Bob Leverich’s Commission by the Washington State Arts Commission
to create a sculpture on the grounds of Vashon Island High School.
Very early on a Saturday back in June, 2017, we loaded my pick-up with a generator and lots of supplies and headed to the Ravensdale gravel quarry to make this successful boulder split.
DJ, with the Marenakos boom truck, loading the two boulder halves for transport
Bob using a gas-powered 14” cut-saw with a water feed to rough out the boulder scoop-outs.
October 21, 2018: Gathering of NWSSA members and others to celebrate sculpture completely done – with grass and everything.For those of us thinking we might want to do some public art, here is a cautionary tale of a project taken on and completed by Bob Leverich, a NWSSA member from Olympia, Washington. The tale is not meant to discourage us, but to inform us about just what it might take to successfully complete such a major project.
These things always seem to take more time than is originally planned. If you’ve been following Bob’s story in the Journal, the website and the List Serve, you know how much equipment and how many people were involved to see this effort through to its completion.
It took sixteen long months before the work was done. That said, Bob and all the people who helped and supported him in his grand conception now know the following to be true. Thousands of high school student hours have already been spent sitting and leaning and laughing on and around the tons of granite from the commission that Bob accepted and completed.
Congratulations, Artist/Citizen Robert Leverich.