Solid Citizen - Trade News of the Ornamental Concrete Industry - USA.
Posted on 01/04/2000
Vol 5, Issue 8 January 2000 - Full Article
NOVELTIES "Grunta" gargoyle receives Solid Award for Statuary The best new concrete garden statue from 1999 is a sitting gargoyle created by Auckland, New Zealand, sculptor Syd Breeze. Painted in bronze or rust, the gremlin wears a wry smile and, according to judges, communicates with glossy black eyes an amusing and sympathetic air.
The "Solid Award for Statuary" is presented by Solid Citizen, the trade newspaper serving the garden statue industry. This is the first year for the sculpture competition. The $500 prize was awarded at the ninth annual convention of the Ornamental Concrete Producers Association, held recently at the Smoky Mountain Resort in Pigeon Forge, Tenn.
Garden statuary has been growing rapidly with the garden industry in the 1990s. Solid Citizen estimates that garden statues are a $400 million business in North America. "People buy statues for their gardens because they contribute to a state of well-being and contentment," says Bill Diem, publisher of Solid Citizen. "That makes the world a better place. These statues are mass-produced, but the originals were sculpted by talented artists, and they certainly deserve recognition."
Four art students in Paris, serving as judges, unanimously chose Breeze's gremlin from the entry pool. Three other garden sculptures were selected as runners-up. According to judge Jean-Baptiste Lestringant, Breeze's gargoyle "will settle very well in a garden surrounded by plants and their root systems. The evident veins on his arms give the impression of being his own roots."
Breeze is a self-taught sculptor who has been making ornamental concrete since 1996. His Stone Talk Sculptures sold about 150 copies of the gargoyle last year. The concrete gargoyles retail for NZ $160 or about US $100.