Home of the Innocents monuments

I am creating two sculptures that will be placed in Cave Hill Cemetery to mark the grave of a
Sister Emily Cooper, an Episcopalian Nun who was the primary caretaker of Home of the Innocents of Louisville,KY and the as yet unmarked graves of some 200+ children. Home of the Innocents was originally an orphanage from the late 1800s - 1920s.
The photo below shows Sister Emily Cooper's grave site.

The sketch below shows a preliminary concept for the monument that will be placed at her grave. The monument symbolizes her important work with the children (lifting the child) and ultimate spiritual guidance (the dove). The concept and design for this piece is that of Don Lawler, though I worked out the sketch. It will be more fully developed in 3 dimensional form. This is the site for the Children's monument.
This is the design for the Children's site. It represents Sister Emily Cooper shaking out a blanket upon which are incised images of butterflies. At the end of the blanket the butterflies are becoming 3 dimensional. This symbolizes the journey of the children through her care (represented by the blanket) to their spiritual release (represented by the butterflies taking flight). The names of the children will be carved upon the granite plinth.This is the clay model or maquette for the monument which will be placed at Sister Emily Cooper's grave site. The skirt is fuller and has more movement than the original sketch. Also she has full sleeves.

Here the sculpture is laid out using the original sketch for the main armature. Plumbing pipe is used to form the armature.

The metal armature.Foam is added to the armature.

Yew Dell

Yell Dell Gardens held it's first annual Outdoor Sculpture Show which runs until July 26th. The gardens is located in Crestwood Kentucky. In addition to Don's and My work, there are a great deal of other area sculptors - Mary Dennis Kannapell,Craig Caviar, Matt Weir, Al Nelson, David Lind, Karen Terhune, David Kocha, Jeann Dueber, David Caudill, Brad White and Amanda Matthews Fields.

Here is a sculpture that I did for the show entitled "Breaking Free". The sculpture started with

a piece of stone Don started to carve and then discarded. I hated to see it go to waste so I

worked up a clay model that would fit in the stone.

The beginning of "Breaking Free"

Starting to block the piece. The sculpture is beginning to take shape. I use timber crayon (the black marks) to try out movements in the stone before cutting with a grinder. At this point I am uncertain what I
want to do with that sweeping movement leftover from what Don had done. I'd like to break up
the vertical line and get more movement in it. I haven't worked out the hands and I'm not quite
sure where the feet are yet, though I know they are at the ends of the legs.....

Here I have worked out most of the body feet and blocked in the hands and have just begun to work some on the the sweep of stone. I'm thinking drapery.

Here you can see that I have blocked in the drapery...
And here he is at Yew Dell... I also did an Ophelia for the show, this was the first one I have done in years. And here she is getting filled with water. Happily she was purchased on the opeing night of the show.
This piece is entitled "Overcoming Oppression" and is really about the struggle of the individual to overcome self imposed obstacles.This is the Cougar. It also sold on the opening night of the show. That made me very happy indeed.....

ha