more…

Once upon a time, in a sculpture studio in Long Beach, Ca., I did historical restoration with my first husband, Brian Coleman. This sculpture and fountain, which is installed outside Bovard Auditorium on the USC campus was most definitely the most difficult thing we ever did. In the years following this work, we often recalled this job whenever anything got tough, and reminded ourselves that nothing could ever be as difficult as the USC piece. It got us through a lot of tough times. The original , was delivered to us in a dump truck to our studio in over 100 pieces, much of it missing. We resculpted it from photos and built a massive mold containing hundreds of intricate pieces. We then disassembled it, took it to a cement company, rebuilt the mold, inverted it with a crane, (prayed alot) and then poured in the cement-tons of it! Upon de- molding, we had it transported to the site and installed it. We also re-made the bowl with all the necessary copper tubing and fittings for the waterworks as well as recasting the bronze figure on top. Brian was a genius at this and I was the studio “assistant”. Just the two of us for 6 months 80 hours a week..I was 19 at the time. Since he passed away in 1985 from leukemia, I’ve always treasured this piece. This photo was taken by USC student, Andrew Hart whom I paid for the rights to use his image here.