Big Night at Woodland Park Zoo Auction

Seattle is home to the Woodland Park Zoo, a leader in wildlife and habitat conservation and science education. Georgia has been a long time supporter and has donated to the annual fund raising "Jungle Party" for many years. This year's auction lit up when an electrifying bidding war broke out for her sculpture "Snow Hare". When the smoke cleared the winning bid had reached $26,000. A wonderful contribution for the Zoo. They have a great Website: www.zoo.org

Stumbley Ducklings Installed in Oak Harbor

We installed Georgia's latest Public Art in Oak Harbor last week. It was the conclusion of a long and interesting selection process, and it was great to finally see it on site. Here is a link to an article in the Oak Harbor Newspaper that gives the story:


http://www.southwhidbeyrecord.com/community/162778316.html

Our forklift for the day.
Volunteer/friend Kelly Lindsay and our
Foundry Manager Virginia Keck,with help from City employees
Joe and Cac.

Kelly keeping things clean as we bored the installation holes. The City was concerned about the run-off of the slurry debris clouding up nearby salmon habitat.

The inspector kept a close watch.

The crew with the completed installation.














The view as drivers pass by on the one-way street - the newly renovated
Pioneer Way.

Otter Bench Completed

See April 18 Post for the Full Story

 

 

 

Rabbit Bench Completed

This is the second in a series of three benches

(see previous post below)

 

 

Bench/Sculpture - Take an Artful Load Off

Late last year an admirer of Georgia's work asked if she would consider designing a bronze bench. Georgia agreed to explore the idea, so long as she could integrate her artistic style and love of natural forms. The first maquette was so charming, she kept going and produced three different possibilities. Our patron loved all three, and so the arduous process of turning three small clay models into large functional bronze sculptures began.

The first step was to have the models digitally scanned and enlarged into foam replicas at the correct scale. This took some back and forth with the enlargement folks, Additive Workshop of Wilsonville, Oregon, as we tried to arrive at the best overall size for each bench. Once the foam enlargements were cut out, Georgia and our long-time friend/neighbor/employee Suzanne Schlicke covered them with about 1/4" of clay and then Georgia re-sculpted the entire surface to achieve the desired detail.

We delivered the finished full sized sculptures to our foundry partner, Reinmuth Bronze, in Eugene, Oregon, who spent the next month or so making incredible rubber molds of the the individual benches. The relative simplicity of the flowing forms suggested that they could be poured as a single wax, which would help preserve the integrity of the form as opposed to painting the wax into multiple mold sections. The wax copies were then cut into individual cast-able sized pieces, and the resulting bronze sections were fabricated together to produce the completed sculpture.

The first completed bench shipped out last Monday, with the others hopefully following in about three week intervals. Our grateful and appreciative thanks to everyone involved in this project.

Water Feature for the "The Grove at Shrewsbury"

Georgia is just finishing the clay work for a water feature to be installed this Spring at "The Grove at Shrewsbury", an interesting shopping/living community development in Shrewsbury, PA (www.thegroveatshrewsbury.com). The owners were excited by the "Water Frolic" installation at the University Village in Seattle and commissioned Georgia to create a similarly joyful and interactive sculpture.

For this piece Georgia wanted the figures to fit the stones closely and naturally, so we needed to have the stones in the studio for the sculpting phase. To overcome the problem of weight, we worked with Turnstone Construction to have the stones created in cement, which leaves them hollow and much lighter. This will also make the plumbing, shipping, and installation a lot easier. We have worked with Turnstone on a number of projects in the past, including work at the Woodland Park Zoo, where they created many of the naturalized displays. You can see their work at www.turnstoneconstruction.com.

The rods in the figures mouths indicate direction of the water spouts, which will be flowing in constant streams and converging on and around the ducklings in the center. the streams will be tall enough for small children to run under - making a sort of circular tunnel under the water flow.

The fountain will be incorporated into an existing walkway, with red brick pavers as the final surface. The water will end up flowing into a grate behind the ducklings and recirculate.

Seal Twist installed at The Village, Cannon Beach, Oregon

At the end of February we installed the Seal Twist at "The Village" a newly renovated area on the Main Street of Cannon Beach, Oregon. Here are a few photos and the press release written by Joyce Lincoln of the Northwest By Northwest Gallery, who represents us in Cannon Beach. As long as we're taking about the town, we would like to thank the Tolovana Inn for their continuing support of the arts. They have been very generous to us in our many trips to our favorite business destination.

 

Bronze sculptor Georgia Gerber is pictured with "Seal Twist" at The Village in downtown Cannon Beach. Believing public art transforms public spaces, the newly remodeled village center makes a commitment to Public Art creating an inviting courtyard gathering place for visitors in a village environment. This is Georgia Gerber's second public sculpture in Cannon Beach. She is the winner of the 2010 Sculpture Without Walls public choice vote for her Tufted Puffins. She is known for Rachel the Pike Place Pig & twenty six sculptures depicting Oregon Wildlife in downtown Portland's Pioneer Courthouse Square. Georgia Gerber is represented by Northwest By Northwest Gallery in Cannon Beach. This installation of public art marks one more step in the remodeling process of  The Village. Anchor businesses include Cannon Beach Treasure Co., Coastal Yarns & Seasons Cafe with a new "surprise" business opening soon.

Robert and April Knecht from the Cannon Beach Treasure Company - a business in The Village