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Canada

The Jeffco Team

Photos

In 1998, in addition to the sculpture 'In His Master's Steps', we also accepted the challenge of doing a second sculpture on the Canal for Industry and Tourism Canada.

The sculpture was immense and originally we turned the commission down, not because it was too difficult, but because we thought it was more important to focus on our other sculpture, the one that meant more to us.

We eventually agreed to do the sculpture when we realized we had more than enough people and time to complete our own sculpture. It also helped that the organizers did a bit of begging to get us to do it. We originally quoted a prize to them as a reference should they choose to approach another group in our place. Oddly enough, the organizers came back with an offer five times greater than our original request. I assure you though, we didn't do it for the money, although it was easy money. We had our share of hassles, especially agreeing what we would be responsible in terms of maintenance and dealing with weight and engineering issues with a sculpture this large. In the end though we agreed to do it for the challenge and for the prestige. If it had been for a different sponsor, I doubt we would have bothered, but this was probably the most photographed sculpture that year, as every tourist and family posed in front of it. It was also fun to sit anonymously in front of the sculpture and watch family after family pose (and ask you to get out of the way), having no idea you were involved in it's creation.

The team inspects the site as we prepare to call it a day

At just under 10 feet high, it was easily the last thing standing on the canal that year. It could even be seen from a distance as you drove by the canal. It stayed for the full three weeks of Winterlude, even though we wouldn't (couldn't) promise it would. I think everyone ended up happy with this one

Sketches

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Photos


Click to view the Canada sculpture photo gallery

Dave puts some finishing touches on the letters