The most important commission of my life...

Maybe for my WHOLE life...

The Frank Hamer monument commission was big in my world... perhaps the biggest deal of my career.  My father knew him, so I grew up with stories about him. I knew a man who even named HIMSELF after this man. He is considered one of the greatest Texas Rangers of all time. He almost single-handedly stopped a decade of racial violence in Navasota, and is credited with "taming the town."  And a commission to sculpt him,  just blocks away from where I sleep every night... And a place I will drive by several times every day... That's importnat.

One of my personal heroes, A true Texas hero, standing tall in front of a re-creation, if you will, of the City Hall from which he made history... a new City Hall that I helped to conceive... in my hometown...a landmark for now until...?

That's important.

I made him with a great deal in mind... my personal feelings aside, to honor all of our wonderful lawmen... public servants... the men like our gallant firemen, EMT's, regular folks who help and protect us every day. The ordinary people who regularly do extraordinary things. And that was important. The most important.

And I was so honored that they seemed as thrilled about the statue as I was. They get it. They understand, maybe better than any of us what the statue can represent.

Local lawmen join me in celebrating the Hamer monument.

 

So by the end of the Dedication... which I blogged about in the Navasota Current,  I was drunk with personal fullfilment...  probably unable to fully appreciate the honor of posing with these wonderful men. Still I lost it and cried when the Navasota Policemen lined up together with the Police Chief to get their photo with the new landmark.

 

 After all, it was for them as much as anyone, and the monument will always be a testimony of our esteem for them and what they do every day.  

 

A short video made by Chuck McCarroll about the dedication...

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TuNP9oNQcjw

 

The Frank Hamer Monument is in Pieces!

And that is a good thing. Here is the progress made on the sculpture in the past few weeks... As you will see, the bronze casting process is a hard, dangerous, hot, and demanding craft.

Here are some of the wax pieces of the sculpture, made from the rubber molds.

The hands have been faithfully reproduced in wax, and are now hollow. The red stands are actually forms for the funnels that the bronze will eventually pour through.

The waxes pieces are dipped in alternate layers of ceramic and sand until there is a thick mold encrusted on them.

Frank's head.

The ceramic molds are fired to melt out the wax, and then later heated right before the bronze is poured. This makes everything compatible. You can't pour molten bronze into a cold mold.

The foundryman is wanting everything, the bronze, the molds, to be around 1600 degrees.

A special thermometer is used to monitor the heat.

Stephen Zabel, owner of Omega Bronze,  fetches the HOT molds from the oven...

The fired molds are placed in a sand box to hold them in place for pouring. Now everything is ready!

Easy does it... One drop could burn right through a foot...

Cast in three pieces, the base with the feet has been reassembled.

Here the torso is being artistically finished, the seams between the pieces "chased" and the texture that was lost in the process re-established with the skills of an experienced sculptor.

It wont be long! The dedication of the monument has been set for March 2nd!

One last look...

Here is one last good look at "Frank" before he goes under the knife... and endures the molding process... I think we will all miss the wonderful terra cotta look and feel of the original...

 

before the molds are made...