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Thursday, February 14, 2008
After completing the skeleton of the statue to be at the Joe Nuxhall Pavilion, artist Tom Tsuchiya said he's on target to complete the model of his yet to-be-named piece featuring the Ol' Left-hander and two children.
"It's going great," said Tsuchiya, 35, who sculpted the Nuxhall statue at Great American Ball Park. "It won't look that much different than the way the statue down at the ball park looks."
Sculptor Tom Tsuchiya works from his Essex Studio space in Cincinnati on a statue of Joe Nuxhall depicting the Nuxhall teaching two children how to throw a baseball. The statue will be placed at the Joe Nuxhall Pavillion once known as Waterworks park in Fairfield.Nuxhall, who died from complications of lymphoma on Nov. 15, is a former Cincinnati Reds pitcher and broadcaster. He began various charitable initiatives, including his annual golf outing that provides scholarships to area students and his character education fund.
The piece depicts Nuxhall teaching baseball to two children, Tsuchiya said. Nuxhall looks as he did when he was in his 20s, dressed in his 1950's era Reds uniform, and the children are dressed in modern-day youth uniforms, he said.
"It's an allegory, or a symbol, of all the things that Joe did for the area," Tsuchiya said. "It reflects all the time he spent helping out the Fairfield community."
Last year, the city of Fairfield commissioned Tsuchiya to create a bronze statue that will be a featured piece at the Joe Nuxhall Pavilion at Water Works Park on Groh Lane.
Tsuchiya video taped and took pictures of Kim Nuxhall, son of the late Reds Hall of Fame pitcher, teaching pitching techniques to Jasmyne and Zach Sexton, two Fairfield students.
The artist then took that material to work on the statue model.
Nuxhall said he has a difficult time finding the words to describe his feelings.
"When I think of the statue, when I think of that, it's dad helping kids, and that's what his life was about," Nuxhall said. "Helping kids was near and dear to him."
The model will be complete in the next couple of weeks. Then it will be taken to a foundry where it will be used to make a mold for the final bronze casting.
Nuxhall said his father's mission of building character will be included somehow with the statue.
"Hopefully it's not about the baseball," Nuxhall said.
Contact this reporter at (513) 755-5112 or mpitman@coxohio.com.
