Category Archives: Public Art

Sculpture Vulture: Beginning Life

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Today’s Sculpture Vulture is Kathleen Caricof’s Beginning Life. This abstract sculpture was purchased in 2009 for the Vogel Schwartz Sculpture Garden. Caricof has shown at the Sculpture at the River Market invitational.

Kathleen Caricof has gained many accolades for her stone sculpture and reliefs over the years including a ‘Purchase Award’ and ‘Best of Show’ at the 2007 Sculpture at the River Market Invitational in Little Rock, AR. Her interest in sculpture developed from a background in designing for space. Caricof earned a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Design from the Art Center College of Design emphasizing in graphic design, packaging, environmental planning and transportation.

Past professional experience has included being an Associate Designer for Schorer & Associates and owner of Caricof-Burns Designs, primarily in the areas of Graphic/Packaging and Interior Design. Specific projects included working with Buckminister Fuller in product design and with PPG Glass in developing a next generation of products.

Caricof works in a variety of materials specific to each artwork and site; including steel, natural stone, composite stone, wood, and glass. Most recent public placements are ‘Stars and Stripes’ a 30ftx40ft intertwining stainless steel sculpture as the Veteran’s Memorial for the War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock, AR.

For more than 20 years, Caricof has carved with sculptors from around the world as an instructor at the MARBLE/marble Institute of Colorado. She also teaches at the Art Students League in Denver. Since 1996 she has been a member of the National Sculptors’ Guild

Sculpture Vulture: Uptown Saturday Night

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One of the sculptures in the Vogel Schwartz Sculpture Garden is Bryan W. Massey Sr.’s Uptown Saturday Night.  This bronze sculpture depicts a couple dancing the night away.

Massey, on the faculty of the University of Central Arkansas, received one of the top 10 Best of Show awards at the 2009 and 2010 Sculpture at the River Market Invitational Show and Sale.  Though primarily a stone carver working with a variation of stone, Massey also casts in iron, bronze, and aluminum as well as fabrication of steel sculptures.

Uptown Saturday Night was purchased in 2009 and installed in the Vogel Schwartz Garden when it opened.

Sculpture Vulture: First Tee of Little Rock

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Since the US Open concludes today, today’s featured sculpture is of a young boy playing golf. This sculpture sits in front of the clubhouse at the First Tee of Little Rock facility. It was unveiled in 2001 at the dedication ceremony for First Tee. President George HW Bush and Arnold Palmer were present along with Jackson T. Stephens and his son Warren Stephens.

Over the past eleven years, thousands of boys and girls have walked past this sculpture as they learn not only the game of golf but also the life skills that golf teaches. In May 2011, President George W Bush spoke at a ceremony commemorating the tenth anniversary of the First Tee of Little Rock.

Sculpture Vulture: Jan Woods’ FULL OF HIMSELF

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Since the Belmont Stakes were run yesterday and tonight’s Tony Awards promises many tight horse races, today’s Sculpture Vulture features one of the horse sculptures found in the Vogel Schwartz Sculpture Garden in Riverfront Park.

Jan Woods’ Full of Himself was installed in 2009. It was donated by Ms. Woods and the National Sculptors’ Guild. Ms. Woods was a featured sculptor during the 2009 Sculpture at the River Market event. The sculpture, made of bronze, depicts a horse mid-canter standing tall with head erect and tail proudly raised.

Woods creates sculptures of a variety of subjects (including doing the bust of President Clinton which is on the grounds of the Arkansas Governor’s Mansion) but is perhaps best known for her equine sculptures.

Sculpture Vulture: Michael Warrick’s GROWN

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Since June is a month in which people spend a lot of time in gardens, the Sculpture Vulture will focus on sculptures found in a garden. In this instance it is the Vogel Schwartz Sculpture Garden, located in Riverfront Park. Over 30 sculptures are located in this garden, which opened in 2009.

Today’s is Michael Warrick’s Grown which was installed in 2010. Using bronze, Warrick creates a framework to evoke the lower-half of a human. What initially looks merely like an abstract series of strips is, in fact, sculpted to resemble twigs and branches. The sculpture is approximately four feet tall, making it roughly 25% larger than life.

Warrick is a longtime faculty member at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and has sculptures placed as far away as China in addition to appearing in many public and private collections in Arkansas and throughout the United States.

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Sculpture Vulture: Gov. Sid McMath

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As Arkansas Heritage Month draws to an end, today’s Sculpture Vulture features Gov. Sid McMath. A proud officer in the U.S. Marine Corps, it is also appropriate to feature him on Memorial Day weekend.

The sculpture was crafted by Bryan Massey, Sr. and was commissioned by the Central Arkansas Library System. It stands on the campus of the library branch which bears the Governor’s name. It was dedicated in 2006.

This bronze sculpture depicts Gov. McMath in shirt sleeves, slacks and a tie in mid stride. He confidently smiles as he raises his right hand to wave with the hat in the hand. It is based on a photo of the Governor walking in a Little Rock parade along side President Harry S. Truman.

Behind the statue are a series of medallions mounted on individual pedestals which depict scenes from McMath’s life. They are accompanied by a quote from U. S. Senator David H. Pryor “…the best friend Arkansas ever had.”

The plaza is flanked by the United States, Arkansas and Marine Corps flags.

Sculpture Vulture: Dee Brown

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20120519-114242.jpg Today the Sculpture Vulture continues with the Arkansas Heritage Month emphasis on sculptures of Arkansans.

Visitors to the Dee Brown Library are greeted by Kevin Kresse’s 2004 sculpture of the celebrated author. The bronze likeness depicts Brown with a bepenciled hand raised to his chin as if in the midst of a wondrous thought while writing. The titles of some of his books surround the pedestal including his most famous book: 1971’s Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee.

Brown was a graduate of Little Rock High and Arkansas State Teachers College (now Little Rock Central and University of Central Arkansas, respectively). After a career as a librarian and bivocational but prolific author, he returned to Little Rock in 1973 and focused full time on his writing. He died in 2002.