The Massena Public Library Scultpure
by Nancy Beaudette and Noella Cotnam of Sign It Signs,
Cornwall, Ont.
A few years ago our city library relocated to what was once
the post office. The building, constructed in the 1950's
had closed in the late 80's because of cutbacks and restructuring.
In '97, after an extensive renovation, the library's collection
settled in for the long haul. We were hired to design and
fabricate lettering for the building and to create a sculpture
for the children's section of the library. We had an absolute
blast making giant books and fairy tales come to life, so
when we were recently approached to construct another similar
sculpture, we jumped at the opportunity.
Massena New York is just across the St. Lawrence River
from Cornwall Ontario. We've considered ourselves to be
great neighbors for many years, sharing the wealth of the
local landscape and cultures. It seems that Canadian's
can have influence on American's after all, evidenced by
Massena Public Library's knock at our door. They were duly
impressed with the sculpture we created in Cornwall's library
and so this is where our project begins.
Conceptualizing is one of my favorite
hats to wear in the sign business. Though this project
did come with some parameters, they only slightly influenced
this phase of the design process. We approached the concept
from the stance of having no limits or rules…ah,
if only life were always like that. We quickly determined
that we would follow a progressive time line within the
sculpture moving from left to right. Deciding on the
actual subject matter got me surfing the net and flipping
through the pages of books in our "Sign It" library.
I looked for interesting configurations of books on a
shelf or stacked on top of each other. Fortunately these
references were not hard to find. The props weaving and
leaning beside the books flowed from one addition to the
next. An effort was made to incorporate subject matter
from a multitude of disciplines. Science, art, literature,
and music all found a place in our collage, each representing
its mark left on centuries past.
Cont'd>>
