Bronze
Climate Weirding Spawn?
Just after dark on Wed the 27th an email came in from a fellow SLC artist, informing me that his neighbor had just recovered a pair of my trout that were lying in the street/median after an apparent hit and run by a car. This is the same group that was hit by a car previously, and I headed up to see how the triple group faired. The triple group was hit as well, but the ground was soft from our recent weeks of rain and they were just pushed to a 35 degree tilt- all the welds held and they weren’t dented this time. There was still a stream hoop from the missing pair topping one of two shoved-over poles, the hoop was in good shape save for the missing everything else. There was a lot of car debris: headlight, grill bits, trim, etc. It must have been a newer car with the updated pedestrian safety standards, saving the sculptures from the beating they had taken a few years ago. I headed over to the rescuer’s house, she met me at the door telling me a pair of young fellows had helped her lift the sculpture into her SUV. Her husband helped me move the pair of trout and their remaining hoop into the truck- and easy shift across.
After a night in the bed of the truck the trout are eager to swim free. I use the hoist to fly them off of the tailgate. The lead trout is tattooed with tire treads, rubber skids and mud- with a long scrape. Healed. The skid-marks culminated in a mess of white paint, transferred from the car to the sculpture. The paint erases almost entirely. Here and there are blips of yellow curb paint / scuffs. The entire sculpture is washed, waxed, and polished. This is their second time back home in the studio since they were originally installed back in 2008. The last time was 2019. Their usual home is the busy intersection of 1300 E and 2100 S. The stream hoop slid along the ground- some bright spots emerged from under a skein of mud and will need new patina. This is the tail of the following fish, where the group tore away from the back hoop. After getting things squared away with the Arts Council, and the police being notified that I would be removing the hoop, I cut it from the pole. The fish tail fits to the golden scar. The weld to the stainless steel pipe sheared clean on the hoop still connected to the group, as that took the full force of the car. That same force hit this rear weld, shearing it clean. All of my welds connecting the tout to the shared hoop held. The past accident had been more severe tearing up all the original welds. The center hoop is the main support for both fish, with many points of contact. The rear hoop has just the one (broken) welded tail of the follow fish. This little guy was the lead fish of the entire group back in 2019, and took a harder hit then- knocked clean from the hoop with many torn fins. The lead fish of the triple group back then needed dents pounded out by drilling holes from the opposite side. The past triage can be seen by selecting “Cutthroat” from categories list under the title, at the top left of the post.
Xeriscape sculpture garden sprouts ancient MFA figure.




Trout Transport
Sunday morning re-installation of Bonneville Upstream.









The rest of the morning was up at the intersection of 2100 S 1300 E, with the long turn lane still closed for street construction. This gave us a nice safe space to park and work from. The City’s public art coordinator, Kat Nix, brought hardhats and safety jackets for the guys, and pitched in with the work. The director of Salt Lake City’s Arts Council, Felicia Baca, also stopped in, joking around at how I used to be her boss back when I ran Global Artways for the City. After Jed and I had dug out the holes and installed the paired group into concrete footings, Chris made a quick trip up to help us lift the triple group into position and slurry in the concrete. Everything went swimmingly, and the trout are happily in the current again.










Triple Fish Double Sticks
Yesterday the pair received stainless poles, today the triple got theirs.


Fish Sticks.
This morning’s email had a message from the City; the shattered poles have been removed from the sculpture site and re-installation is game-on. Time to get the Trout on their new poles!









Patina Fix for Trout Pair

All welds, road rash & dings, car paint & rubber bumper transfer have been turned back to fish skin and stream stones with grasses.






Reuniting the Trout










Bonneville Trout color match.
The trout are all finished out. When last we saw them, they were undergoing reconstructive surgery from their car attack. Since then I set a new cold patina to etch and seal the naked bronze, then went about color matching. They are all dolled up with patina renewed, and the entire form cleaned and waxed. When their sister pair is released from police evidence, I’ll finish out that set, then add new stainless steel mounting poles to both sets.








Trout Triple: Triage
Triple digit heat finally let off today, allowing triple trout triage. The double trout set is still held as evidence in the City’s court proceedings with the driver that smashed into them, but I thought I’d get started on the big triple group. The car had slid up and over the front fish of the group, gouging in many deep lines along both sides of the fish and worse, pushing a big running dent.











