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Last year, Fay Jacobs
of Main Street (and Letters) fame, and Nancy Alexander of the Rehoboth
Beach Art League, decided to launch the Rehoboth Beach Dolphin Project,
making Rehoboth Beach one of the smallest cities to ever produce an
animal art project. Sculptor Ned Silver was hired to create and cast the
dolphins, sponsors were lined up, and artists enlisted—the project was
off and running. By November of 2002 the dolphins had been delivered to
the artists and the work was underway. With the dolphins in place around
town, we asked a few of the artists to send comments.
Aina
Nergaard-Nammack
Well, here we are, my white Dolphin in the middle of my studio, and I.
Bungalows, beach grass,
sand and sea still in my head, ready to be sent to the white surface.
After four months of company, my good friend left, now full of color and
shapes, ready for the world. I miss him.
Gary Fisher
The concept for my dolphin, Miss Libber D. Olphin, was an evolutionary
process—she started out with high hopes of being some kind of a Divine
Miss M inspired drag queen from the deep, plopped up on our shores and
doing her thing “for the boys” on Poodle Beach. But war intervened
after the first hints of blush had been applied to Miss Libber D.’s
pasty gray cheeks, and the “for the boys”concept took on a much more
complex and serious meaning.
Miss Libber D. donned
her best star spangled red, white and blue bathing regalia, put on a
tiara lost by a former Miss Delaware contestant in a late night foray at
the Frogg Pond, and leaped onto Rehoboth Avenue as a beacon to all those
men in uniform who may be returning from the desert in time for the
summer beach season in Rehoboth. She is for “all the boys” of
Rehoboth Beach—and the girls too!
I am excited and
honored to participate in this project. It’s a great opportunity for
Rehoboth Beach to celebrate its thriving art community, and to showcase
the large, diversified and talented group of artists we have here.
I also painted an
elephant sculpture for Washington, D.C.’s Party Animals project in the
summer of 2002. Like the Party Animals and similar displays in larger
cities, this will be a fun and memorable display for both Rehoboth’s
permanent residents and our visitors.
Sondra Arkin
When I was asked to do the Dolphin for CAMP Rehoboth, I went from
flattered to intimidated in no time flat. On any given day, I could be
excited, hysterical and overwhelmed at the same time. When the dolphin
actually arrived in my studio (thank you Abizak’s), it just stood
there in line behind another project, taunting me for weeks. I decided
to approach the dolphin conceptually and knew that once I had worked out
the idea, it would all fall into place. So with the help of friends, the
brainstorming commenced: the sponsors behind the CAMP Rehoboth dolphin
wanted some clue of what I had in mind.
By the wayside we left:
Hey Doll(phin), Barbie Doll(phin), (Dol)Phantom of the Opera, Guys and
Doll(phins), A Bouquet of Dolphiniums, (Dol)fin de Siecle, Matinee
Idol(phin), American Idol(phin), Dolphinigan’s Rainbow, and Valley of
the Doll(phins). You can imagine the decorations. My personal favorite
in support of CAMPsafe would have entailed shrouding the dolphin in a
huge condom and calling him “Don’t Free Willy. ”But our
family-pleasing winning idea supported by all was the DolFan Dancer.
I wanted to do
something with squares, since I’ve been focusing on them in my art for
the past few years. I became interested in doing something a la Antonio
Gaudi that would transform the dolphin with mosaic. Somehow this evolved
into covering the entire dolphin like a mirror ball and leaving the fans
simple, encrusted with pearls. As soon as I attached mesh fans to the
dolphin, and the dolphin was gazing at fabric flung to the sky, I knew
it was the right idea.
Because I have never
worked with mosaic or mirror tiles before, I drastically underestimated
the time and effort my dolphin would take. Going into it I knew it would
absorb all of the time I allowed so I forced myself to do the actual
work under a deadline of only one month. I found I really loved doing
the mosaic. I discovered that you can listen to Hairspray three times a
day and still laugh at the jokes (OK, I can). I found myself talking to
my dolphin when it was late at night and I’d missed dinner yet again.
My partner Ron sweetly suffered the month as an art widower.
One of my favorite
parts about a project like this is calling around to talk to suppliers,
throwing myself at their mercy as I ask questions and accept or reject
certain materials. It was important to me that the dolphin be
weatherproof and able to last in a seaside environment. So all of the
choices I made were based on that. I hope they were the right choices,
and that my dolphin will weather the environment on her own. I learned
that 316 stainless steel is best for salt resistance. I learned (late)
that permabond mastic cleans up with water. I learned that grout gets
hot as you work with it. I learned my friends were very sympathetic to
my whining. I learned sharing my progress was part of the fun.
I was worried about my
dolphin moving outside because of environmental issues but poo-pooed the
sentiment that there was danger in Rehoboth from vandals. I mean, the
cows were in NYC. Donkeys and elephants were in DC. So it was with
tremendous grief that I learned this last lesson when during the
installation weekend, Murray’s dolphin, born of the same hard work,
was vandalized and broken. I learned that despite our best efforts and
planning, contrary to our hopes and dreams, hate is a more destructive
environmental hazard than any other.
Thank you to The
Rehoboth Art League and Main Street for bringing more art to our
community. Thank you to Cathin Bishop and Laura Simon for
sponsoring her for CAMP
Rehoboth. I am deeply honored to have participated.
Murray Archibald
Almost as soon as the Dolphin Project was announced, John Sadler, the
owner of Abizak’s and a good friend, called to ask if I would paint a
dolphin for them. “Sure,” I said quickly, not at all realizing what
that would mean. Sometime later, as the fall of 2002 was drawing to a
close, my dolphin was delivered and become a resident of my studio, and
as the months passed I became somewhat fond of her, though if the truth
be known, on particularly difficult dolphin days I did occasionally
speak disparagingly of her.
The design was easy,
and came like a vision. She would be called, “Dancing Dolphin, Disco
Queen of the Sea, (generally and forever known as Tutu Much).” A tutu,
hair, and a crown were a must, and thus began the most difficult part of
the project: the location of materials capable of withstanding both
outdoor weather and
exuberant viewers with dirty fingers. Little did I know at the time that
far more would be demanded of Tutu before it was over.
Late on a Friday
afternoon in April, sculptor Ned Silver installed Tutu on the Boardwalk
at Baltimore Avenue, next to the Atlantic Sands. It was a grey, rainy
day and I was more than a little nervous about abandoning the object of
so many weeks of work to the dark of the off-season Boardwalk, but Steve
and I were off to DC for the CAMPsafe photoshoot, and it was time to say
goodbye.
On Sunday afternoon we
returned to Rehoboth and before going home I asked Steve to stop by the
Boardwalk so I could check to make sure that she was holding up in the
stormy weather. She wasn’t there. With a sick feeling in the pit of my
stomach, I ran into the CAMP office. It took only one look at Kathy
Weir’s face to know that she was not going to tell me good news.
During the night, vandals unscrewed Tutu from her base and threw her
over the fence into the courtyard at the Atlantic Sands.
In retrospect, it was
only an object, and no one was hurt. I don’t believe it was a targeted
attack, as the bathhouses were vandalized at the same time. Still, none
of us like to see art of any kind destroyed.
Tutu
has, for now, been placed into the care of her sponsors John and Pam
Sadler, at Abizak’s. The sculptor has reattached the broken body
parts, but it remains to be seen if she will rise again before the
summer is over.
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