After posting about the Adickes Sculpturworx Studio last month, I found this article at Smithsonian about how David Adickes made a set for the now-defunct Virginia Presidents Park, which opened in 2004 and closed in 2010. The park was never able to raise the money to purchase a bust of President Obama, as Adickes was charging $60k/sculpture at that time.
When the land for the defunct Virginia park was to be auctioned off, another man came in and saved the sculptures from destruction, moving them to his field not too far away — but the act of loading and moving the sculptures did a lot of damage, and the field where they are now is not open to visitors.
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We did find Obama in Houston on our trip to his studio in 2012:
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The Washington Post wrote about Adickes’ inspiration to make the heads after his visit to Mount Rushmore:
“I was overwhelmed by the majesty of it,” he told Answer Man. “Driving to Texas, the idea occurred to me to do a park with all the presidents, big enough to get in front of and look in the eyes, rather than from a quarter-mile away.”
But why quite so big?
“I just like big,” David said. “I’m a Texan. Big is impressive. The Statue of Liberty, for example, as a piece of sculpture, is not that great, but standing in the harbor 151 feet tall, it’s great.”
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Hankins’ heads may have a new home soon. He tells Smithsonian.com that he’s working with a couple local governments to find a good site to rebuild the museum. His vision is a grand one that takes the original Presidents Park model, which included a visitor center with presidential memorabilia and a recreation of the Oval Office, to a new level. Hankins envisions a new incarnation complete with Air Force One fuselage, Secret Service museum, First Lady memorabilia, Wounded Warriors room, interactivity and more.
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David Ogden @abandonedearth has some terrific pics of the heads from the Virginia field