SMITHER PARK MEMORY WALL - SECTION 5
"Hummingbirds"
c. 2013-2015
Designed & Constructed by: John Gregory
ABOUT THE DESIGN
The hummingbirds are my first experience with tile mosaic and sculpture. I took advice and encouragement from Dan Phillips to focus on a three-dimensional sculpture.
My aspiration is to ‘see’ the amazing things we encounter every day, be it a small flower or a hummingbird. My grandmother Gregory and good friend, Janay, are two people I credit with opening my ideas to this small world. While I looked at the mountain, they looked at the pebbles. While I looked at the trees, they looked at the beauty of a leaf. We encounter amazing details every day, everywhere we look, when we take a moment to find it. Smither Park holds endless inspiration for me. The small details and techniques artist put into their work inspires me every time I visit.
The section of wall where the hummingbirds are, was mostly empty when I started. I was able to choose a section of the wall that was open to the sky, and arrange the hummingbirds on the top contour for a sense of movement.
The structure to support the hummingbird wings were brackets that held barbed wire on top a fence. One of the hummingbird beaks is a fire starter (from my house), and the other is a ring-sizer. The feathers are reflective glass. The stems of the flowers are aluminum baseball bats, and the flower blooms are painted aluminum Coca-Cola bottles.
I wanted a simple background of blue sky and clouds to make the birds and flowers stand-out. For fun the clouds have silver-linings and some ‘special tiles’ I made with help from a friend. I am an Art Car enthusiast – and my car is the Peep Jeep – there are a few ‘peeps’ hiding in this project.
