“I have been asked to sculpt a monument of Sixto Durán-Ballen for a plaza located at Chile and Guayaquil, one block from San Agustin and one block from the Municipality. It is not yet officially approved but because of deadlines (December) my colleague, Ruben Terán, and I have started sculpting the figure in clay. I am confident this will happen. I have had many meetings with the daughter of Sixto, Alicia, the Municipio of Quito and the Instituto Metropolitano de Patrimonio. Last week we were informed officially to present a Memoria Técnica for approval. Before knowing me as a sculptor the point of reference for the project by the Municipality, the IMP and the family has been San Augustin for its impact and success as a public monument. They want a figure without a pedestal so that people can see the sculpture up close and interact with it. Alicia wanted to see her father recognized more as an architect, builder and city planner than as a politician. I designed the figure with architectural plans rolled up under his arm pointing at something while walking in an animated and extended stride. The process is complicated and requires technical, structural and artistic skills. We are scaling up a model from 51 cm to 220 cm and building a rigid armature that supports the weight of the clay and, and at a later date a plaster mold, while maintaining the same proportions and coordinates in 3-dimensional space. It’s a real mind-bender. It will be cast in bronze with 2” rebar running through the legs and attached internally to the waist and welded and secured to a metal plate. It will then be fixed to the cement roof of the public bathrooms below. The sculpture will weight about 1200 lbs. I include photos of the process from clay preparation, armature construction, clay modeling, on-site meetings, and a proposed installation. I will post progress photos every-so-often. There will be a crowd funding page set up to acquire financing for the project.” Howard Taikeff
