My New Project

So, I had this great teacher at Lyme Academy, named Jim Reed, who hooked me up with a commission for a sculpture. The gig is to recreate the central Figure of Liberty (Left: the white figure under arches) on the Soldiers and Sailors monument in Seaside Park of Bridgeport, CT. The monument was erected in 1876 in commemoration of those who died in the Civil War. 

All the sculptures on the monument were sculpted and cast by Melzar H. Mosman of Chicopee, Mass. The figures are all bronze except for the now missing Liberty, which was carved in marble. In 1969, the marble figure was knocked down by vandals and was broken into several pieces. For more information about the history of this monument, go to this site: http://www.chs.org/ransom/009.htm

Since then, the whereabouts of the original pieces is unknown, and the Friends of Seaside Park have decided to commission a new Liberty. It is now my job to re-sculpt this figure with the reference of existing photographs. Unfortunately, there are very few visual records of the figure, but I do have a few to work from, thanks to the Friends of Seaside Park, and my friend and research expert, Joe Shea of Krieble Library :D. On the other side of that coin, given the fact that there are very few images of the original (and very few people who remember what the original looked like!) I will have a great deal of freedom with the overall design of the piece. However, I will still do my best to keep it as near to the original as possible, by closely analyzing similar work being made in this genre and time period.