Q&A: Meet the artist behind St. Thomas' new gigantic metal dandelions
B.C. blacksmith Kyle Thornley created the piece now at Highbury and South Edgeware roundabout
Move over, Jumbo the elephant.
St. Thomas has a new eye-catching statue in town: a gigantic metal dandelion plant.
The dandelions, dubbed Thriving Roots, shoot up more than 7 metres high and are a symbol of resilience, growth and optimism, the city said, serving as a reminder that beauty can take root in even the toughest conditions.
The metalwork was the vision and handiwork of B.C.-based blacksmith Kyle Thornley of Metal Mind Forge, and is on display at the roundabout at Highbury Avenue and South Edgeware Road in the city's northeast.
CBC's Matt Allen spoke with Thornley on Afternoon Drive.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
MA: Could you describe what the statue looks like?
KT: It is gigantic dandelion flowers in their different stages of development. There are two dandelion buds, two yellow dandelion flowers and two mature fluffy dandelions that are all mounted to a concrete base. At the base, there is a volcano of rail spikes that they're growing out of.
MA: What inspired this choice to build dandelions?
KT: Putting together a concept for the project for the design competition, I just start thinking about the important parts about community. Dandelions are maybe a misunderstood flower, but they're a very thriving species. Especially in the springtime, as they're some of the first colours to emerge, and I am trying to track that back into the human experience or the experience in a healthy community.
The dandelions are to represent a thriving community with favourable conditions that are appropriate for growth and development; That leads to the stage of maturation, of the fluffy dandelion flower sending its seeds off into the world, which signifies residents really sending off their hopes and dreams off into the world.
WATCH: Meet this blacksmith from Revelstoke, B.C., creating imaginative public art
Media Video | This Revelstoke blacksmith shapes steel into imaginative creations
Caption: Kyle Thornley of Metal Mind Forge in Revelstoke, B.C. preserves the traditions of blacksmithing while transforming industrial steel into public art pieces showcased across Canada. Short documentary produced for CBC Creator Network.
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As far as growing out of the rail spikes, it's kind of like a drawing out of the ashes, a former history of the town, right? With St.Thomas being the rail capital of Canada at some point, a new identity but in a different form, with strong roots and a deep history.
MA: I really like all the thoughts and inspiration you drew on for the piece. You mentioned St.Thomas. How exactly was it chosen for this particular city?
KT: They put out a call nationally just for a request for pre-qualification. So you apply with portfolio and CV and a letter of intent and get chosen as a finalist to do a site-specific design. I'm very thrilled that my concept was selected for one of the roundabouts.
MA: Take us into the your process here. What type of work actually goes into creating a sculpture of this size?
Oh my goodness, a zillion steps. I identify as an artist-blacksmith. I'm kind of a one-trick pony with the metalwork anyway, but the blacksmithing component is pretty exciting just with the hot processing of the metalwork under different machinery, power hammers and a bunch of different anvils and dies and tools at the shop that are all custom made for the different shapes that we're trying to create on this project.
It's a lot of design work to start the patterning and the sizing of the components, plasma cutting, lots of grinder work to clean things up. Then, in the forge, we heat up the materials and form and shape them just under the different machines, which requires a lot of assembly. And then it gets sort of powder-coated for a protective finish. It's mostly a sculpture that's made out of stainless steel with the coloration on top. So it should be durable for a very, very long time.
MA: How does it feel to see the finished product being installed?
KT: There are such big projects that are in the shop for so long and really dominate your headspace and your working days for months, even with some assistance at the shop. So it's kind of a real culmination, right? A real building of the experience, just sort of with components being made and then the assembly really taking shape.
Media Audio | Afternoon Drive : 'Gigantic' metal dandelion sculpture draws awe in St. Thomas
Caption: A 7-metre tall sculpture of dandelions has just been installed at a roundabout in St. Thomas, created by B.C. metal worker Kyle Thornley. He shares the story behind it.
Open Full Embed in New Tab Loading external pages may require significantly more data usage than loading CBC Lite story pages.
When the flowers are created and the stems are done, everything is sort of ready to go. Then there's a huge trip across the country from where I live to get it here. Installs are always a little bit stressful, just with such a big build-up. But the crane operator was fantastic and everything fit quite nicely. And then there was a big celebration at the end when all of this mountain of work had been completed and so many things had been ticked off the box, and here we have a gigantic sculpture sitting in the roundabout where it was designated to go a long time ago.
MA: That's awesome. What have you heard from people gone feedback on it?
Oh yeah, I've probably had more positive feedback on this one than any project I've ever done. I mean, just the following day, people were finding out who I was and looking up my number and I was getting calls from residents just saying how thrilled they were and how much they loved the project.
So, it's absolutely incredible just getting that kind of feedback. People are thrilled and saying it's their favourite sculpture in town. And I think St. Thomas is pretty well known for its roundabout sculptures now.
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