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"Early Morning Walk" arrives in Meadowbrook Park

July 28, 2015 08:09 AM
EarlyMorningWalk
Early Morning Walk by Ed Haddaway
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Sculptor Ed Haddaway will install a new sculpture in Meadowbrook Park with assistance from Urbana Park District staff members beginning on Tuesday, July 28. The piece, titled Early Morning Walk, is 18 feet high and made from painted steel. It will replace his earlier From Night Daddy’s Book of Dreams.

Haddaway makes his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico and exhibits work across the United States. His whimsical art is no match for his whimsical (tongue-in-cheek) description of his work. When asked to share information with the Urbana Park District about the sculpture’s creation and origin, Haddaway shared this story.
 

I woke up at six o'clock one morning in 2008 and said to myself, "I should immortalize someone today". (Being a sculptor I do this from time to time.)

That day being a Thursday I needed to get the garbage out.

So as I was approaching the curb with the garbage I saw a young rabbit in his pajamas walking his dog.

Normally I don't pay much attention to those things but this was a short, sort of pudgy rabbit, and his pajamas did not fit him very well. He also had on pink slippers, which stood out quite prominently.

Later in the day, as I was preparing to immortalize someone, I remembered this young rabbit and his dog.

The idea occurred to me that if I made this rabbit taller and somewhat thinner he might be more attractive.

But I decided keep his slippers the same as I remembered.

The dog needed a full overhaul, however.

He was quite unkempt.

I gave him a dog "sweater" as the weather was getting cooler and decided to make it the same color as the rabbit's pajamas.

It was at this point in the whole process that I had what I thought was a brilliant Idea. "If I emphasize the blue polka dots in both the rabbit's pajamas and the dog's sweater and actually physically cut them into the steel, I can get the weight down on my sculptures significantly." (I often struggle with the weight of my artwork).

I do not know how successful this idea was, but like a lot of things, once I had done it, I was stuck with it.

I do know that when I showed the piece at Art Basel in October of the following year, not one person commented on the polka dots.

In fact no one commented on my work at all.

I remind myself though that an artist's work is seldom appreciated in his or her lifetime.

It took quite a while to finish this sculpture, as I was trying to get the rabbit's face to look both pensive and quizzical.

Many of my works attempt to show this. I think it is the stuff that life is made of. Yes it’s a little thing, but little things are important.

Because I took so long on the "pensive and quizzical look" I missed the application deadline for a major show at the Whitney in New York. However, I did get to show the piece in Stamford Connecticut. I feel ok about that as Connecticut actually borders New York and some New Yorkers probably got to see it.

Seeing as how it was early in the morning when all this started, I decided to title my work, "Early Morning Walk". It was 2009 when I finally got it finished.

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