Wednesday, February 10, 2010

The Wounded Lion.

Drinking and driving.
A drunk driver wounded the Lion, fountain, and
wrought iron fence, in 2008. All of these were
difficult and almost impossible to replace.

A new Lion had to be created exactly like the
original one, using the old pieces as refrence.
I can not remember the artists or the country
where it was done.

In the above photo you can see the craftsman
working on touch up and color matching. These
photo's were taken this past January.

There were a number of people there, just as I
was, taking photos. The conversation among us
was the fact that he was talking to himself,
obviously agrivated about something. One observer
said they had wanted the craftsman to wear a
hard hat and safety goggles. Below you can see
He would have none of that.

This craftsman is from wherever the lion was
recreated, and was completely involved in his work
and semengly unaware we were taking his picture.


   In my next blog I will show the finished Lion.
It is beautiful.

5 comments:

Sunny said...

What a shame that it was destroyed but what an amazing job of recreating it. It's a beautiful fountain, can't wait to see the finished work.
Sunny :)

A Brit in Tennessee said...

That is a true artist...oblivious to any and all of his surroundings, completely immersed in his project.
I would think he would scoff at hard hat and goggles....
Can't wait to see the finished Lion.

Daria and Brian said...

The artist is Randall Nelson. He is from Connecticut and had done some restorations in Savannah prior to this. He has received awards from the Historic Savannah Preservation Group.

Nice pics!

MadSnapper said...

I can see the old cotton exchange in the background, and having been there many times, not that behind that lion is a deep hole the car cold have fallen in. great shots and I am waiting to see the finished lion. it has been many years since I was on River street and drayton

MadSnapper said...

i just tried to comment on the update and it will not let me, so i came here to say Good Job Snapper II. i love the lion and the story