In the Spring of 2018 I was approached by my high school art teacher to create a sculpture for Montpelier High School. She visited Barre Sculpture Studios, where I had some pieces of scrap granite from older projects and remnants of older jobs that my dad inventories that would be available for use.
As it turned out, Barb, my high school art teacher would be retiring after teaching for 38 years! After considering what I could do for the funds she had available, I felt like we needed to go bigger to commemorate her time at Montpelier High School. I had a successful fundraiser on gofundme a few years ago to pay for an anatomy class in Hollywood, and felt confident I could raise enough money to create a larger work that would enhance the school campus and commemorate all of the years Barb taught at MHS.
We decided on a carving the school mascot, the great horned owl, and chose a large quarry remnant of Gem Mist black granite from Pennsylvania. The remnant takes the shape of a large jagged columnar spike. The carving would be half embedded in the stone, in a niche towards the top.
With the sculpture, design, and stone chosen we went public with a gofundme campaign setting a goal of $12,000, and made off to a great start! https://www.gofundme.com/life-is-short-art-is-long There has been so much support from the community and former students of Barb, that I feel we will definitely reach this goal! If you are reading this and I still haven’t reached $12,000 — feel free to donate to a project that will really have an impact on students and staff who come to the Montpelier High School building every day.
The local newspaper also did a great story on the project last year, here is a link to the article: https://www.timesargus.com/solon-so-long-life-is-short-art-is-long/article_1f36dbfd-65b3-58c6-b0df-70d5219dabab.html
Initial concept sketch for the granite great horned owl carving.
