Christal Cooper – 1,625 Words
SCULPTOR MARTIN DAWE:
THE STRENGTH OF BRONZE
On April 10, 1945 President Roosevelt
had his secret service men drive him to Pine Mountain, on top of Dowdell’s
Knob, and leave him there in solitude.
Dowdell’s Knob is the rock
outcropping overlooking Pine Mountain Valley’s 14,000 acres. It is located in the middle of FDR State
Park, which is, at 9,047 acres, the largest state park in Georgia.
Here on this bluff Roosevelt would
picnic with other polio victims, his family, friends, and his secret service
agents. This was also the place
Roosevelt chose to savor Pine Mountain’s green beauty and meditate.
“Just imagine what this man was
thinking; up there with the view that’s pretty much the exact same today. He
knows what’s going on. He knows about
all the lives of the allies being lost.
It almost boggles the mind. His
health had been failing for several months.
He was real hollow looking. He
was dealing with a body that was shutting down on him. I think he had a sense of what that meant.” Sculptor Martin Dawe said.
Two to three hours later, Roosevelt
honked his horn, a signal for his men to come back. He died two days later of a cerebral
hemorrhage.
On April 12, 2007, a ceremony was
held at FDR State Park in Pine Mountain, Georgia to unveil Dawe’s statue of
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt; the only statue that accurately depicts
his polio condition, from the car seat he sat in to the braces he wore.
This is a not only an accurate and
historical memory of Roosevelt, but the three-dimensional-image Dawe saw in his
mind: the six-foot-two president with
his 12 foot sized shoes, sitting on a car seat that had been removed from the
car, his legs crossed, and his accurately depicted leg braces.
This image, just like history,
depicts Roosevelt looking across Pine Mountain; his braces worn on the outside
of his pants, like he would do in private, but never in public.
It is also an interaction art, where
the person can participate in the art form by sitting next to FDR, in his
grandfatherly comfort, on the roadster seat.
“It only seemed fitting that he’d be seated in his car
seat. I wanted the statue to be
interactive with other people, especially the downtrodden since he identified
with them and helped them with his numerous programs.”
Dawe, 51, thinks of his older sister
Nikki, who died of breast cancer in 2002 at 51.
Maybe she is not sitting next to Roosevelt, but instead, is leaning over
his shoulder whispering into his ear, “I understand what you’re going
through.”
Dawe, along with his sister, was born
in Johannesburg, South Africa to parents who served in the Royal Navy. A crewmember from a ship docked in the area
had polio and unfortunately infected other people in the area –one of whom was
three-year-old Nikki Dawe.
At that time, in 1954, all persons
with polio were confined to a three-month quarantine without any contact with
family members. Dawe said his father
remembers visiting the main gate of the hospital where his daughter was quarantined
and leaving her a toy or a stuffed animal.
“He told me
it is the worst thing he ever had to go through. She was the idyllic happy little girl and
then the next day this very angry, scarred little girl. She never got over it.”
The hospital staff told Dawe’s father
that she was very angry and would not stay in her bed. The staff and the family both believe that
anger prevented her from getting into the mature stages of polio, thus saving
her. Nikki later became a nurse.
“My sister
was strong and compassionate. The thing
that amazes me about her is when she got cancer the second time and went
through four years of chemotherapy she never complained. She never said anything negative and always
played up the positive.”
The Dawe family
moved to Maplewood, New Jersey, ten miles from Manhattan, where Nikki graduated
from high school and Dawe realized, as a child, that he was bound for a career
in art.
His first drawing was of
President Abraham Lincoln. His first
sculpture was when he was sixteen, of a Roman man, that he described as
“terrible” and displays it in his studio.
After graduation from high school, he
attended the University of Main for two years.
He then studied at Boston University of Fine Arts, and after two years,
it was suggested he attend a more challenging art school. He studied Fine Arts in Sculpture, and earned
his bachelor’s of fine arts in sculpting from Georgia State University.
For the next eight years he apprenticed
under great sculptor Julian Harris, who died eight years later at the age of
80. Harris, whom Dawe described as
grandfatherly, taught him everything he knew about sculpting, which was
enormous, but did not include the latest technology. Dawe was able to use the modern day
technology when he did his first commissioned piece in the early 1980s.
“It was for about $1500. Julian didn’t do small commissions like that
so he told me to take it and go for it.
It was the Naismith Trophy, a polished bronze figure given to the top
collegiate male and female players, annually since 1980.”
It was in Atlanta,
after working five years as a sculptor full time, that Nikki gave him the
greatest compliment.
“She was really kind of cocky about my sculpting work.
She finally said, ‘I didn’t think you
were very good, but you’ve gotten better; you’ve gotten really better.’”
In the early years, even though Dawe was
sculpting, he worked three jobs to make ends meet. He waited tables, refurbished houses, and did
prop work. Dawe doesn’t take all of the
credit of his success but is gracious to his parents, who helped him
financially through the years.
In 1987, Dawe started his own custom
sculpture studio in Atlanta, Georgia, and four years later christened it
CherryLion. The idea came from a cast stone lion’s head hanging on the door and
then a friend of Dawe’s stuffing carved-wooden-cherries in the lion’s mouth.
CherryLion Studios is located in
Atlanta, Georgia on an isolated street, where just the tip of the Atlantic
skyline can be seen. Here Dawe and his
staff work endless hours in the 6000 square foot of open space, with a section
consisting of a bathroom, kitchen, loft and bed.
And it was here that he received the news
that he dreaded: Nikki had been in a
coma and the family said she wouldn’t live much longer. Dawe immediately flew from Atlanta to New
Jersey to be by her side.
“I went
and sat by her in the bed. Her eyes
didn’t move, open, or anything. She was
having great difficulty breathing. I
almost didn’t recognize her. She kind of turned her head towards me a little
bit and she pulled her lips back and smiled at me. She died about thirty
minutes later. She did wait for me. I was the last one to get there. All seven of us were together with three or
four friends.”
Right after
Nikki’s death, Dawe was asked by FDR State Park to submit an idea along with
other sculptors and received the commission to do a bronze life statue of
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
In order to accomplish this great
task took intense and strenuous research, work, and thought. Being a sculptor requires a great knowledge
of physics, geometry, biology, anatomy, computer programming, as well as the
art form. But in addition, being an
expert sculptor requires one to have the ability to see things in
three-dimension within his mind.
First he has the
image – the three dimensional image in his brain and then he places it in the
computer, changing head angles, hand placements, and which legs to cross. Also included in the computer graphics is the
place that the statue is to be placed.
The next step, intense research.
“I had to know what he looked like
inside and out. I’m not the kind of
sculptor that wants a dry mannequin life casting. It’s about capturing an essence not just a
physical outside. The main thing was
just watching every video and DVD that I could get my hands on that showed him
in different ages and different lights and different positions.”
He also read Newsweek Senior Editor’s
Jonathan Alter’s “The Defining Moment – FDR’S Hundred Days and the Triumph
of Hope.” During the middle of
sculpting the piece Dawe went to one of Alter’s lectures, where his main
lecture theme was on how Roosevelt changed.
“It was a positive that he took his
disability and made it part of his personality that people could relate
to. When he found out he had total loss
of his legs, he managed to find this incredible strength inside of him (which)
helped change America. The actual
dollars weren’t there but the attitude changed which eventually changed the
financial situation.”
Finally came
the building of the armature, the actual skeleton of the statue consisting of
plywood, heavy wire, and other material.
Then the clay is placed over the
armature and formed into life within the sculptor’s hands. The clay must be kept wet with water and
covered in plastic bags to retain the moisture.
The statue is then sent to a foundry
where it is cast in bronze, approximately ¼ inch thick throughout. During this process the original clay statue
is destroyed.
Presently, Dawe is sculpting six clay
figures, and has 23 commissions to complete.
“ I am
doing something I absolutely love. For
me it’s about being able to create form.
Three-dimension, it’s godlike in a way.
You’re creating life. I love
life. I find life inspiring.”
Photo Description and Copyright Info
Photo 1 and 3
Description: FDR in Warm
Springs, Georgia, 1930.
Credit: Franklin D.
Roosevelt Library
Photo 2
Dowdell’s Knob in FDR State Park.
CCCCO 1.0 Universal Public Domian.
Photo 4
Scultptor Martin Dawe.
Copyright granted by Martin
Dawe
Photo 5
President Roosevelt’s favorite spot for a news
conference in Warm Springs, Georiga on March 23, 1937
Photo 6
Martin
Dawe, Paul Nelson, Dan White, Ronnie Eakins, Abit Massey, Don McGhee, Dr. Toby
Raper, Jody Rice and David M. Burke
Photo Credit: DNR
Phto 7
Martin Dawe sculpting a Maquetter.
Attrrbuted to David Burk
Photo 8
Sculpture of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt by
Martin Dawe.
Copyright granted by Martin Dawe.
Copyright granted by Martin Dawe.
Photo 9
Martin Dawe seated with his parents necxt to the
statue.
Copyright granted by Martin Dawe.
Photo 10
Nikki the nurse.
Photo 11
Child with a deformity of her right leg due to
polio
Attributed to Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention
Public Domain.
Photo 12
Father Dawe kissing Nikki.
Copyright granted by Martin Dawe.
Photo 13
Nikki and her dad.
Copyright granted by Martin Dawe
Photo 14
Nikki as a nurse
Copyright granted by Martin Dawe.
Photo 15
Nikki on a fishing trip.
Copyright granted by Martin Dawe
Photo 16
Martin at the beach.
Copyright granted by Martin Dawe
Photo 17
Bronze of Abraham Lincoln $4,000
Copyright granted by Martin Dawe
Copyright granted by Martin Dawe
Photo 21
Naismith
Polished bronze 1980
Polished bronze 1980
Given annualy to top collegiate male and female
basketball players.
Copyright granted by Martin Dawe.
Copyright granted by Martin Dawe.
Photo 22
Martin Dawe and his mother.
Copyright granted by Martin Dawe.
Photo 23
Cast stone lion’s head at Cherry Lion studios.
Copyright granted by Martin Dawe.
Copyright granted by Martin Dawe.
Photo 24
Cherry Lion studios
Copyright granted by Martin Dawe.
Photo 25
Martin Dawe far left, with family members,
including Nikki Dawe far right.
Copyright granted by Martin Dawe.
Photo 26.
FDR State Park in Pine Mountain, Georgia.
Fair Use Under the United States Copyright Law.
Photo 27
Martin Dawe with head busts, one of which is of
President Franklin Delano Rossevelt, far right.
Copyright granted by Martin Dawe.
Photo 28.
Only one of two known photographs of FDR in
wheelchair. FDR with Ruthie Bie and dog
Fala at Hilltop Cottage in Hyde Park.
1941
Credit:
Franklin D Roosevelt Library.
Photo 29
FDR
1945
Credit:
Franklin D Roosevelt Library.
Photo 30
Jacket cover of
“The Defining
Moment: FDR’s Hundred Days and the Triump[h of Hope”
Simon & Schuster May 8, 2007
Photo 31
Jonathan Alter at the 2013 Texas Book Festeval in
Autsitn.
October 26, 2013
Atributed to larry D Moore
CCASA 3.0 Unported License.
Photo 32A, 32B, 32C, 32D, 32E, 32F, 32G
The step by step process of Martin Dawe creating
the FDR Scultpure.
Copyright granted by Martin Dawe.
