Life and Bronze

Book excerpt: Part memoir, part secrets of the sculptors craft, part celebration of Canadian culture and talent Life and Bronze is the story behind Ruth Abernethys rich and varied artistic career. The author describes each of her sculpting projects from opening discussion to creation to installation and public unveiling.We discover what the public chooses to commemorate, how a sculptor resolves clear expressions of character, and how the entire process fits into a full family life. We become privy to Ruths unique methods, which are greatly influenced by her years of stagecraft at the Stratford Festival and across Canada. We meet prime ministers, musicians, doctors, athletes, and a huge Manitoba black bear named Duke. Ruths Canadian commissions include Glenn Gould at CBC Toronto, Oscar Peterson and Mario Bernardi at the National Arts Centre Ottawa, military Physician and poet John McCrae (In Flanders Fields) at Ottawa and Guelph, and Sir John A. Macdonald in both Picton and Baden, Ontario. Ruths bronze installations honour outstanding theatre artists in Stratford, Waterloo and Winnipeg and exceptional scientists and engineers in Kentville, Wolfville and in Vancouver. Life and Bronze is a lavishly illustrated record of bronze portraits created in the privacy of Ruths studio and let loose to lie on the streetscapes of Canada.