CELEBRATION: A Work in Process

Here are some photos of the Work-in-Process for the commissioned sculpture, Celebration, that Gardner designed and created for the Gideon Hausner Jewish Day School in Palo Alto. Although the piece was designed and fabricated, at the eleventh hour, the school refused to authorize the fundraising needed to support the project, as had been previously agreed. The artist’s family stepped in to fund the fabrication of the sculpture under new terms and the project continued.

Gardner created a cardboard mock-up of the initial concept for the piece. This model was sized at 1/3 scale of the full-size final piece.

Once the 1/3 scale model was approved, Gardner built a full-scale model of Celebration in cardboard. This enabled him to begin to hone the full-sized balance and fabrication issues. The following images shows the full-scale model in the artist’s dining room.

After the school approved the full-scale model, fabrication of the pieces in stainless steel was commenced. Gardner uses a foundry located near him because stainless steel is extremely hard material to shape. Gardner oversaw the fabrication of the individual pieces and the polishing process.

All of the separately constructed pieces are joined and polished. The sculpture was set on a base and shipped to its destination in Palo Alto, California. Here Norman Gardner oversees the installation of the finished sculpture at the school. It was quite difficult, as the completing the installation required that the holes intended to receive the bolts be widened. Gardner had to source diamond tipped drill bits from all around Palo Alto, and went through quite few, before being able to get the installation done.

There was an unveiling of the sculpture on Grandparents’ Day in May, 2006. A reception for the sculptor, other grandparents and school families was hosted by the Gardner family.

Although the school was unable to fund the costs of fabrication of the sculpture, as planned, the artist’s daughter, Valerie Gardner and her husband, funded the costs necessary to complete the project. At the school’s unveiling ceremony, the artists was presented with a certificate of appreciation from the school. The sculpture remains in the Gardner Family collection and is now on conditional loan to the school for use so long as it remains on public view at the front entrance to the school.

Celebration is now viewable for all outside the entrance of the Hausner School at 450 San Antonio Road, in Palo Alto near Middlefield Road.