Technically work safe
Corrective surgery set for Glooscap
By MARY ELLEN MacINTYRE Truro Bureau
TRURO - The Truro Power Centre's 12-metre statue of Glooscap, legendary symbol of the Mi'kmaq, will soon lose an unwanted illusory protrusion.
Some motorists travelling Highway 102 toward Truro claim the statue looks like it has an appendage not intended by its sculptor emerging from its midriff.
Ribald humour and giggling 10-year-olds aside, the illusion is being taken seriously.
"We may have to take the arm off and get it bent up a little bit more and get his fingers on a staff with an eagle on the end of it, to take that illusion away," said Lawrence Paul, chief of Millbrook First Nation.
The chief said Monday that Atlantex Creative Works in Chezzetcook will make a staff to put in the statue's hand, thereby eliminating any illusion.
Truro artist Bruce Wood made the initial design for the statue. "They must have strayed just a bit from the grid and scale of the (model) and designs I gave them," said Mr. Wood, chuckling a little.
"I guess the arm is too long and if you look at it from that angle there is an illusion," he said.
Atlantex made the statue from fibreglass. It depicts a North American aboriginal with rippling muscles and traditional dress.
Kevin Baker, Atlantex's vice-president of operations, said no one intended the statue to be quite so anatomically correct ... or incorrect.
"It wasn't noticed until it was assembled on the site.
"It was really quite a feat to assemble the statue ... and then someone gets at a 360-degree angle to find something ridiculous."
Atlantex, in business for 25 years, makes interpretive panels and custom exibits. One of its best-known creations is the mastodon for Mastodon Ridge, at the Stewiacke exit of Highway 102.
The 'surgical' patient.
By MARY ELLEN MacINTYRE Truro Bureau
TRURO - The Truro Power Centre's 12-metre statue of Glooscap, legendary symbol of the Mi'kmaq, will soon lose an unwanted illusory protrusion.
Some motorists travelling Highway 102 toward Truro claim the statue looks like it has an appendage not intended by its sculptor emerging from its midriff.
Ribald humour and giggling 10-year-olds aside, the illusion is being taken seriously.
"We may have to take the arm off and get it bent up a little bit more and get his fingers on a staff with an eagle on the end of it, to take that illusion away," said Lawrence Paul, chief of Millbrook First Nation.
The chief said Monday that Atlantex Creative Works in Chezzetcook will make a staff to put in the statue's hand, thereby eliminating any illusion.
Truro artist Bruce Wood made the initial design for the statue. "They must have strayed just a bit from the grid and scale of the (model) and designs I gave them," said Mr. Wood, chuckling a little.
"I guess the arm is too long and if you look at it from that angle there is an illusion," he said.
Atlantex made the statue from fibreglass. It depicts a North American aboriginal with rippling muscles and traditional dress.
Kevin Baker, Atlantex's vice-president of operations, said no one intended the statue to be quite so anatomically correct ... or incorrect.
"It wasn't noticed until it was assembled on the site.
"It was really quite a feat to assemble the statue ... and then someone gets at a 360-degree angle to find something ridiculous."
Atlantex, in business for 25 years, makes interpretive panels and custom exibits. One of its best-known creations is the mastodon for Mastodon Ridge, at the Stewiacke exit of Highway 102.
The 'surgical' patient.