Dobson & Dault

The Public Art selection committee was looking for an outdoor sculpture with “Something organic to soften horizontal lines; something non-objective or more abstracted …with the theme of warriors, modern day warriors and heroes, although with an abstracted shape…”

In our early site visits to the school, when the parking lot was under construction, we were influenced by the earth moving equipment.   The strong perpendicular walls of the school reminded us of a stone quarry.

We could imagine a huge slab of stone being cleft from the quarry face and a form being carved from it.  Emerging from the powerful stone form are two warrior shields encircled by glowing feathers.  The bronze shield has a hand impression showing “pure deeds”.  The aluminum shield has a flame symbol representing the spark of inspiration  and “pure thoughts”.

The stone form represents the strong material from which a warrior is made.  The cast bronze and aluminum shields are created with intense fire using century old techniques.

In  our imagery for “Warrior Within” we incorporated:

• Symbolic Logic and Reason
• Math and Geometry
• Science and Geology
• History and Mythology
• Craft and Art
• Spirituality and School Spirit

As you approach the school, and to the left of the flag pole, you see a Twelve and half foot tall, 3000 lb. Warrior Stone standing Guard.  As evening falls, the feathers carved in the stone  begin to glow with the school color of red.  The Eleven feathers give the abstracted shape of the Warrior with shield in front. The top feather is  the head, the two bottom feathers are the feet.  The number of glowing feathers on each side is Eleven.  The number Eleven is thought of as a Master number because it is a double digit of the same number, One.  The number One is associated with  new beginnings and purity.  The power of One is then doubled in strength to create the number Eleven, the number of  Perfect Balance.