prog7/28
Posted by Guy Van der Werf
Sculptor Robert Bellows to describe Warrior StoryField Project Thursday
Metal sculptor Robert Bellows will speak at the Rotary Club of Estes Park on Thursday, July 28, at their regular noon meeting. Bellows will speak about the Warrior StoryField Project.
In April 2013, two combat veterans, Marine Brad Gallup and Army Ranger Danny Moore, dropped in to visit Robert Bellows in his shop and offered to help. These three men went to work heating, bending, and shaping hard iron plow sweeps into rooster feathers. Over the next six months, the act of transforming metal into art allowed them to talk effortlessly about war and the experience of combat.
This prompted the Warrior StoryField, a collaborative sculpture project with a core mission of exploring what it takes to bring warriors home from war. The team is comprised of veterans and civilians working in community to create a large sculptural park to be called Warrior StoryField. Bellows envisions this park as a symbolic art installation that provides an experiential moment of pause, inviting us to explore how we, both veterans and civilians, can carry the burden of our wars as a community.
As one team member describes the burden of his fellow veterans, “It’s the silence that’s killing us.” The objective of the Warrior StoryField is to gently pierce the veil of silence as they imagine and build three large sculptures.
The first sculpture is a Dragon. The Dragon represents the Warrior Protector, the Demon Destroyer, and the Guardian of the Nation. Symbolically, it carries the experience of the Warrior at War. The second sculpture is a Phoenix. The Phoenix represents the Messenger of Renewal and Transcendence. Symbolically, it carries the endless possibility of transmutation and transformation of the Veteran Come Home. The third sculpture is The Space in Between. This space is formed by placing the Dragon and the Phoenix into an eternal relationship connected through their eyes, their hearts, and the ashes below their feet. The artistic challenge is to make this connections so palpable that simply walking in between the Dragon and Phoenix can evoke a visceral experience of the invisible wounds of war, where veterans can experience deeper feelings of loss, sadness and grief.
Robert Bellows is a metal sculptor working in Boulder County as an artist for 35 years. He believes that art can bring understanding to things that otherwise cannot be understood, and stimulate conversations that might otherwise never begin.
The Phoenix and The Dragon
Rotary is an organization of business and professional leaders who provide humanitarian service and help to build goodwill and peace in the world. There are 1.2 million Rotary members in 34,000 Rotary clubs in more than 200 countries and geographical areas. Rotary clubs have been serving communities worldwide for more than a century. Rotary clubs, around the world, initiate projects that address critical issues such as conflict resolution, hunger, poverty, disease and illiteracy.
The Rotary Club of Estes Park meets Thursdays at the Park Village Theater, adjacent to the Other Side Restaurant. Visitors interested in learning more about Rotary and its programs are welcome to attend. Buffet is served at 11:30 a.m., the Rotary business meeting opens at noon, and the program begins at 12:30 p.m.