To begin with, here is a picture I scanned of Ray at five or six in 1926, to show how much the statue I found resembles Ray as a child.



Me with "Father Electrico," the work of a professional sculptor (not mine), which served as my inspiration. The sculpture depicts the standing figure with tattoos coming to life illustrating aspects of Ray's stories.

Obviously I wasn't going to sculpt anything so I started collecting driftwood. Some pieces I already had for a long time and some I picked up. First I scrubbed the driftwood, then let it dry and soaked it in wood preservative.

Obviously I wasn't going to sculpt figures either, so had to get what I could pick up and modify it if necessary and possible.

My first attempt ended up on the ground after I just dug a hole and set the end in dirt. Note the hose. I was watering and the dirt softened up allowing the whole thing to crash.

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This is Darrell, who helps me with aspects I can't do such as attaching pieces of driftwood together. He dug a hole with a post hole digger and then set the base in cement.

Here is how the monument looked on August 22, 2012, Ray's first birthday since his passing. A lot of things are not on yet so obviously more pictures will be forthcoming.

Notice the Grim Reaper figure is facing the opposite direction from Ray, so he is "running from death towards life."



The Rocket Ship originally said "Moon" and I had to repaint it to read "Mars." They are available on Amazon.com among other places, as is the statue.

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Rather than modify anything on the sculpture to look like dandelions, I planted at least three different kinds of yellow flowers. Those directly in front are Big Bang Galaxy Coreopsis! The others are calendula and prize to anyone who can correctly name the tall ones in back. Someone told me Jerusalem Artichoke but not sure that's right. They can be seen more clearly in an earlier photo.

Montag from "Fahrenheit 451." Hand-painted. Pretty good representation for the size, I'd say. The flashlight represents illumination.

The tarot witch/dust witch, or "Esmeralda" as the Disney people named her. I like how the beads hanging off the spider behind her resemble the curtains in Something Wicked This Way Comes.

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The jar of fireflies is a solar light!

Nice work, dandelion.

And... nice fringe, Ray!

quote:

Originally posted by dandelion:
To begin with, here is a picture I scanned of Ray at five or six in 1926, to show how much the statue I found resembles Ray as a child.

quote:

Originally posted by philnic:
Nice work, dandelion.

And... nice fringe, Ray!

Yes, it is well those who accused me of being obsessed with Ray are not here to see this. Doubtless doing much more worthwhile things.

The hairstyle was one thing the statue doesn't replicate!

Some of Ray's literary influences. Scrooge, Bob Cratchit, and Tiny Tim, with the Oz gang being menaced by lions and tigers, but not bears. A Christmas Carol and The Wizard of Oz were both productions at our own dear Liberty Theater.



Glinda the Good Witch is prominent as that was Ray's nickname for his Aunt Neva.

The butterfly is bigger than the T-Rex to show that little things can be of great importance. I tried to make the butterfly prominent and noticeable. Don't step on it, Ray!