Heber City artists create Founding Fathers sculptures on display at the State Capitol
Reported by The Park Record
By Clara Hatcher
Artists say pieces are a nod to America 250 and the nation’s history
Sculptor Michael Hall knows everything there is to know about the third president of the United States. Thomas Jefferson was a historic hero to Hall, who shared information that Jefferson helped popularize ice cream from his trips to Europe.
But it wasn’t until Hall sat down to carve Jefferson’s figure out of bronze that the sculptor really began to understand the former president. Hall opted to sculpt Jefferson barefoot holding a book. More tomes are scattered around the sculpture’s base and up the chair Jefferson sits on.
It’s all the better to capture the founding father’s love of knowledge, he said.
“The idea was that he became who he was for many different reasons, but one was because of his love of learning,” Hall said.
The 1,400-pound finished sculpture took hundreds of hours to complete and plenty of research on Hall’s part. He learned about Jefferson’s faults and triumphs, creating a larger picture of someone he considered an idol as a child.
“These were just ordinary people that were doing extraordinary things,” Hall said. “People realized this is not a perfect person, but this is somebody who tried to use his talents and those things as resources to make a country and the world a better place.”
Now, that finished sculpture has found a new site at the Utah State Capitol. For the next year and a half, the installation at the building’s east entrance will sit beside a sculpture of George Washington by artist Dr. Steven Neal.
The project to relocate the sculptures from Heber City to Salt Lake City started with Neal and his organization, Monument of the Americas. Neal said it was a joint effort between Monument of the Americas, the Utah State Capitol Preservation Board and Utah Sen. Kirk Cullimore.
Cullimore said it’s inspiring to have “uniquely American art” at the state Capitol, especially in honor of the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. One curator from the Capitol Preservation Board, Stephanie Angelides, said the two sculptures are the only works of national art. Most others are related to the state of Utah, specifically.
While Hall’s Jefferson depicts a founding father lost in thought, Neal’s 900-pound bronze sculpture of George Washington shows the former president deep in prayer.
Neal chose to show the first president of the United States praying at Valley Forge during the Revolutionary War.
“It was the low point of the war. People were dying, and they were walking away, escaping deaths, but he stayed right with his men at Valley Forge,” Neal said.
Neal took care to preserve the slightest details. He found buttons from the 1700s and copied the intricate design onto the bronze Washington’s sleeve cuffs. A former plastic surgeon, Neal is used to being precise with his work.
In total, Neal spent around 300 hours crafting the sculpture.
As founder of the Monument of the Americas sculpture park in Heber City, Neal said he hopes visitors will appreciate the historic people and moments depicted by the sculptures. Of the statues at the Heber City sculpture park, there are works depicting Harriet Tubman, James Madison, Benjamin Franklin and Abigail and John Adams, for a start.
But not all of the Monument of the Americas sculptures reside in the sculpture park. Up until their move on Wednesday, both bronze Founding Fathers now in Salt Lake City sat idle on a Heber City farm owned by Robert Hicken.
“Up until now, they’ve just been seen by a bunch of cows and livestock,” Hicken joked.
Having been in the masonry business for years, Hicken said he has become accustomed to helping Neal with his work at Monument of the Americas.
Wednesday, Hicken helped unload the heavy works of art from a truck and installed them along the state capitol’s main east walkway. Hall said it’s because of Hicken that they were able to complete the move at all.
“If it was up to us, we could never get the pieces where they needed to go,” Hall said.
Though the sculptures, valued at $170,000 in total, are works of art, Hall and Neal said they hope passers-by will engage with the pieces. Hall said it’s the perfect piece of art to touch and learn more. He said he hopes kids will climb on, experience and enjoy his work.
Neal said he is proud to have his and Hall’s work on display outside of Wasatch County. But after their loan to the state capitol is up, the sculptor said he will welcome them back home.
