The City of Park Rapids and Park Rapids Arts and Culture Commission sponsor the Park Rapids Sculpture Trail in Red Bridge Park and Downtown Park Rapids. In 2015, the Tube Dude, by Scott Gerber was installed in Red Bridge Park and inspired the idea of adding more sculptures. The Arts and Culture Advisory Commission took on the project in 2018 adding six sculptures in the park. In 2019, solar lighting was added to highlight each sculpture and the Sculpture Trail expanded with the addition of two artworks Downtown. In 2022, the Sculpture Trail offers five new sculptures in the park and nine Downtown. The sculptures are selected from among artists in an annual spring competition. They are displayed for one year, available for sale and may be removed when the changeover occurs in May 2023. Red Bridge Park is located at 175-199 Beach Road (east of US Hwy. 71/Park Avenue North, about a block north of the stoplights at the junction of Hwy. 71 and state Hwy. 34).
2022 sculpture photos by Laura Grisamore.
Stegaplow
by Tim Cassidy - New York Mills, MN
Sponsored by Thelen’s Excavating & Septic Inc.
Value = $8,000
Description: 'Stegaplow' is part of the 'Farmachinery' series. The sculpture combines stegosaurus and agri-machinery parts designed to resemble a fantastic extinct machine.
Facebook: North Star Industrial Arts
Chickadees
by Paul Albright - Akeley, MN
Sponsored by Park Rapids Rotary Club
Value = $1,500
Description: Paul Albright started making these chickadees last year and wanted to add color. "I think the acrylic leaves brought the sculpture to a new level. When you stand in front of it, it almost seems musical."
Facebook: Albright Sculptures
Sculptress
by Al Belleveau - Puposky, MN
Value = $8,000
Description: Made of stone and steel in a technique he calls Rock Iron Art.
Website: rockironart.com
Invasive Species
by Brian Berle - Shakopee, MN
Sponsor: Hubbard County DAC
Value = $1,200
Description: "Growing up on a farm, we always used what we had available and recycled parts for many different uses. For me, when finding old parts, you start seeing the interesting lines and textures in everyday things you would normally overlook. The inspiration for the first sculpture I ever created was seeing the body of a bumble bee in an old valve cover of a motorcycle in a pile of scrap metal."
Candy Crane
Artist: Hubbard County DAC
Sponsor: Skoe Family Trust
Candy Crane
by Hubbard County DAC - Park Rapids, MN
Sponsored by Skoe Family Trust
Value = $500
Description: Candy Crane was created by clients of the Developmental Achievement Center (DAC) Salvage Depot. The clients took part in a basic welding course taught by Alex Hine during the winter of 2022. In this class, clients were taught welding skills as well as safety procedures. Using those new skills they proceeded to design and create this crane sculpture with the help of DAC staff.
Facebook: The Salvage Depot
Among the Reeds
by Jon Kamrath - Mahtomedi, MN
Value = $3,000
Description: An abstract canoe silently gliding through still water.
Website: Kamrath Sculpture
The Black Keys
by Isaac Kidder - Minnetrista, MN
Value = $10,000
Description: "The Black Keys" is an interactive installation with 5 tone pipes, each a different color. These 5 tone pipes, which angle upward from the stainless steel base, make up what is known as a pentatonic scale in music theory. Viewers can create music and explore the pentatonic scale by lightly tapping each tone pipe with the polyurethane mallets secured to the sculpture via a cable. The 5 music notes used in this sculpture are C#/Db, D#/Eb, F#/Gb, G#Ab, A#Bb. These are also known as the black keys on a piano. The pentatonic scale lacks the musical tension and resolution characteristic of other commonly used music scales and this enables people who interact with this sculpture to create harmonious and balanced melodies.
Facebook: Isaac Kidder Fine Art and Photography
Website: Isaac Kidder
Windward
by Tim James, Good Thunder, MN & Aidan Demarals, Janesville, MN
Value = $9,400
Description: The poetic innocence of a sail set against the horizon on a glassy surface of a water expanse is an easy sell to most souls. Windward is the tantalizing prospect of freedom and adventure.
Website: Red Ridge Studio
Flying V
by Tim Nelsen - Bemidji, MN
Sponsored by Park Rapids Downtown Business Association
Value = $6,950
Description: Flying V, created of recycled steel, brass and copper, is located in . The artist states he creates art for one reason: "It makes me happy. The materials I use and the subjects I choose all speak to me on some level. From finding scrap to sketching and creating the final product, the entire process is something I enjoy."
Website: Nelsen Studios
Rocket Fox
Tim Nelson
Value = $3,250
Description: Rocket Fox, created of recycled steel. "Rocket Fox was literally created from a pile of scrap metal I had sitting in a bin in my garage. I envisioned someone who’d survived an apocalypse of some sort and had no choice but to tack together a companion from the metal scraps that were left behind."
Website: Nelson Studios
Where the Wind Blows
Artist: James and Ryan Pedersen
Sponsor: Anonymous
Where the Wind Blows
by James Pedersen, Walker, MN, and Ryan Pedersen, North Mankato, MN
Sponsored by Anonymous
Value = $9,295
Description: Where the Wind Blows was inspired by watching the delicate movements of the snow dance across the frozen lake in the winter winds. It is made of weed steel, stainless steel, copper and brass. The Pedersens are a father and son collaborative team.
Website: PEDERSEN METAL DESIGN
Vertical Memory
by Sunghee Min - Roseville, MN
Value = $8,000
Description: "Vertical Memory" is a steel and stainless steel sculpture. This piece was inspired by the symbolism of the lighthouse and guiding light and conveys a sense of discovery and presence. The shiny reflective surface of the piece reflects the ambient colors of its surroundings. The process resembles quilt making in the way that small pieces are jointed together to fill a larger area. There are 320 identical stainless steel triangle pieces that are welded together to form the shiny part of the sculpture. Four triangles are welded together to make an inverted pyramid module, then the pyramid modules are stacked to construct each side of the rectangular column. This process requires repetitive work and is time consuming but offers space for thoughts and contemplation during the process. The title, "Vertical Memory", reflects the accumulative nature of its process.
Website: Sunghee Min Art Studio
Amalgamation
by Jamie Weinfurter - Iowa City, IA
Value = $3,000
Description: The curvilinear figurative forms in the sculpture create a design based on unity and harmony. The structure facilitates an overarching theme of equality as the tribulations represented by the raw weld bead textures along the outer edges of the piece are combined to create an abstract, vaguely human amalgamation representing a community thriving from cohabitation.
"My research combines environmentally sustainable materials with a social practice rooted in humanitarianism. Raised in a conservative Midwestern home, I was taught specific cultural norms of conformity and internalized misogyny from a young age. Art became an outlet to explore my own purpose, identity, and gender. I became enamored with traditional sculpture through welding, woodworking, and metal casting initially because of the similarity to techniques that I learned in childhood. After receiving a traumatic brain injury in the spring of 2019, I relearned aspects of my own history through months of recovery. Instilled with the need to leave the planet better than I found it, the inherent history of discarded objects as materials in my sculptural installations give new purpose/life to abandoned items. The worth of labor, in time intensive work and meticulous details, is integral to connecting my research based on my background in blue collar work, with the intensive process of creating, in order to build community through shared experiences. My practice discusses the effects of physical, emotional, and gendered labor through arts accessibility in public sculpture, lived experience in explorations of trauma, and the ecological transformation of materials derived from socially engaged discourse as recycled art."
Website: JAMIE WEINFURTER
Witness Stone
by Simon Zornes - Bagley, MN
Sponsored by CHI St. Joseph's Health
Value = $2,000
Description: Simon says a witness stone is similar to a sentinel stone but more about bearing witness to a time and/or place.
Facebook: Art from nature
Tube Dude
Artist: Scott Gerber
Permanent Sculpture
Tube Dude
by Scott Gerber - Sarasota, FL
Permanent Sculpture for Red Bridge Park
Description: The Tube Dude mounted on the Red Bridge Park kiosk was installed in 2015. It is made of aluminum, almost all from a recycled source.
Permanent Sculpture for Red Bridge Park
Facebook: Tube Dude
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