Benson Sculpture Garden was a blur of activity Wednesday morning, as dozens of volunteers and artists hurried from one large tent to another, getting ready for the annual Sculpture in the Park show, now in its 41st year.
But around 11 a.m., the frenzy came to a brief halt as everyone stopped to watch the arrival of Reborn, a gleaming, 12-foot tall sculpture of a woolly mammoth, one of more than 2,000 pieces that will be on display during the two-day event this weekend.
“That’s the best part of the show,” said artist and longtime volunteer Larry Braun, as he admired the towering figure. “All of the talent that comes to Loveland.”
Reborn is the creation of Montana.-based artist Clinton Lesh, a first-time exhibitor at Sculpture in the Park this year. With help from a full-time assistant, he crafted the 4,000-pound piece from thousands of individually welded stainless steel strips that shimmer in the sun like fur. Inside the hollow frame, he installed electric lights so the mammoth glows at night as well.
Lesh built the striking sculpture for display at Burning Man, and stopped in Loveland to show it off before heading to the Nevada desert.
The eye and the detail work of artist Clinton Lesh’s stainless steel woolly mammoth sculpture is pictured Wednesday at Benson Sculpture Park as artists and volunteers prepare for this weekend’s Sculpture in the Park show and sale in Loveland. (Jenny Sparks/Loveland Reporter-Herald)
“Burning Man has a theme every year, and this year it’s ‘future today,’” Lesh said, explaining his sculpture’s title. “So it’s supposed to be a futuristic world fair situation. I had heard that they’re cloning mammoths. So in the next 10 years or so, they’re gonna have baby mammoths running around. … So mammoths are an ancient animal, and they’re futuristic.”
Lesh grew up on a cattle ranch in Montana and originally planned to follow in his family’s footsteps. But during his senior year of college at Montana State, he broke the news to his father that his true passions lie in art.
“He said ‘you’ve got to do what makes you happy,’” Lesh said. “Now he loves it. He’s bought a few sculptures from me and at the beginning, he was my biggest patron.”
Now based in Bozeman, Lesh works primarily in steel, creating bold, large- and small-scale pieces informed by his rural upbringing.
Sculpture in the Park wasn’t initially on Lesh’s radar until he talked to Amanda Markel, another Bozeman-based artist whose sculpture Ridge Runners was installed in Benson Park last month.
“I asked her, ‘What’s the best show you’ve been to?’ and she said, ‘the Loveland Sculpture in the Park show,’” he said. “So I applied and got in.”
Lesh will be joined this year by 167 other artists at the show, 32 of them newcomers like he is. Together, they will fill Benson Sculpture Garden with thousands of pieces in bronze, stone, wood, glass, ceramic and mixed media.
Hosted by the High Plains Arts Council, the juried event is now in its fifth decade and is recognized as the largest outdoor sculpture show of its kind in the country. By the time it is over on Sunday, thousands of visitors will have passed through the gates, while spending around $1.5 million on tickets and art purchases. Proceeds from the show will then be used to acquire new sculptures for Benson Park.
Visitors returning to the show will notice a few changes to the show’s layout, said HPAC Executive Director Jade Windell. The annual silent auction has gone digital, allowing people to bid from home instead of having to attend the event in person all weekend.
Organizers have also moved the “Take Home a Piece of the Park” program, which sells smaller works by park artists, to its own tent for the first time, a move organizers hope will attract more participating artists.
After the show, select items from the program will be sold year-round through the Visit Loveland gift shop, Windell said.
Sculpture in the Park runs 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Sunday at Benson Sculpture Garden, 2908 Aspen Dr.
Admission is $10 for adults, with children 14 and younger admitted free. Tickets are available at the gate, and parking with free shuttle service will be offered at Loveland High School, 920 W. 29th St. For more information or to purchase tickets in advance, visit sculptureinthepark.org.