by Max Marbut
Staff Writer
Inspiration can come from anywhere. A perfect example is something that inspired an artist to create his design for Jacksonville’s newest Art In Public Places project, a tribute to the late U.S. Rep. Tillie Fowler.
At her funeral on March 4, 2005 the Rev. Barnum McCarty, rector emeritus of St. Mark’s Episcopal Church, shared a story with those gathered for the service. He recalled a time he visited someone who was close to Fowler and what happened when he got out of his vehicle in the driveway.
“As I got out of the car and slammed the door and stood up straight to stretch my aching back I looked up at and into the large and magnificent oak tree under which I was standing. I began studying how its strong and sturdy limbs gracefully bent and reached out in all directions to its environment, adding beauty and significance to its place on the earth. It allowed for light to come through its canopy yet it also provided the comfort of shade.
“I said to myself ‘That tree is Tillie’. She may have been the Steel Magnolia but to me she was a mighty oak. She remarkably reached out in all of those directions we have read and heard about in the media and from each other in recent days and here this afternoon, gracing everything she touched. She always made a difference,” said McCarty.
Providence, R. I.-based sculptor Brower Hatcher has been commissioned by the Cultural Council of Greater Jacksonville through its administration of the Art in Public Places program to create a tribute to Fowler that will next year be installed near Riverside Avenue.
“It will be placed on the Northbank Riverwalk between the Haskell Building and St. Joe,” said Art in Public Places Program Manager Allison Graff. “It’s where Riverside, Downtown and Brooklyn come together.”
Graff added the project is unique in that it is funded through a public-private partnership. The $135,000 Fowler Memorial (its working title) is being paid for by Preston Haskell and Holland & Knight along with a $10,000 appropriation from the City Public Works Department Art in Public Places account. The artists will receive $120,000 with the remaining budget going to administrative expenses for the Art in Public Places program and long-term maintenance for the installation.
The other 26 Art in Public Places installations were funded through an ordinance enacted by City Council in 1997 that sets aside .075 percent of each City construction and renovation project with a budget more than $100,000 for the creation and placement of public art.
The selection committee that approved the selection of the artist and the final design included Fowler’s husband, Buck, attorney Ginny Myrick, a colleague of Fowler’s at Holland & Knight as well as architects and community arts advocates.
Graff said the completed sculpture will be 16 feet tall and 16 feet wide. It will depict three egg-shaped matrixes, one within another mounted on an aluminum base.
“I think the three shapes symbolize the three things that were most important in Tillie Fowler’s life: family, community and nation,” added Graff.
The sculpture will take eight months to construct and will be assembled on site early in 2009.