Chris Kane

Fanny the Elephant
Daniel Sullivan, Sr.

 

Fanny the Elephant

At 6 feet high, 8 feet long, and over 1000 pounds, Chris Kane’s Fanny the Elephant sculpture almost contends with the original pachyderm herself.  The piece, which stands on the edge of the Slater Park playground, commemorates Fanny, an Indian elephant that spent most of its life as a resident of the Slater Park Zoo. Fanny was one of the major attractions in Pawtucket; people from all around New England came to see the gentle creature, feed it apples, and sometimes even giver her cigarettes. Though well-meaning, such attention caused Fanny to balloon in size and become unhealthy to the point that the zoo was closed for animal rights violations. Fanny was relocated to the Black Beauty Ranch in Murchison, Texas. Here, renamed Tara, she flourished, losing over 1000 pounds of excess weight and enjoying the company of fellow elephants until her death in 2003. Kane’s sculpture works to preserve the memory of this uniquely notable Pawtucket citizen. First built in clay armature and then cast in fiberglass, Fanny keeps cool in the heat so children can safely climb up her trunk and onto her back. Pawtucket residents old enough to remember say Kane captured the kindness and gentle nature that were Fanny’s hallmarks.

Kane’s ability to capture Fanny’s likeness is no surprise considering his artistic philosophy. With deep respect for the balance, detail, and nuance of Greek and Italian Renaissance sculpture, Kane works representationally in order to relate to his viewers as universal an experience of his reality as possible. He is a fervent believer that the viewer’s interpretation of a work trumps the artists’, and that anyone can make artwork. “I don’t believe in talent,” he writes. “I believe in work, that practice and reflection can unlock each person’s unique gifts, that a child with a crayon is the same as the greatest master – an artist filled with the joy of creating.”

Having received a BFA in sculpture and illustration from the Rhode Island School of Design, Chris Kane worked in various foundries and sculpture studios throughout Rhode Island before founding the Kane Sculpture Studio in Providence with his wife, Angela. At his studio, he provided moldings and casting services to other artists, worked commissions, and taught arts classes until he sold the studio to more intensely pursue his own sculpture practice as well as teach. He is one of the founding faculty members at the Jacqueline M. Walsh School for Performing and Visual Arts in Pawtucket, where the four-year curriculum works to build foundational art skills while developing students’ personal voices and helping them gain admission to top arts schools across the country.

Todd Stong

Sources:
http://kanesculpture.com/fanny-the-elephant/
Correspondence with the artist

Daniel Sullivan, Sr.

Next to the main Collette building, in a small park open to the public during business hours, stands a life-size sculpture of Daniel Sullivan, Sr., who took Collete and transformed it from a modest travel agency running tours throughout New England and Canada to today, a company that brings guests to all seven continents. Executed by Chris Kane, whose Fanny the Elephant sculpture in Slater Park earned him local acclaim, the bronze sculpture gleams with the warmth and pride that Daniel Sullivan took in his work, his family, and his community.

Kane writes in his outline of the project that his major challenges were “to come up with a design that would honor Daniel Sullivan Sr., without being funerary, celebrate Colette without being commercial, express the values that guided him and the company without being preachy, and be a beautiful expression of form that would enhance the landscape of the park.” In adhering to these guidelines, the idea of a photo album surfaced.

Using a photo album, Kane could capture the idea of travel and family through photographic recollection, with low-relief images of Sullivan’s life and travels carved into the open pages of a book that Sullivan himself is leafing through. The album itself rests on a table, around the lip of which reads, “Daniel Sullivan Sr. purchased Collette in 1962, beginning a journey which continues to this day. Collette still embodies the values he held dear, Family, Charity, and Exploration.”

With deep respect for the balance, detail, and nuance of Greek and Italian Renaissance sculpture, Kane works representationally in order to relate to his viewers as universal an experience of his reality as possible. He is a fervent believer that the viewer’s interpretation of a work trumps the artists’, and that anyone can make artwork. “I don’t believe in talent,” he writes. “I believe in work, that practice and reflection can unlock each person’s unique gifts, that a child with a crayon is the same as the greatest master – an artist filled with the joy of creating.”

Having received a BFA in sculpture and illustration from the Rhode Island School of Design, Chris Kane worked in various foundries and sculpture studios throughout Rhode Island before founding the Kane Sculpture Studio in Providence with his wife, Angela. At his studio, he provided moldings and casting services to other artists, worked commissions, and taught arts classes until he sold the studio to more intensely pursue his own sculpture practice as well as teach. He is one of the founding faculty members at the Jacqueline M. Walsh School for Performing and Visual Arts in Pawtucket, where the four-year curriculum works to build foundational art skills while developing students’ personal voices and helping them gain admission to top arts schools across the country.

Todd Stong

Sources:
Photo courtesy of the artist
http://kanesculpture.com/

 
 
 


 

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