Five-Hundred-Mile Sculpture Garden

We have labeled this project not very creatively. I've kidded Jim Zumberg about putting the name Home Economics Building on the Home Economics Building. Now he's been equally creative to name the law building, the law building. And we've followed with it creativity by calling this the Nebraska Interstate 80 by Centennial Sculpture Project, which by the way it is. This program that we're describing to you today is one which we believe will in the course of these next 12 months create a series of 10 major pieces of large scale sculpture located at 10 rest stops stretching across Nebraska's 455 mile span of U .S. Interstate 80. Our call for sculptors is what he has indicated brought responses from all parts of the country. Nebraska included the process of reviewing and deciding which of all of those talents

that we wanted to focus our attention on was not easy. And I think our screening process we did everything we could to make it fair and democratic. And as the project is completed looking ahead, this has already been suggested in Nebraska will possess a 500 mile sculpture garden. We had 121 sculptors who were interested in the project from all over the United States. We selected 46 of those to submit proposals to us for selection. And of the 46 we selected 10 very different diversified artists to be part of this project. Richard Field will do a 410 sculpture called Memorial to the American Bandshell. And that will be located at the Platt River Eastbound Rest Area. Paul von Ringelheim's Luminum sculpture called Arrival will be at the Blue River Eastbound Rest Area. Bradford Graves limestone sculpture called Crossing the Plains

will be at the York Westbound Rest Area. George Baker's stainless steel kinetic sculpture which floats in the lake at the Carney Westbound Rest Area is called Nebraska Wind Sculpture. Steve Yurrie's Luminum sculpture called Platt River Ribbon will be located at the Cosa at Eastbound Rest Area. Tony Padavano's granite sculpture in Nebraska and Gateway will be at the Brady Westbound Rest Area. Linda Howard's up over Luminum Ivy sculpture will be at the Ogallala Westbound Rest Area. Conns von Obogen comps are Luminum sculpture, roadway confluence will be at the Sydney Westbound Rest Area. Jerry Rothman's sculpture, C. DeNebraska will be located at the Kimball Eastbound Rest Area. And John Ramondi's 410 steel sculpture, Irma's desire will be at the Grand Island Eastbound Rest Area. When I first came here late November 74, I visited many of the rest areas

and grew up in down this long and magnificently open highway. And Grand Island's rest area was the one that really impressed me for a number of reasons. The scale is a very kind of an intimate scale, but yet the piano element view is as awesome as the state of Nebraska is in terms of its size. And I felt that the kind of sculpture that I'm presently doing would be most adaptable to this kind of an environment. So I was very concerned with the placement of the piece. It's an important thing for a number of reasons because I have no interest in jamming my sculpture down to anyone's throat. I'm not, but everybody has drawn

an opinion. It's unusual for sure. There'd be a few people stopping with it that way. I wonder what it is. I hope it doesn't get me any trouble. Does anyone have any specific questions about this sculpture? Yes? I'm playing the title of your... Oh, okay. It's about that time. Unfortunately, I've been told there are a lot of people here that are hoping that that title is x -rated and has some rescues, kinds of connotations to it, but I hate to disillusion you people, but it doesn't. Irma is my mother. And her desire, even when she was engaged to my father years ago, even before they were married, was, let's have a son first, and let's name him Johnny. And my mother has put up with a lot of madness. You know, there are very few parents that can honestly say, I want my son to be an artist. She would have been, I'm sure, much happier if I were a doctor or a lawyer or a

banker. But now I think it's different. Now she's very, very happy. This is where I am. So I decided to make a monument about my mother, and that's what the piece is. I was lost, step by step, with a connection with the mother. I know it understands its relation to the title, but then I don't. I lack a little art appreciation, too. I find it irritating because I'm an artist myself. I like everything to be neat and tidy and come back in and be symmetrical, and this bothers me. I like it, because it challenges the imagination. It can be whatever you want it to be. Not my friend, you are. I think we're going to enjoy it a lot, and him, too. Now, what more can I say? I understand you're going to make this sculpture out of port -ten steel. John, in this plant, we fabricate metal building. In this particular area, we

fabricate the small parts that are going to the building. I think this is where we'll probably find the equipment that you'll need in order to do your sculpture. I think it's one of the important aspects of industry in art, is that a kind of sculpture that I'll be building, or the Bicentennial sculpture project, is something that can only be fabricated in a studio space that is equal to this very sophisticated steel fabrication house. This kind of environment is very conducive to the kind of works I am designing in a ventilated building, and I think that the relationship between the artist and the man that runs the industry and the man that owns the industry is an important relationship. We mine it 100 feet deep and use it for various industrial products in a little bit of the feed industry, and I don't know if it will be close to what year after for your projects or not, but what do you think? Well, what I'm looking for primarily is something that gives a uniform character

to the stone, so that it tends to be monochrome, so rather than stratifications of different colors and so on, so that's the one thing that I'm looking for, and also that it does maintain a certain structural strength. Well, this is the way the stone arrives from the quarry in Bedford, Indiana. This is the Indiana line stone, it's one of the best materials for carving. I did look at stones here in Nebraska, and unfortunately none of them were stone carvings. Now you see you can tell from this it's changed a pitch that this is a whole loosen area here, and you can kind of see where this is. Right here you have a crack where this was shot out of the mine. One of the reasons, another reason perhaps why it was a wise or choice too, is that as you can see they come already in a geometric shape. If it was a rough cut, maybe you'd have the whole stone fitting in and maybe this this edge would be missing, and then you'd have to try to

find something larger, and if you found something larger and rough shape, you may have to cut something of that all. And so this would turn out to be about the best solution. So say after the blocks arrive, and you look at the model to gain some sort of concept of the spacing that you want, then we do a marking out on the blocks with red pencil. Now the thing is the pencil marking deals only with the two -dimensional aspect of the stone. So you try to almost like free the stone that's contained within this shaping. The only real difference is from the way say Michelangelo worked, and the way that I work is that I do use pneumatic tools and that I use a constructive approach to stone cart.

In other words, Michelangelo always worked within the one single block. What I do is make a construction of various blocks, put them together and then cart the whole thing. And so what you see when I'm working on now is just a small segment of the stone cart. Now we had a meeting two weeks ago at the Lions Club, and there was a resolution pass that to go to the county commissioners and see if we couldn't get a change in the design. So we had one man, he's an older man, and he said perhaps that in 20 years this thing will be obsolete, and he also mentioned the fact that there are a lot of younger people that will be able to see this and see what it means. Where that's older people,

don't get the connection. I like it. Believe it or not, I might be different, but we want something that people going to stop and look at, and that's what they'll do with it. I told somebody I was going to stop and see everyone's one end of the state together. I'm going to see them all. This one, right, the piece earlierly looks like this, right, has to face that. In other words, let's assume that, let's say the piece sits somewhere around here, right. So let's put a stake in here and make this the center. We have to determine what the cross distance is, but let's make this the center or a temporary center. Okay, now we're going to

have to move this and this tree, probably take those trees and put them over here. There aren't any trees over here anyway. Okay, so the place that the piece has the greatest power of tipping is on top and then it would be pulling out of the ground. And since you have tornadoes and hurricanes, the Department of Highways for the safety of the people in Nebraska have asked me and the other artists to put in such safety factors that the piece will be stable and secure within these kind of extreme conditions. And I've entitled the piece arrival. There are a lot of things that somebody can find in a work apart,

just like there are a lot of things that people have opinions about, like cars and women. Some people go to museums because they think that's where culture is. Culture is the way you live and what turns you on. However, when they call somebody like me, they're calling a professional daydreamer. In other words, while Jack sells auto parts and runs the Chamber of Commerce and Sewer and while you're doing your jobs and run the Chamber of Commerce and Millford, they hire me to look out of a window and get an idea. And the only thing that I have to gain or lose from this piece, the dollars go to my landlord, you know, if I understand that, is my reputation. Good afternoon, gentlemen.

It's my pleasure to finally meet the Hall County Board. And I hope that after to this afternoon's meeting that anything that is unclear about the Bicentennial Sculpture Project and specifically Irma's design, my sculpture I've designed, will definitely be cleared up. I'll start by asking if anyone here has any particular questions about my sculpture about the project in general and with my fund. I feel personally that this might be our New York City or somewhere else, but myself personally, I feel that we should price if we're going to have something here in Hall County or the state in Nebraska, it should be related to something that was brought into your years ago by our forefathers, you know, not this, not that I discredit that it probably has this place, but I personally don't feel like it has this place in Hall County. Quite often, something positive comes out of almost any controversy. Would you agree that this County Board, though inadvertently, has possibly contributed substantially to making you one of the

best known sculptors in the country? There's one thing that I'd like you all to consider because it's so real, it's so awesome, it's so plain, it's like the nose and the face and everyone keeps omitting it. This project is so valid because of what the bicentennial means. I have never heard of any project causing so much controversy. People coming out of the woodwork, whether they're opinion was negative or positive, but they want to be heard. The people in Grand Island want to be heard, the people in people want to be heard, the Hall County Board wants to be heard. There's a lot of people listening and talking about something that they feel is a very real kind of thing. You people want your opinions heard and you're representing the Hall County people, that's a very important aspect. Regardless of what this project is about, so happens is about American sculpture, but the project itself is an enormous success. Nebraska should be very happy for it because it's bringing a lot of people together, it's bringing national attention to Nebraska, it's bringing focus to Nebraska that has something more to do with just farming and just the college football team, and that's pretty neat to think that we could have another thing on top of it. So I think in that merit alone, this is a

very successful project and you should all be congratulated because it's happening here. Do you think the sculptures are going to get built? I personally think they will be yes. My personal feeling is if it was up to me to vote on this type of sculpture for what it represents in Hall County, I would vote no. Just came back from vacation and heard all of this uproar about sculptures and I had a lot of calls in my district. And the first question I run into is who has the authority to prove the acceptance of a gift in the name of the people? And it turned out that there hadn't anybody at any time elected officials had any say so and this matter of the sculptures. And at that time, in visiting with the governor,

he determined that he would follow the dictates contained in LB 605, which was a budget bill and said that the governor and the legislature would approve any gifts of real estate. Now bear in mind that the Department of Roads under other statutes do have the authority on their own to accept gifts, but the Department of Roads then stated that they would not enter into any contracts for these sculptures until the legislature had investigated it further. And this caused the hearings across the state to determine what position the legislature would take if they took a position. I think it should be emphasized that this project was conceived and developed by Nebraska's and the majority of funding is being voluntarily raised by Nebraska businessmen. I can't get this money straight. Somehow I feel that it's coming

out of the tax payers pockets. And the one thing that bothered me is who is going to maintain these things after the kids go out and write 76 and 77 and they will. As of September of this year, Nebraska, compared with all 50 states in the union, was the leading state for using artists and residents. As an artist, as an Nebraska artist, I came to urge the support of the Interstate Sculpture Project. And just because you don't understand one of the sculptures, there's no reason to throw it out because maybe someone will get it right off. I'm sure everybody, whether they appreciate it or not, to get something out of it. And if you don't appreciate it, nobody's going to make you sit there and look at it. One of the students in the group that surveyed said to me privately and away from the group, he said, you know, wouldn't it be neat that when I have a son or a daughter, that someday I can bring that child out here and say, hey, I had

something to do with this project. I think the art organizations have done a real good job in representing their case, but I don't think this is the true cross section of the opinion of the citizens. I sat here for quite a while this evening listening to all these speeches and it reminded me of one hog trying to sell the other hog on the taste of corn. We thought the injustice of the whole thing was that none of our tax money was involved in this. Therefore, it's a free gift and all we have to do is accept it or not accept it. These people say that we that they should have self -expression, but about the people who are against it, how about their self -expression. And I defy anyone in this room to take a vote of the people to Basca in regard to the sculptures. We have to spend the year earning money to take students on field trips to Lincoln

and to Omaha, and this is going to be a tremendous opportunity for my classes to have and sculpture of this nature close by. My question is, does any art object have a place on our interstate rest areas? I'm well aware that museums and art galleries do not attract the masses, that memorial stadium, the state fairgrounds and exorbitant do, but that doesn't deny or in any way less than the importance of the museums and the art galleries. I am against the abstract because I think the common people don't relate to it. They're frightened of it. They don't understand it. The look of it is displeasing. There is nothing beautiful about it. Course beauties in the eye that beholder. And among the first to be the rejection of the abstract sculptures proposed for interstate 80, not because of the of the consideration of being far out, not

because of the lack of appreciation and understanding by the vast majority of Nebraska's. But because they are seen as complementing by edification of the undesirable of the last 20 years. We feel that the I -80 sculpture project is a very important step for the cultural arts of Nebraska. Nebraska's are not such simple people that we cannot enjoy and be proud of art at its best. So I hope you've proved the project. Now the people that were in favor of the abstract sculpture were very well organized. And this is as it should be. And they were prepared and they came to the meetings and they told their stories. Now those who didn't approve of the abstract design, they were not organized. And this leaves them in a position to where, well, I'm not sure that they want to hear what I have to say. And

so the people that were opposed it did not intend, did not attend the hearings in mass. And they did not at that time really make their points crossed. But they sure did across the state of Nebraska and their letters to the editor. And so this is an individual action. And when that happens, it's something to listen to. And that's all involved in the report. Good evening. This is legislative review. Senator Ralph Kelly of Grand Island today introduced legislative resolution number 108. That resolution provides that the Nebraska legislature accept the gifts of sculpture from the Nebraska Bicentennial Interstate 80s sculpture project. I do at this time offer this resolution and collaboration with Senator Savage, a member of the subcommittee and request your approval. As it been determined how much the upkeep might be in the sculpture.

No, it has not been determined what the upkeep for these sculptures would be. What would be the circumstances if this body failed to pass this resolution? The situation would probably be covered in the most current letter from Mr. Tom Doyle Department of Rhodes whereby he has threatened this legislature that if they do not pass something by the first of February that he is on his own under his statutory authority going to sign the contracts that will place the sculptures. I personally feel that the legislature should not make judgments about art. And I think any resolution of this kind goes beyond just accepting or rejecting a gift to the state. The decision is based on the art and the acceptability or the non -acceptability of it. I can't support the resolution because in view of the Attorney General's opinions I think they can be accepted without action from the legislature. If this legislature believes that these

sculptures should be put in place and should be constructed then this legislature should say so now before we go to lunch and forever hold our peace. The question is the adoption of LR 108 as amended record your vote. 25 A's 14 A's. The resolution received the minimum number of votes needed to pass the Nebraska Unicandemoral. The State Department of Rhodes now has legislative and gubernatorial approval to accept the sculptures as gifts. After a six month delay the artists will now receive contracts and proceed with their work. See as we put the plates together it's really imperative that everything is square and everything is level and everything technically is as flawless as possible. You see that's that's one of the things I think is really important about working in the school system is I've found that even though the high school students they have a trend of technical ability and they've been able to do things very very well. One of the most important reasons for building a large scale model

like this is to reinterpret in scale what all the structural engineers did in terms of mechanical drawings or working drawings and to understand what plate has to go where and what would be the best working method what shape should be built first why won't be easier to handle to solve the toughest problems first. Okay let's put a clamp on the bottom. Is this scale model is built in quartin and I want the quartin here and I also want the steelmen who are going to be working going to be working with me at the fabrication house to get an exact idea of what kind of perfection that we're looking for in terms of a well in terms of a grind all that kind of thing. You know Jay you've got to be real sure that the clamps aren't going to fall

okay so hold the clamps. I found it very valuable to be working with these kids they had a different idea of what armors desire was they had a different idea of what I think contemporary American art is I think that's changed I think we had a lot of fun and that's important they always like to see a new face and they always like to really like to be rewarded when they do a good job and the sculpture itself is enough reward for them since it will end up here in Grand Island they'll always be able to see and that's a really neat thing because they did it. Okay now Jerry you can give me right here a nice smoothie. We assist him in putting the structures together and kind of learn and walk about what he's doing. I've learned perfection from

him he's perfectionist and I've learned that how he does it we how we're doing it now that that's everything is supposed to be the best way to get it which I not really looked at much at before. How are you doing? Good, good. Action. There was a big competition like 120 sculptors enter the competition out of which they chose 10 sculptors and I was chosen to do a piece at Ogolawa and that was when the rest stops chosen and this is the piece and now that's going to be 18 feet tall there's an archway there they'll be a walkway through the archway. No they're not bent they look like they've been. What I've done is out of straight lines then be by how I've placed them they move into a curve and so they give you a visual sense of a curve but none of them are bent they're really all straight units.

Now that's a cactus plant what similarities do you see there in the structure you sculptor? Stick things like these straight okay we've got straight lines you also have a repetitive line what kind of relationship do you see this slide has a slide of water and bubbles shiny is there a translucent quality that may be a new word okay what we're going to do is go out to the park for a little while and what I'd like you to do is we'll we'll both look around and see if we can find things outside any kind of things abstract ideas that relate to the things that we were talking about into the sculpture okay so think about the different kinds of structures and let's see if we can find them okay as we're walking I say keep your eyes open are there anything similar things that we've been talking about what about the structure the brick on the wall there is that a modular structure try to look and see if you see other kinds of things oh that's all right we'll go no we'll go on this side because it's going that way huh well what

about what about the bark on the tree really look around and try to find something that you really like don't just pick up an object just because I said to pick up an object like you find this and then you may find this and then make a choice you're like this pester you like this and try to keep doing that until you really come up with something that you really like and let's see what you end up with you want to try go around and do that and bring them back to me spend a little time doing that you found a leaf what do you see there well it's got the straight curves and everything yeah and a straight line straight out would you think you could draw something like that if you took it back do you have opposites happening here the things that you've picked up that you chose and you really liked try to look at them and figure out what are the elements in that that you find exciting drawing really has to do with how well you're looking and if it's not coming out so that's looking like what you're drawing it means you're not

really looking at it any other things you might say one of the important things that I felt was important in Nebraska had to do with with the land and the space in the sky and it just goes on and on and on forever and so when I think of the piece there's this vertical wall which zooms upward 15 feet up and there the repetitive lines of the eye beams that are moving upward and what it does is if you're standing at the base of that wall you have to force your vision upward to confront the sky and then the units move a back back down and around to reaffirm the ground and the land to you the idea I don't want to be out on construction site putting in I don't have the engineering background I used to feel I've tied about that as a woman not having that kind of background but then I realized well most of the male sculptors don't either and they don't do that either a few of them really get involved with with the actual putting

together of it that is not that important to me meaning a crew of men can put it together I want to make sure it's done and looks the way I want it but I don't when I'm into a 15 foot beam which is 300 pounds I don't need to be climbing the piece to put it together and I have male sculptor friends who call me and say look what you call such and such a fabricator and ask him this question because I don't know what about this and they're too embarrassed to call so I'll call and I'll say listen I need some information about this oh there's been a lot of support from some some of the fabricators in terms of giving me technical information no to meet that deadline though that's the trouble with trying to get equipment in here to handle and we're going to be back we've got to have this seated back and planted by the 15th of May and so we'll have to put in these foundations plant this stuff back and then we're going to have to use scaffolding in here we can't hardly bring up a crane on the ground well I

was really thinking that what I the as I don't see how you can put this walkway and all I want in now is the footings because this was made up before we were delayed by the state controversy so we had dates set which would have all been fine with if we weren't hung up by the state the controversy and they will change those dates I want I want to get the sculptor up I want I would like the footings to go in now I want all the other planting and sidewalk stuff does not be done until after the structure is up when I first designed the piece I gave no consideration whatsoever to the mechanics of actually building it which ultimately has to be taken into consideration by the use of a structural engineer I get really excited when I'm in this sort of an environment an environment of technology

and that's normally used for functional objects they make highway lighting standards here and now in this instance the operators are making something entirely foreign to them and with absolutely no function whatsoever other than just a visual delight maybe I could pull it up a little way for when you go to 5 -8 -inch uh core ten steel it has the same thickness or hardness I should say as stainless steel so what we have to do is we have to press break it along various number of increments and the larger cone had 27 strikes along its surface but I'm very pleased with the way it came out because from a certain distance it does appear to be as though it is rolled however there's a very subtle break in the surface I would put it any more in this bit here try and pull it out a bit major it looks a little bit narrow and went this way a little bit narrow across from that point to the

other point on the other side they didn't want me to leave that plant unless I was thoroughly satisfied with the work they did we goofed up on one cone we bent it in a little bit too far need to push on the back side oh we have to we'll smack it back flat again a little bit on each little area here so we had to actually flatten it back out in there and then do it again and I think we had to take that cone out of that press break like three or four times and set it on the floor to a circle we scribed down there to see that it fit in there perfectly and so that was a lot of pain staking labor for them to go to and but nonetheless they were they were willing it also had to do us say well I'd like you I'd like it to be a little bit more accurate than this what you have done is determined the length of the structural stiffness which is five inch channel line right a little better than five inch channel

so it's not the drawing that we're concerned with here we're concerned with the measurements calculations and of course it's all determined from his I was interested in the project when I first heard of it from Jerry Whalen who knew of an interest that I had in contemporary metal sculptures and on the first occasion that I had the opportunity to meet John Remundy I knew right away that I would be anxious to be part of the enterprise and I'm certainly pleased that we have had the opportunity to work here in our shop in Omaha and also at the shop in Hastings with John and that many of them within the company have had the opportunity to work with the artist to get his viewpoint and to have a better understanding of what Irma's desire is intended to convey to the people of the past. I think it's forward bringing up hay over in the shear take it that way just a little a little more hold it all right I just have to lay flat

when we can put everything else on top of it we have to bind the small pieces so they don't slide around but a piece like this we can definitely lay flat when we get that wire out of the way all right it really really doesn't have anything to do with being with being an artist you know the businessman that I am is a very separate person I'm a Gemini and it allows me to put a tremendous amount of effort into one aspect of my identity but I strongly believe in my identity as do a lot of things that my businessman does my artist is embarrassed you know really embarrassed but yet my artist also likes to do things and he likes to do them very comfortably I have operated the crane myself I have to run back and forth usually in order to secure the clamp and raise or lower it and swing the boom one way or another I

feel that I'm a craftsman first because before I was into what I felt were very personal unique forms that the only thing that had any great meaning to me was that I could do something well it might not be unique but I could do it well there's plenty of metal work or ceramics anyone that works with their hands and various materials they their designs may be traditional designs made for hundreds of years but of what the main thing for them is to do it well and then if they want to explore with new forms that's entirely up to them space you should never tell me that because we're Russian John Romundi came out here and was asking about the building and use and then he found out that I could weld I went to Lincoln to certify welding test and then got really interested in the project and some of the other projects he done and this is something I've never done before so I decided to be a good

opportunity to do it and my interest grew as I went on and then my kids later on saying his kids say you know my grandpa built it they're welded up works with John Romundi well we just put the three down that are using the hammer and then with the two big ones use a crane you'll have a crane coming well now that we've got the the stones out on the highway the stage that you see the the stone in now is a sort of a rough carved and ground down so they're not into their final formation if say something chips or breaks there still is enough room to make corrections and so on so for instance you can see

like some for instance on the shadow here is how the the sun wiggles across this and everything has to be ground down so that the light doesn't wiggle across so you won't have this bumps here and here and that's one of the reasons why I wanted to wait to carve it inside to see exactly how the sun falls on the block of stone um sculpture project going in on the rest stops how are you going to react to them when they're done we'll stop and look at it we'll look at them every time we go through and go past them every day yeah what do you think about it I think they're a pretty good idea really because I think the Midwest is kind of behind times a little bit as far as art awareness goes and anything that can increase that's great I think it's marvelous and it will draw the tourists sculpture I think for me is

the experience or the expression of something emotional and organic they just said they go this way it just spins around a little bit yeah it just comes with this rock face the holes in the bottom are this way so that rock that we're facing the rock face and your name is on this side that's why right the rock these out we get Reese's positions I think the best days put it down on a ground just pick it up put on a ground this way more a little bit more this way it's pretty tall huh when you stand it up I think I prefer granite about the marble even because marble doesn't capture the light in quite the same way it reflects light so that's when you call shadows especially outside the sun hitting the marble you wouldn't see any shadows we just see this white snow light kind of thing

where we're granite although it reflects the light you do see the shadows because it's it's first of all it's a gray you know it's a medium gray color so it is probably the ideal medium for outdoors for the parents for the durability and for the maintenance is a virtually no maintenance on this thing you know it's a tiny edge over there yeah shit the chip probably because he had too much weight down on one end well this will hold it for 200 years anyhow so this is the first piece the first major piece that's being done in granite that is that is really a construction anywhere I don't know if it's ahead of its time but it's certainly unique in its time I would say that watch the pins

okay we've got ten COR hyphen TEM it stands for corrosive tensile it has a very low corrosive quality in a very high tensile strength it's a steel that is relatively new it has a very high content of nickel in the alloy of the steel and it prevents the steel from resting or rotting and the simple weathering of the steel the aging of the steel by being exposed to the elements makes the steel change color from a very beautiful vivid orange to a deep brown to eventually a very rich brown black color how many sculptures can we expect to see dedicated on the Fourth of July well we're hoping to dedicate seven but we lost six months last fall because of a law in the state of Nebraska that required the legislature to act and so we couldn't proceed until

they did act had we not lost the six months I'm sure we probably would have dedicated all of them but it looks like seven if everything goes well but there's lots of things that need to happen just right for that to happen oh in case yeah okay fine you got it you got 15 I counted and a box of bolts why are they late to the site now well I got delayed it oh my hon it didn't get them it didn't get unpacked the truck didn't get unloaded in time was it kind of a couple days oh no I was really cool wish it was your head been here Monday what's those three yard three required okay we're missing the three plates that go on top of the footing it's those top small plates that we're supposed to have been shipped

out with the other plates when they've sent them for the footings and they're not here yeah we've got three numbers to call and maybe somebody can make them up in town here oh yeah yeah well it's a matter of cutting the plates and drilling holes it's not a big deal if they've got the right kind of a loop or stainless steel so I'm going to go Paul but I think I need some dimes hi is this bill hi this is Linda Howard yeah I'm the sculptor out at the rest stop yeah I don't know if we met or not but at one point huh yeah well guess what we're short some parts they were supposed to have been sent them out by bus now we get them tomorrow can we put them in after what's the problem when putting them in after

no we can get over huh we'll just have to put them in the water I mean we can bolt it all down today yeah we'll just take them off one at a time yeah right and just slip the plate I'll bolt in here first and then we'll make this join a flat take this brace off here and put it on that on that one yeah oh I see it's lining up you got a lot of give in that they know what they're doing and they're really nice it's not out of there now let's slack her off come get them up to where they're just some tight we've got to come just eight inches this way so now we want to hook onto that flat beam yeah I'm learning so much and and on it this one or that other flat one right up there we'll let it off then BJ we'll hook into this flat one where how are we off I don't still enough because it left in just as quick as we take it off the weight off here it'll drop right in there

I mean it won't fit sure well there's enough sway in this piece that'll make that just just not too tight just leave them just snug because we want to give on that joint the plates I'll be in at eight o 'clock in the morning how about that coming in continental I want to hook back into this one here with the double sling does it look good looks real good we may have to harness this up let it down a little bit our braces to make it better look like it's going to come in awful close okay let it off then BJ we'll hook into this flat one where how are we off no we're we figured we'd be off a little bit we've got slack enough we'll just hook into the structure and pick it up and drift it over in there was no way of telling how close we was going to get here we could get this far from very well satisfied as we come out like this come out good it's not done yet

oh no there's a lot of give on that piece yeah that's okay I know those pieces there's a lot of split what do you think of it guys putting it up oh fantastic crew incredible yeah well today July 2nd at last we've got a very exciting telephone call at quarter after five this morning that the trucker had arrived in the lobby of the of the Fort Sydney hotel and so despite the last minute preparations and hopefully we can install the sculpture today completely because tomorrow Saturday and Sunday is the official inauguration what took so long for it to get here what took so long is that because the wind of the truck the sculpture couldn't travel on you know many of the regular

interstate roads and had to be specially detoured which was very time -consuming finally this here it's really exciting I can hardly believe it you know looks great doesn't it well what I want to do I think you just lie it on the ground for a second I want to just kind of go look over it and where I maybe want to do is see what happens some of this wood and see some of these chains that they had around they have cut some big gouges I like to make metal so it looks very fluid and very soft and and undulating and have metal become almost a tactile thing you want to touch it and feel it you want to put your hand over it you know it's going to slide okay drop your bone let's pump it away from the truck well let me wait watch watch you don't boom over a little bit that way do you have a second sling like this if they're going to call in from other sling maybe they should pick up the generator and we can do some grinding right away

yeah well first of all this is a really a handmade sculpture this is not made by a machine stamped out cut off it's every spot every millimeter every eighth of an inch I have been I've touched so it's very handmade it has a few imperfections there are some dense and scratches and whatnot but I like that because that makes it more human it's like people you know we have little dense scratches in our body and it's a part of growing up and that's a part of how this piece was born but what is nice about these scratches by taking a putting a brushed finish to it what you're doing you're scratching up the surface and you're increasing the surface by minute mounts and valleys and by having these highlights it will emphasize the curves and the undulation much better than even the flat as the sunlight changes the piece kind of undulating it seems to be kinetic in a sense and I like that feeling because the lens cap is kinetic and as we're driving in the the clouds cover the sun you get light in dark and it's kind of moves over the landscape and it is a very

kinetic feeling let's block it up let's block it up then is she hanging by herself oh beautiful I think you're going to go out a little bit more it symbolizes the roadway and the pieces called roadway confluence and I put my piece in the highest spot because I felt since it was an old to the road I wanted to be very much part of the of the visual impact you know I want the sculpture to be seen from 10 miles away and I wanted to kind of grow out of the road and I think by having the road you know here it underlates over and around these rolling hills and all of a sudden to see this kind of come in the distance out of the road going skywards I think symbolizes you know it's a monolith in a sense

it's an accentuation of what these roads are all about so you see ever since man made something larger than a bread box he said to have people help him the concept of the artist working in a studio by himself and the little Garrett you know and all of that stuff is really not the case when you deal with heroic scale and the artist's participation is always there although physically he may not be doing the work the one person who has to oversee everyone to be sure that the concrete is poured or you go to the engineers and the engineers tell you what can and cannot be done for the 140 or 120 mile an hour scale wins the

Nebraska area for example is all part of the underground that makes a work of art let it down a touch I know how to do it all I know how to handle all the tools I know when I should put goggles on but at this point in time after I have been in my studio alone and have determined what the piece looks like and figured out how it goes together in which way it makes sense to me and what's up and what's down then I become part of the team to get it done they get up but they could not begin to go into motion if I didn't map the course

it seems to me that this not only symbolizes the opening of the concluding chapters of this project but it also symbolizes the beginning of a new concept new perception of the state of Nebraska it's going to be known nice still and internationally for this project and the cultural emphasis you know I'll be very proud of that I'm pleased to officially accept this on behalf of the corporation very quickly handed over to Lieutenant Governor Jerry Whalon who in all the controversy has never wavered for one minute and his public and private supported this project the corporation publicly now presents to you this finished piece of art in this dramatic form this is

the first thing one of the varners ever given me with how to ask him a good deal in return we Nebraska's pride ourselves on having spawned a catheter an eye heart and a fond of we are also the proud possessors of a good you capital someday the art world will also point to Nebraska with envy and say they have a Von Ringelheim I want to thank Mr. Von Ringelheim for his lasting contribution to the heritage of Nebraska thank you you