Hot Springs was host last week to world-class artist Benjamin Victor and a maquette of his current project, a statue of Daisy Bates that will be placed in the National Statuary Hall Collection in Washington, D.C.
The 2-foot, 6-inch tall maquette was on display Friday at Legacy Fine Art Gallery as part of the opening of Arts & The Park.
"To be here, to be in this art gallery, it's a beautiful space, beautiful artwork, and it's the perfect space to unveil the little scale model of what the full monument will be," Victor said.
"It's great, especially to show off a sculpture of Daisy Bates because she was such a wonderful person in Arkansas state history and national history," he said, noting he was inspired to apply for the project after reading about her.
"I was just totally inspired by her lift, her strength, the dignity with which she carried herself in the face of the worst kind of adversity and mistreatment and so it just really made sense for me as an artist for me to want to do a sculpture on her legacy and this piece will be in the United States Capitol Building -- at 8 feet tall -- so it will be there forever, so it will be something that Arkansans can be proud of and something that I'm very proud of as an artist," Victor said.
"I had heard of Mrs. Daisy Bates but I hadn't studied her life in detail. So I read her book in preparation for this project and then also Janis Kearney's book on her, and both of those, both the autobiography and the biography really built an empathy and inspiration for her as a person," he said.
Victor did a lot of research for the project, and this recent trip to Arkansas was a way for him to continue his research.
"You can see along the piece, first of all that she's in motion. She was an activist, and then if you look up the piece, she's holding a notebook and pen, which are emblematic of her role as a journalist and of course in her left hand is the newspaper because she was a publisher and editor and she owned a newspaper, so all across the piece there are emblems and symbols, some of them small like the NAACP lapel pin, but they all represent her life and character so that it's not just a physical portrait sculpture of her, but it also encapsulates her spirit and what she stood for," he said.
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"I gained a lot of inspiration her on this trip and then others came in and got see the sculpture -- the full-sized clay is in Little Rock right now -- and I got to spend time with them and a lot of them were people who actually knew Mrs. Bates when she was alive, so just that connection and then to be able to walk through her home, which is now a museum, and then, of course, visit Central High and the museum across there, are all just a part of the process for me so when I go back and work on the final finish of the clay in my studio, I'll be that much more inspired to create a piece that honors her," Victor said.
Victor also got to meet with students from Daisy Bates Elementary School in Little Rock while he was in Arkansas.
"It was fantastic. We filled the room with elementary school kids from Daisy Bates Elementary School and the students were wonderful. They had great questions, they enjoyed the piece and it was just a wonderful day," he said.
"It just spawned even more inspiration. I think it's something Daisy would be so proud of because all these students are really her vision. You know, she stood for education and equality, and if you look at that school, it's obviously well integrated, and so I just think she's smiling down seeing everything that's been done in her name and in her spirit, and her legacy is safe in here," he said.
Victor has worked on the piece for nearly a year "and every step of the way has been a wonderful process, working with the committee and then working with people who knew Daisy Bates and then working with the Daisy Bates home," he said. "Their board members have just been an integral part of the process and every step of the way it's been inspiringly fun."
The sculpture is nearly finished, Victor said, with December the expected completion date.
"So the clay's almost finished and then I'll make molds of the piece and then we'll take the molds to the foundry and do a bronze casting. So the final piece will be in bronze on a granite base," he said, with writing on it.
"One of her quotes on one side and then her name, the state's name, the years she lived on the front and a little additional info about her. We're still voting on at the committee level what that will be on the other side, whether it will be the names of the (Little Rock) Nine or another quote by Mrs. Bates, we'll figure that out as we go," Victor said.
Shane Broadway, chairman of the National Statuary Hall Steering Committee, attended the event Friday and praised Victor and his work.
"It's been an amazing week. I had both he and Kevin Kreese, who is commissioned to do the statue of Johnny Cash, we had them speak to a group (April 27) about both statues and we had students from Daisy Bates Elementary School come to spend the morning with Benjamin this morning, and he spoke, did a lecture at a UALR class (Thursday) night, so it's been an amazing week having him here," Broadway said.
"What he and Kevin have both been able to do, the talent is just amazing," he said. "It's just hard to describe how someone can take just a photo of someone who's no longer with us and turn it into a statue."
Broadway said having the maquette at the gallery was special because its owner, Beth Gipe, was on the commission that selected Victor for the project and the timing of Arts & The Park starting the same day as Victor's visit made it even better.
"Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good in terms of your timing," he said.
"I'm pretty honored to actually have it here," Gipe said. "It's a pretty spectacular moment to be able to show this and have it in Hot Springs. Kind of crazy honored."
What Bates represents for Arkansas and "what she's going to represent in Statuary Hall is crazy amazing. I'm thrilled. I'm super honored to have her here," she said.
Musician Michael Eubanks, who performed for those in attendance, said, "I think it's wonderful to play for this, I guess a monumental celebration of people who have been not celebrated, you know, on a broader scale in the past.
"I think it is good that Arkansas, as well as other states in this nation and around the world are acknowledging people like Daisy Bates, who have been a great contribution to humanity as a whole," he said.
Benjamin Victor is shown with his maquette of Daisy Bates at Legacy Fine Art Gallery on Friday. - Photo by Tanner Newton of The Sentinel-Record
Small details, such as Bates’ NAACP lapel pin and flower, help encapsulate the spirit of Daisy Bates in Benjamin Victor’s artwork. - Photo by Tanner Newton of The Sentinel-Record