SOLON — Six fiberglass statues of Herky the Hawk have been placed in Solon as part of Herky on Parade III. The first Herky on Parade, a public art participatory event, was established in 2004 and replicated in 2014 and showcases the creativity of local and regional artists with Herky as the canvas.
According to Nick Pfeiffer, Vice President of Public Affairs for Think Iowa City, Herky on Parade III was announced at FRYfest back in September with a target of 75 Herky’s to commemorate the U of I’s mascot’s 75th birthday. However, demand by event sponsors, and over 260 designs submitted by 150 different artists led to upping the number to 100. Also, Tiffin and Solon joined Iowa City and Coralville in hosting the six-foot tall fiberglass Herky’s.
“Artists had until Dec. 1 to submit potential designs,” said Pfeiffer in a press release. “Sponsors started committing almost immediately. Sponsors had the option to sponsor the Herky or sponsor and purchase the Herky. Almost half of all the statues were purchased by the sponsor.” Those statues that have not been purchased will go to a live auction in September with the proceeds supporting public art programs within the Iowa City and Clear Creek Amana community school districts.
“Nothing epitomizes community collaboration better than Herky on Parade,” said Josh Schamberger, President of Think Iowa City, the organizer of Herky on Parade. “From collaboration from the University of Iowa and the athletics department to streets staff from each of the cities and county, to businesses and organizations generously sponsoring, to the artistic community for overwhelming us with creative designs which all leads to the end result which is thousands of community members and visitors spending their summer visiting each Herky statue.”
Artists received blank statues in early December and had until March 31 to complete the process. The statues were then brought to Kahler Collision Center in Coralville where a protective clear coat was applied. The statues were deployed throughout the four communities in the overnight hours of Tuesday, April 30 ahead of a 10:00 a.m. unveiling the next morning.
“We have 25 more statues than we had in 2014, so it is a nice excuse to expand and work with more of our communities. Tiffin and Solon have been great to work with and they are excited to be a part of the project,” said Schamberger.
City Administrator Cami Rasmussen was instrumental in bringing the statues to Solon.
“I got the call from Think Iowa City several months ago and they said, ‘We’d really like Solon to be a part of the Herky on Parade this year.’” During the 2014 event a Golden Herky (that people were encouraged to go on a hunt for) was placed on the historic Sutliff Bridge. “That kind-of planted the seed that if they were going to do it again, they’d like to include Solon. So, when I got the call, I was pretty excited.” She approached the City Council with the idea of the City participating and while the Council was supportive, it was made clear they wanted sponsors to fund the statues.
“I reached out to Solon Beef Days, the Solon Optimists, Solon Lions Club, Solon Area Community Foundation, and the Solon Economic Development Group and said Hey, we have this great opportunity to sponsor a Herky.” Sponsors get a discount on the cost of the statue and are able to keep it when the display wraps up in late August.
Rasmussen said when she talked to the various groups, it was with the hope Solon would have one Herky. “Well, all of the groups were so excited, we actually have two – Solon Beef Days Herky (located at Sam’s Main Street Market) and Trailhead Herky (located at the entrance to the Solon Recreation and Nature Area. “It’s been a super-fun project to be a part of. Scott Kleppe and I have represented the City of Solon on this project and have worked with the civic groups to help on the design, the bases, and locations. We were incognito (Tuesday night) helping the group with Tiffin, Solon, and Coral Ridge Mall. We helped unload them and get them wrapped, and the pinnacle was the reveal. It’s been super-fun, one of the most fun projects that I’ve been a part of.”
Herky on Parade III statues in Solon
Solon Strong – by Solon HS Art Club
Location – Mushroom Park in front of the bandstand
Sponsored by Solon High School
“We were extended an invitation from Think Iowa City, they had extended an invitation to some area schools to participate and luckily Solon High School came up on the draw this year, so that was a really exciting email to get,” said Josh Koza, Solon High School art teacher. “We had our design turned around quickly. I think we had our design submitted to them by early November and they told us when we went to pick up our statue that we were the first. So, we tried to get on this good and early.”
One challenge was in reconstructing Herky’s right hand and fabricating a haybale. “The painting really didn’t take a whole lot,” said Koza. “Once we started painting in earnest, it was only a couple of weeks. The couple of months part was figuring out exactly how we wanted to construct and what we needed to alter.” The bale was constructed out of foam insulation, which was carved. “We got a lot of help from Dave at Mark’s Auto Body. These kids (Art Club members) laid down a lot of fiberglass, sanded that down, put some finisher and glaze down, sanded, painted, and primed it, and here we have it.” The process was a lot of trial-and-error, he said, “but it went pretty smoothly.”
Colin Bumsted was one of the art students in on the project from the beginning. “We had to epoxy it (the haybale) down and sand it ten-fifteen times. I feel that might have been the hardest part, trying to get it all perfect and trying to make it realistic.” Painting the statue, he said, was easy but, “I was kind-of nervous helping out with the painting, just because of if I’d messed it up.”
Lily Warnock (a fellow student) also had a go at the haybale. “I put Mod Podge® (an acrylic glue, sealer, and finish) on the foam, a lot of painting, anything and everything on it. Other than working five hours a day on it for two weeks straight, it was really fun.”
Abby Bucheit also helped with sanding, painting, and some of the fine-line work, “and touching-up, mostly.”
Solon Beef Days – by Brenda Marin
Sponsored by City of Solon and Solon Beef Days Committee
Location – at Sam’s Main Street Market at the intersection of Iowa and Main St.
Brenda Marin sent in four designs and was selected for Seasonal Symphony Herky, which is currently on display at the GreenState Credit Union, 2525 Muscatine Ave. in Iowa City. Then, she was approached with the prospect of doing Solon’s Beef Days Herky.
“This one was a little more personalized,” she said, “It had to be detailed and have things added.”
Marin looked at dozens of photos of various Beef Days events and incorporated them into her design such as the Solon Fire Department’s waterball fights, the Solon American Legion marching in the Beef Days Parade, the Haybale Toss, and even people sitting in the big wooden chair.
Sheriff Herky – by Matt O’Neil
Sponsored by Solon Beef Days Committee and RPM Revival, Tipton
Location – in front of the Sheriff’s substation, 223 S. Iowa St.
Matt O’Neil, from Tipton, was contacted by Sheriff Brad Kunkel, his former childhood neighbor from Downey (in southwest Cedar County) about crafting Sheriff Herky. “I’ve probably got at least 150 hours in it,” he said. The challenging part was creating the deputy’s hat, which involved making a cardboard template from Sheriff Kunkel’s hat and upscaling it to fit Herky’s head. “So, it’s made out of cardboard, and I went over it with fiberglass and fiberglass putty. I’ve probably got 40-50 hours just in the hat.”
Looking at Sheriff Herky standing tall and proud in front of the Sheriff’s substation, O’Neil said, “I’m glad it’s done and that it worked out, and it arrived safely, that’s the scariest part of it.”
Like many artists this was O’Neil’s first foray into the world of Herky on Parade. “I’ve always wanted to do one,” he said and added, “maybe in ten years (if they do another), I’ll think about doing another one.” A stone mason by trade O’Neil also does auto body restoration and was able to use a paint booth for the seven different colors of automotive paint he used.
“It turned out amazing,” said Sheriff Kunkel. “I’m very proud of the work Matt did on it and I’m very glad to see it representing the public safety community, very happy with it.”
Iowa Brass – by Laura Sievert, Executive Director, Arts Quincy (Illinois)
Sponsor wanted!
Location – in front of the Solon Community Center, 313 S. Iowa St.
Laura Sievert saw a call for artists to participate in Herky on Parade and as a 2004 UI grad (and UI marching band alum), and having seen the first two iterations, she decided to join the parade for this go-around. “I entered one design (Universe Without Bounds) based on James Van Allen (on display in Iowa City) and that was chosen in the very first round. They wanted to do 100 of these, and to find 100 artists willing to take on a six-foot tall Herky statue was maybe hard, so they asked if anybody who had already been accepted had any other ideas.”
Without hesitation, “This great brass band in Solon (Iowa Brass)” came to mind. “I’m tired of it being Iowa’s best-kept secret, I want people to know it’s here, they practice at the Community Center; so, I said I’ll do one, but you have to put it in front of the Solon Community Center.”
Living in Quincy, Illinois, she had to strap two of the statues onto a small utility trailer, and a third (for a friend, honoring Dr. Christine Grant, on display in front of Carver Hawkeye Arena) was carefully stuffed inside her Honda CRV. Going down rural Missouri highways was an experience, she said. “You could see kids’ poking their heads out the window. And then I got to my house and stood them up on my front porch,” to her neighbors’ wonderment. “I know she’s a Hawkeye fan, but this is getting out of control,” she said laughing, speculating what they were thinking.
“They both had their own challenges, but I would say it was a bigger challenge to figure out how I was going to accomplish having a very shiny brass-like finish. To get the paint right was tough.”
Iowa Brass Herky has some additional features that set it apart from most others. For example, the trombone Herky is “holding” is the real deal after she was able to find a broken trombone, prime it, paint it, and attach it. Another unique feature involves a motion detector and the sounds of Iowa Brass playing via a speaker mounted in the bell of the trombone.
“I really wanted to advertise for the band,” Sievert said. “This is a British-style brass band, which may not be familiar to American audiences, but they compete nationally, they win nationally, they were just recognized third at the Master’s in Kansas City a few months ago, just one of the best brass bands around and I think people need to know they’re here. Solon should be really proud to have them here.”
Sievert hopes Solonites are also proud to have Iowa Brass Herky here too. As the statue is not sponsored, at the end of August it will go back to Iowa City for a live auction in early September.
“To keep him we have to raise $5,000, which is a lot. We are working on it, it’s a big hurdle.”
Trailhead Herky – by Matthew Kargol
Sponsored by: Solon Centennial Lions Club, Solon Optimists Club, Solon Area Community Foundation, and the Solon Economic Development Group
Location – at the entrance to the Solon Recreation and Nature Area, 101 N. Iowa St.
Gen X Herky – by Matt Ellison
Sponsored by Senior Housing Consultants, Solon
Location – at the Solon Public Library, 320 W. Main St.
Ellison was asked by friend Allen Phillips, Chief Executive Officer for Senior Housing Consultants in Solon, to do a Herky, “And I agreed.”
Ellison, a graphic designer by trade and former Director of Graphic Design for the U of I’s Athletic Department. But “I haven’t done anything of this magnitude since high school, so it was out of my comfort zone, but it was fun. I cussed him for a while but then finally, once I got started, it was fun to do.”
For a gallery of all 100 Herky statues go to https:thinkiowacity.smugmug.com/Think-Iowa-City/CVB/Herky-on-Parade/Reference-photos/Finished-statues-in-studio/n-QWPQwk.
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Josh Koza, Solon High School art teacher, celebrates the Solon Strong Herky designed and painted by members of the high school Art Club after the statue was unveiled last Thursday morning. Solon Strong joins five other Herky statues in Solon as part of Herky on Parade III.