Sculpture artist Guy Tedesco spent Thursday at the Art Center of the Bluegrass casting arm molds of first responders and community members for his Memorial Plaza sculpture.
The sculpture will be in front of the new fire and rescue station in Danville to honor those who have served or sacrificed for the community. It utilizes a steel artifact from one of the towers of the World Trade Center destroyed on Sept. 11, 2001.
Five arms will be cast in bronze, and will be placed on a vertical monument. The arms will be reaching up and holding the square artifact. There will also be thumbprints in glass around the sculpture of first responders and others who have served the community.
The city of Danville had community members and first responders submit their names for their arms to be cast, and names were chosen at random. Two participants had family members who died in the line of duty.
One of them is Ruth Ryan, whose father-in-law James Ryan died as a police officer in 1968. Sergeant James Ryan of the Danville Police Department was shot while responding to a burglary call on South Fourth Street.
He died at the hospital the next day, and the suspect was later acquitted. James had been working at the police department for 26 years, and was scheduled to retire two months after he was shot. Danville’s old fire and police department building was named after James and others who gave their lives.
“I wanted something to honor these men who gave their lives for the city of Danville,” Ruth said. “They need something for kids to be educational to know what has happened in the city.”
Albert Taylor, who had a family member die in the line of duty, gets his arm cast by Guy Tedesco at the arts center. – Photo by Mary Beth Murray.
The other people who had their arms cast are Albert Taylor, who had a family member die in the line of duty; Jayla Pennycuff, who works at the 911 dispatch Center; Aaron Rainwater of the Danville Police Department; and Greg Reams of the Danville Fire Department.
Tedesco used a self-releasing silicone rubber cast for the arm molds. He spread the thick, liquid rubber on the arms in three coats, which dried quickly. After putting plaster over the rubber, the molds slipped off participants’ arms.
The molds were able to contour details and the shape of people’s arms, which will transfer to the finished bronze products.
Tedesco said the sculpture will stand the test of time, as bronze lasts over 5,000 years.
“You can be rest assured in knowing that legacy is being honored for generations to come,” Tedesco said.
Tedesco chose this project because the 9/11 disaster is close to his heart. He lived and worked in New York City for seven years and traveled through the World Trade Center every day.
“As I watched the towers get hit and fall, it really moved me, and it felt like my own house was being destroyed,” Tedesco said.
“So to be able to give back to a community and be able to help a community express themselves, honor their own first responders, showing that these are families, not just individuals, these are generations of families, and it’s very important that we honor and recognize that.”
Tedesco has created numerous monumental metal sculptures, both in this country and in nine others, including the Vatican in Rome. He currently lives and practices just outside Louisville.
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April 05, 2022 at 11:47PM
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Artist casts arms for Memorial Plaza sculpture - The Advocate-Messenger - Danville Advocate
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