rod
~ Elite 1000 Member ~
Joe calls me from time to time for a catch up chat. He reached me this evening as I was finishing a flute that has to be in the mail tomorrow, heading to the Conservatory of Music in Cremona, Italy. I am a bit nervous sending a musical instrument to the home town of Stradavari. It is like sending coals to Newcastle?
So that was my news to share with Joe, but that is small potatoes compared with Joe's current project. He has over twenty possible commissions on his bench, and just finishing the bust of Alexander Jefferson, one of the original Tuskegee Airmen. Here is a paragraph from the newspaper:
VIENNA TOWNSHIP, MI -- Lt. Col. Alexander Jefferson of the Tuskegee Airmen was flying his P-51 Mustang fighter low, just above the treetops, firing at a radar station in occupied Southern France in 1944 when a German shell came up through the floor of his plane and smoke poured in.
Jefferson ejected from the airplane and immediately pulled on the cord of his parachute, but there wasn't enough time for it to open properly. Had his parachute not gotten caught in a tree, he would've hit the ground hard and might not be alive today.
"It was awful close," said Jefferson, A Detroit native who now lives in Southfield.
But the 91-year-old veteran did survive the crash and prisoner of war camp, and on Tuesday, July 16, he came face to face with the sculpture of himself that will grace a memorial statue commemorating his time as a pilot. Multiple organizations have shown interest in the statue, and one of the locations it could possibly end up is the Clio Veterans Memorial Park.
The statue was commissioned by the Alexander Jefferson Tuskegee Airmen Endowment fund, which devotes funds to a college scholarship and other causes. Vienna Township resident Joe Rundell, a self taught sculptor, is making the statue.
Rundell, working from photos, has the clay bust of Jefferson done, which took him about three weeks, he said. The full statue will be of a young Jefferson in his pilot's uniform. Rundell noted that the face is the hardest part of a statue and that he's about a third of the way done with what he says has been his favorite statue.
Here is a link to the TV news-clip :
http://www.abc12.com/story/22867128/statue-honoring-tuskegee-airmen-could-be-placed-in-clio
If you can believe it, Joe is also working on some gun engraving in his spare time, and looking forward to coming to FEGA, Las Vegas, next January.
Rock on Joe!
Best wishes
Rod
So that was my news to share with Joe, but that is small potatoes compared with Joe's current project. He has over twenty possible commissions on his bench, and just finishing the bust of Alexander Jefferson, one of the original Tuskegee Airmen. Here is a paragraph from the newspaper:
VIENNA TOWNSHIP, MI -- Lt. Col. Alexander Jefferson of the Tuskegee Airmen was flying his P-51 Mustang fighter low, just above the treetops, firing at a radar station in occupied Southern France in 1944 when a German shell came up through the floor of his plane and smoke poured in.
Jefferson ejected from the airplane and immediately pulled on the cord of his parachute, but there wasn't enough time for it to open properly. Had his parachute not gotten caught in a tree, he would've hit the ground hard and might not be alive today.
"It was awful close," said Jefferson, A Detroit native who now lives in Southfield.
But the 91-year-old veteran did survive the crash and prisoner of war camp, and on Tuesday, July 16, he came face to face with the sculpture of himself that will grace a memorial statue commemorating his time as a pilot. Multiple organizations have shown interest in the statue, and one of the locations it could possibly end up is the Clio Veterans Memorial Park.
The statue was commissioned by the Alexander Jefferson Tuskegee Airmen Endowment fund, which devotes funds to a college scholarship and other causes. Vienna Township resident Joe Rundell, a self taught sculptor, is making the statue.
Rundell, working from photos, has the clay bust of Jefferson done, which took him about three weeks, he said. The full statue will be of a young Jefferson in his pilot's uniform. Rundell noted that the face is the hardest part of a statue and that he's about a third of the way done with what he says has been his favorite statue.
Here is a link to the TV news-clip :
http://www.abc12.com/story/22867128/statue-honoring-tuskegee-airmen-could-be-placed-in-clio
If you can believe it, Joe is also working on some gun engraving in his spare time, and looking forward to coming to FEGA, Las Vegas, next January.
Rock on Joe!
Best wishes
Rod
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