Client: The Patterson Foundation

Overview

Two sculptures in bronze, each 17' x 6', are mounted on curved boralstone walls which stand at the east entrance to Patriot Plaza at Sarasota National Cemetery in Sarasota, FL. The sculptures combine text in stainless steel and modelled form and found object in bronze to suggest the volumes of birds and their nests while conveying the founding principles of the U.S. National Cemetery system in the words of Abraham Lincoln.

Goals

"Home" creates a transitional space at the east entryway between the burial sites and the ceremonial amphitheater of Patriot Plaza. The suggested nests are a metaphor for the role and sacrifices of the family in military service. Like a human dwelling, the Bald Eagle's nest is a “Home” where acts of everyday life occur. Here, the eagle, like a soldier, learns to protect “Home,” knowing that one day it will have to leave in order to protect its freedoms.

Process

The artist worked closely with the Patterson Foundation to address a design brief specifying accessibility for a broad public as well as to coordinate the design parameters and installation schedule with a complex construction site where a series of public artworks and architectural and landscape features carried on simultaneously. The project was the result of a first-ever partnership between a private charitable entity – The Patterson Foundation – and the National Cemetery Administration.The amphitheater brings together the work of four national public artists each of whom worked directly with the Foundation.