Visit Hot Springs released high-quality videos Friday of workers at Fisher Sculpture pouring portions of the bronze statue of Babe Ruth that will be installed next week and unveiled in a ceremony on Feb. 6 at the entrance to Majestic Park.
Chad Fisher, the owner and sculptor with the family-owned business, said in part of the video that the process that is used dates back thousands of years. Fisher, in the video, talked about the statue, its genesis and the pouring process.
"This process goes back to Egyptian times, possibly even older, to areas of the Pacific maybe even 5,000, 10,000 years ago," he said. "So what we're doing is pouring bronze, molten bronze, that we melted down to 2,150 degrees into a ceramic shell, and then it's going to be knocked out polished and then welded back together and it makes the monument."
Fisher also owns the Pennsylvania foundry the company uses to pour the melted bronze and set the molds, and he said the pouring process requires trust among those handling the molten metal.
Video not playing? Click here https://www.youtube.com/embed/jQ6E847AMsI
"It requires some form of familiarity within your crew, and you become a little team," he said. "And with that, there's some hand signals and some movements. It's more like a choreographed dance, or possibly an audible on a football field. But it's a unique moment, even though the pour's over in like five minutes. ... We wait about two hours for the metal to melt, and then the whole celebration of watching the metal being poured is over within just a few minutes."
While it is a long process that requires concentration and working in extreme conditions, Fisher said he is grateful to be able to do this work.
"I feel very fortunate to be able to do this," he said. "Each step comes with a moment of gratitude. I'm grateful that I can make work. I'm grateful that my family and I can work in this field within the arts. Not everyone has the opportunity to work within the arts. In each step, some of them are a little bit dirtier, some of them are a little bit more physical, some of them are a little bit more endurance-based.
"But I appreciate each step. The pour, though, is definitely the climax of the process for me, then putting the statute together and polishing. It's sort of the last 100 on your 400-meter race, but it's a beautiful process."
Fisher said he appreciates the desire for Hot Springs to want to commemorate Ruth.
"Hot Springs is a beautiful community," he said. "Their interest within the arts and to build something for not only a community, but for children and then to put a monument up that they wanted it to be based in hope."
In addition to studying many photos of the baseball great to create the work, Fisher also spoke with those who knew him.
"I spoke with the gentleman who gave Babe Ruth's eulogy, and they really wanted the statue to be a part of that moment of hope that though Babe Ruth may have been seen as an imperfect figure, he did inspire overcoming obstacles," he said.
"And those obstacles can be looked at from many different points of view, and you can gather inspiration. His affection and willingness to see children is quite beautiful. To see all ballplayers during that time period as equal is quite unique, and it's very nice to do this for him and his family."
The statue will be unveiled in a public ceremony at the park at 10:30 a.m. on Feb. 6.