steel arch (it goes well with the gothic arch behind it). There is a piece of swirled Stone Mountain granite on top of the arch. There are 2 bronze elements (on the ground) that get bolted to the top.

Next, it was my turn again with the crane. We set "Pod of Sun Seeds" in front of a home on Forest Ave. (photo Colleen Berg)

On the 7 hour drive home, I snapped this view of a small portion of a large Wind Farm just north of Lafayette, Indiana. There are many hundreds of these huge windmills - a great sign for a positive direction in energy sources. It's a start...