by Deb Alter
West Hoosick artist Gary Sussman in his studio with his over life-size plaster figure of Pete Seeger just before delivery to the foundry in Rutland, Vermont to be cast into bronze. [private]Sussman, who was awarded the commission for this memorial sculpture of legendary folk singer Pete Seeger from the Puffin Foundation, said, “although Pete Seeger would not want a monument made of himself he would want the social causes he fought for to be remembered and continued.”
The finished monument, will feature the bronze Pete Seeger seated with his banjo on a 23-ton carved marble bench with the Clearwater Sloop, marching activists carrying signs labeled with the different causes he supported, the Hudson River landscape in bas and high relief.
It will be installed at the Puffin Foundation headquarters in Teaneck, New Jersey. Sussman continues the tradition of monument making on Fog Hill Road, following in the footsteps of his teacher, world-renowned sculptor Jose de Creeft.[/private]