1961—VOTE!: A sculpture for the Common Currents 300 Years/300 Artists@ the Carver Community Cultural

"1961—VOTE!" the maquette in progress

The opening reception for this exhibit is March 15th 2018 at the Carver Community Cultural Center located at 226 N Hackberry (4.96 mi)San Antonio, Texas 78202. The year that I was given to portray was 1961. The sculpture is a maquette for a large 'luminaria style' monument possibility. The monument would be lit from inside using LED lights that are solar powered from the panels placed on the top surface of the structure—The monument is available for purchase, please contact me if you are interested. Information about the sculpture follows below.

1961—VOTE!

The beginning of the year saw the inauguration of the the youngest president ever—John F. Kennedy. His famous inaugural speech underscored the importance of civic responsibility. In 1961 there was also a special election in San Antonio that resulted in the election of San Antonio’s champion Henry B. Gonzalez. The editorials on the east side newspaper, SNAP, elaborated on the power of the vote both on the positive and negative aspects. Albert

Pena expounded on the contribution of the latino vote, PASO, and the “Viva Kennedy” impact on the election while Bill Donahue talks about voter apathy in his editorial column In Our City. The two views show the dichotomy of voters in San Antonio which remains one of the biggest issues to date. The sculpture is a 3D representation of the exclamation “VOTE” on its side alluding to the gigantic impact that voter complacency and voter involvement can have on a community. There is an image of Henry B. Gonzalez cut out and lit up in blue.

"1961—VOTE!" is a maquette for a 'luminaria style' monument as shown in this mock-up photo.

The model was made using the paper mache' building techniques that I have used in my sculpture and maquettes for some time now. It began as a sketch for a 3D version of the word VOTE with an exclamation point at the end. The concept drawing has it on a vertical axis but as I began to work with the form I decided to edit out the exclamation point and turn the piece onto a horizontal axis to adjust for the monument's subject prominence. Once the form was assembled I sprayed the inside with reflective silver paint and inserted the LED lighting system.

The next stage of the maquette building was placing a cut out of the image of Henry B. Gonzalez to light from inside of the structure. The final cutout was done on a piece of foam-core matt board then the cuts were sanded and sealed for painting. A sheet of heavy velum was used to seal the 'luminaria style' maquette before the portrait plate was attached. The final stage was presenting the idea as a visual. I used google maps and found a view of an open area at the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center and I used that image to create a rough mock-up of the sculpture placed on location during the construction phase of the center. The convention center looks a lot different now so it is not an updated photo but a location shot can always be taken to visualize the place where the actual 'luminaria style' monument can be place. Please feel free to contact me if you are interested in purchasing this monument.