Saturday, April 23, 2016

A boat design that floated by.

This clay maquette was an idea of mine for a full scale dry stone wall sculpture which I'm delighted to say was chosen in a competition by a committee's announcing a 'call for submissions' for a public landscape feature, nearly ten years ago.

It was to be installed outside a newly designed (and about to be constructed) regional headquarters building representing 7 townships along the north shore of Lake Ontario. 

Having received the commission I was then asked very kindly by the committee to come up with a different design for the project. The final dry stone feature we built, a fully enclosed dry stone sheepfold, was very different from my original idea. 

The reason?  The 'sailboat theme' was deemed too specific a reference to one of the townships (it being the only township with a marina) and hence would not be a fair representation of the administrative jurisdiction of the new building .

Who knows, I may yet find an opportunity to float my original design somewhere.