Skopos returned home, artist Richard says “I’m relieved to see it home”

I had every intention of being at the resurrection of Skopos today from 10am, I was going to stay until Skopos was placed back home, but I couldn’t make and with the heavy downpour I thought for sure it would be placed on hold until the weather subsided. �
I get a phone call from a friend around 12:30 and she say’s hey they are getting Skopos now and instead of listening I rushed out and headed towards the Senior Center to take photos. What I got was much more than I imagined.

Everyone who attended took many, many photos of the sculpture being removed from the river, but what I got was much more, a photo of the artist next to his work of art titled Skopos Greek word loosely translated as “The Watcher “.

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Richard Bauer who lives in Fort Walton Beach Fl, traveled by car to watch his sculpture be lifted from the river. Skopos was extracted from its watery home at approximately 9:40am Aug 5 2008 almost 2 months exactly to the day from when Skopos was washed from her concrete foundation on June 7th 2008.

 

I was able to speak with Richard after taking his photo, and I asked what his inspiration was for creating his sculpture. Richard said his inspiration was “traditional art forms, nature and Henry Morris’s for creating the arch” titled Chac Mool or know here in Columbus as “Large Arch” which sits in front of the library. Skypos was created using 3/16” thick steel plates that were welded together to make the sculpture one piece back in 1979. Richard said “I have always loved Henry Morris’s arch and this is kind of my version of an outdoor tree substitute.”

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I also asked Richard how he felt about the flood sweeping his sculpture away from its home in Mill Race Park along the people trail. Richard said “This was unbelievable how could a one ton steel sculptor float away; I just was amazed and shocked but it was gone for sure… it had been gone now in fact for 2 months and just this Morning they pulled it out of the river and its in real good shape and I’m relieve to see that, standing tall and pretty and strong again.”

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While we was talking Richard pointed out the damage Skopos had acquired during its journey.  He mentioned that Skopos must have scrapped along its edge which damaged it slightly.

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I would like to thank Richard for talking with me and allowing to document history in the making.