St. Francis School Workshop

(from the St. Francis School website)

Scenes from September's sculpting sessions with our artist-in-residence, Dave Caudill

The great new sculpture that now graces the backyard garden area of our school will forever hold special meaning to our students of 2000-2001.

That's because those students were fortunate enough to follow along with, and lend a collective hand to, guest artist Dave Caudill as he showed how he creates his innovative and thought-provoking sculpted art.

Dave worked with St. Francis students Sept. 18-20 in the creation of “Becoming,” a cartoon question-mark and exclamation point combined into a playful gesture and perched on a pedestal of recycled steel beams. The final work then was anchored in the ground by a concrete footer whose top is shaped like a puzzle piece.

All of it put St. Francis in good company. Dave Caudill's artwork can be found in public, corporate and private collections around Louisville and beyond.

For example, some of Dave's monumental sculptures may be found at the University of Louisville's School of Music, the Louisville Free Public Library's Crescent Hill branch, the Louisville Zoo and Maryhurst. He even has installed an environmental undersea sculpture near Nassau in the Bahamas.

Now we, too, can lay claim to a Caudill original!

In addition to developing large-scale sculptures, Dave is a juried artisan of the Kentucky Crafted program, having created garden trellis sculptures and furnishings. One of his works was awarded “best of show” at the Craftsmen's Guild annual show.

At St. Francis, Dave's concept was for his piece to “mirror an individual's education process by describing, as well as evoking, inquiry and discovery.”

He also wanted the piece to be hip and fun enough to capture children's interest. “It's contemporary art that's accessible to young minds because it's narrative in an off-beat way.” he said.

“The classic sculptural concerns of mass, space, line and movement are vigorously addressed, offering engagement from a formal perspective.”

The work was welded of strong, long-lasting stainless steel. The punctuation marks are joined to heavy carbon-steel beams. The only expected maintenance need is repainting of the beams -- every five years or so -- which also could be an art-educational experience for students.

See the sculpture for yourself. It now resides outside the two art classrooms, and it will anchor what is planned to become a “sculpture garden.”

The work was commissioned by St. Francis School art teachers Janet Clements Britt and Nita Duechle.