Sculptors Roger Halligan, Issac Duncan, Sam Burns share their stories
Chattanooga has a rich history of supporting sculptors and promoting the medium around town. The Sculpture Garden at Bluff View Art District, Sculpture Fields at Montague Park and pieces scattered along the riverfront are just a few examples of the city’s commitment to the fine art.
But a less familiar resource you may not know about is Mid-South Sculpture Alliance, whose crew I sat down with recently to get the happenings now on the local sculpture scene.
John Henry and Verina Baxter founded MSA in 2007 as an affiliate organization of the International Sculpture Center (ISC). It’s a long way Roger Halligan's beginnings in Syracuse, NY, where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts in Economics in the early 1970s.
“I took a figurative sculpting course and I wasn’t half bad,” remembers Halligan. “My professor showed me a pile of steel and metal, and said you don’t have to come back upstairs. I was hooked.” He went on to complete a Master of Fine Art from The University of Georgia.
Soon the wild came calling and Halligan took his talents to the North Carolina Zoological Park in Asheboro, NC. Here he worked with landscape architects to help design animal habitats using only steel.
“I incorporated steel into exhibits so well geologists thought it was real rock from a distance,” says Halligan. “They had to take an up close look to realize it was not stone.”
But eventually he started to evolve as an artist and took to creating stone sculptures. Another characteristic of the zoo exhibits also remains in his work to this day. “The boundary warnings surrounding the animals are prevalent on my pieces even now.” Check out the artist statement on his website.
Halligan may not have had a choice in the Neolithic direction his art took. “I’m Irish and found out there’s also a lot of Neanderthal DNA in my body,” he exclaims. He suggests he really has no control on the artistic path he has followed. “You know they still don’t know why Stonehenge was built.”
Issac Duncan III currently serves as president of MSA. He is a Brooklyn, NY native and Afro-Cuban descendant who started drawing and sketching at an early age.
“I found it was better to draw out conflict than to get in someone’s face,” remembers Duncan. “My high school years consisted of two dimensional work because I couldn’t afford three dimensional.”
He completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts at Notre Dame, and he was advised to take classes at which he would excel. He was awarded a fellowship from the University of Kentucky, where he completed his Masters of Fine Arts.
What bought these two sculptors to the Tennessee Valley was another highly accomplished local sculptor. You may have seen John Henry’s steel sculptures in from of the Hunter Museum and Chattanooga State. “I work as a docent at the museum and when visitors see Henry’s work they can’t believe he is based in Chattanooga,” says Halligan.
Henry employed Duncan for three years, where he worked as crew supervisor, heavy equipment operator and assistant.
“Before I thought eight- and nine-foot tall pieces were pretty large,” laughs Duncan. “I received my PhD in large and monumental sculptures from him.” Duncan moved on in mid-2008 and opened his own studio.
If you’ve ever wondered how sculptors, painters and other artists make ends meet, you’re not alone. Both Halligan and Duncan have received special honors, nominations, grants, committee and board memberships and juror/curatorial installation honors. They have conducted workshops, juried awards, served as artist in residences and speakers, taught, been awarded commissions, held exhibitions, and sold to private collectors.
“People think you should just give away your art, or want it for free,” says Jan Chenoweth, fellow artist and Halligan’s studio partner. “But you wouldn’t say, ‘Hey can I have that root canal free?”
Halligan realizes even trade can work if it means getting his sculptures out there.“I recently spoke with Elaine Harper, the principal at Red Bank High School, and realized she didn’t have a budget, but she was still able to exchange gift cards for my sculpture,” says Halligan. “She takes our work seriously, respects the process and realizes it enriches peoples’ lives.”
Retired sculptor Sam Burns chimes in to hammer home the point.
“Art can hit you on all levels and makes you look at things differently,” says Burns.
Sculpting teaches you basic skills like welding and fabricating. “We’ve gotten away from teaching trades,” says Duncan. “People need other ways to use their minds.”Fnd out more about these sculptors and see upcoming events at midsouthsculpure.org