A SCULPTURE EXHIBITION--
by Seward Johnson

Life-sized, cast bronze figures engaged in a variety of daily activities are currently featured at the McKee Botanical Garden in Vero Beach, FL where my lady Sue (left) and visiting friends from Mansfield, OH, Mike and Nancy Truex enjoy this scene titled Eye of the Beholder (1997).

For this presentation Johnson was inspired by Edouard Manet's "Chez le Pere Lathuile"1879 painting of a French street scene.

For those of us less culturally enriched with such obscure facts, the display was memorable nontheless.

We found ourselves marveling at the fact many of the features of the figures were molded in the artistic process, not added to the castings as real apparel then blended in to the creation.

Shoes, for example, looked so real it appeared they had been slipped onto the feet of the castings, when, in fact, they were somehow fashioned into the mold then painted with stunning realism.

Likewise with the incredible detail of texture in some clothing or other accessories.  It had to be draped on the finished product then coated with some sort of invisible, hardened fluid we wanted to believe.

Nope.

It all was done as part of the creative process.

We couldn't tell that by examination.  Often we found ourselves gently touching the lady's straw hat, for example, and being convinced it had been manufactured then placed on the casting.  Nope again.

A careful reading of the event brochure made perfectly clear everything visible was truly, and only, part of the sculpting and casting process.

Wow!