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From the PNJ
After a long road trip, nothing reminds me of home like a massive metal claw.
The claw, and the metal tumbling from it, is the sure sign that whatever led me north up U.S. 29 is done and I am homeward bound.
The metal statue “Recycling” has been at Southern Scrap since 1981, when Gene Rosenbaum’s father commissioned it from artist John Olsen, who at the time did welding work at the scrap yard.
Rosenbaum says his father was an art lover and wanted to support Olsen, then a budding artist.
All the material, from the crane at the top to the metal dropping out below, is shipyard scrap from Southern’s yard.
“Our business gives us appreciation for what is being recycled and things that are made from recycled metals,” Rosenbaum says.
Olsen says it took him four to six weeks to construct the piece, which he wanted to use to tell the story of making something new out of what others have deemed spent.
“(Scrap metal) was supposed to roll out into the street and scare everyone going by,” he says.
Olsen has gone on to do other public works, including the archway at the entrance of Long Hollow Park, and the large stainless steel pieces at the Pensacola State College visual arts building for the college’s 25th anniversary.
He made a living creating whimsical metal birds and other pieces. He still teaches at PSC part time to pay the bills.
As for his signature work, Olsen pronounces himself “satisfied.”
Sometimes talk surfaces of moving it, but that hasn’t risen above the “talk” stage.
As I drove into Pensacola in August of 1999 to move here from West-by-God-Virginia, that long trek down Interstate 65 and U.S. 29 did not exactly make a great first impression.
It was a long road of scrubby landscape that sure didn’t seem like the kind of place for someone to get a flat tire.
I was beginning to wonder if I had moved to Appalachia by the Sea when I saw that sculpture.
That’s when I thought that if this place had the sense of humor to find beauty in corroding cast-offs, it might be worth sticking around to see what other little secret surprises Pensacola could offer.
Art isn’t always tastefully lit in a gallery.
Sometimes it is a 30,000-pound amalagamation of metal on a 10-foot-square foundation that’s weathered more than a few hurricanes and still stands.
“There’s no dollar value in a piece of artwork like that,” Rosenbaum said. “It’s an icon, like (the CSX) trestle on 17th Avenue that people paint all day long, or the milk bottle that used to be downtown for the Pensacola Dairy.”
Without it, how will we know we’re close to home[
After a long road trip, nothing reminds me of home like a massive metal claw.
The claw, and the metal tumbling from it, is the sure sign that whatever led me north up U.S. 29 is done and I am homeward bound.
The metal statue “Recycling” has been at Southern Scrap since 1981, when Gene Rosenbaum’s father commissioned it from artist John Olsen, who at the time did welding work at the scrap yard.
Rosenbaum says his father was an art lover and wanted to support Olsen, then a budding artist.
All the material, from the crane at the top to the metal dropping out below, is shipyard scrap from Southern’s yard.
“Our business gives us appreciation for what is being recycled and things that are made from recycled metals,” Rosenbaum says.
Olsen says it took him four to six weeks to construct the piece, which he wanted to use to tell the story of making something new out of what others have deemed spent.
“(Scrap metal) was supposed to roll out into the street and scare everyone going by,” he says.
Olsen has gone on to do other public works, including the archway at the entrance of Long Hollow Park, and the large stainless steel pieces at the Pensacola State College visual arts building for the college’s 25th anniversary.
He made a living creating whimsical metal birds and other pieces. He still teaches at PSC part time to pay the bills.
As for his signature work, Olsen pronounces himself “satisfied.”
Sometimes talk surfaces of moving it, but that hasn’t risen above the “talk” stage.
As I drove into Pensacola in August of 1999 to move here from West-by-God-Virginia, that long trek down Interstate 65 and U.S. 29 did not exactly make a great first impression.
It was a long road of scrubby landscape that sure didn’t seem like the kind of place for someone to get a flat tire.
I was beginning to wonder if I had moved to Appalachia by the Sea when I saw that sculpture.
That’s when I thought that if this place had the sense of humor to find beauty in corroding cast-offs, it might be worth sticking around to see what other little secret surprises Pensacola could offer.
Art isn’t always tastefully lit in a gallery.
Sometimes it is a 30,000-pound amalagamation of metal on a 10-foot-square foundation that’s weathered more than a few hurricanes and still stands.
“There’s no dollar value in a piece of artwork like that,” Rosenbaum said. “It’s an icon, like (the CSX) trestle on 17th Avenue that people paint all day long, or the milk bottle that used to be downtown for the Pensacola Dairy.”
Without it, how will we know we’re close to home[
