•    The Signage of Camp Tukabatchee

The largest and Finest Boy Scout camp in the south. Camp Tukabatchee opened in the summer of 2000 and featured a 50 acre lake for swimming, rowing, canoeing, sailing and fishing. As a cub scout and boy scout, the scout packs and troops had a large part in cutting out the forest and building the existing camp. Many of the amenities didn’t exist and came through time, plaining, hard work and leadership. Our troop was some of the first scouts building and attending this new camp.

In 2006 I made Eagle Scout the highest rank in boy scouting. I and many others learned a lot though scouting. Scouting points the way of good citizenship through service. Not “getting” but “giving” not only “receiving” but “giving back” something that shall, as Lincoln phrased it “make the world better because of our little life in it”. My art had gained local recognition . Years later Camp Tukabatchee Area Council contacted me. They had constructed a wall with an iron gate and were in need of signage. I was offered the opportunity to give back in designing and constructing the future signage and logo for the camp. Using my talents with metal and welding I took on the challenge .

Camp Tukabatchee County Rd 59 – Prattville Alabama

CREATION OF SIGNAGE GIVING BACK PAYING IT FORWARD

Scouting and Boy Scouts are well known throughout American culture. The term “Boy Scout” is used to generally describe someone who is earnest and honest, who helps others cheerfully and to do his duty to god and country.

I went and took a photo of the scout logo then measured the walls. I had some ideas but needed to resize this image to scale. I broke the image down into many parts an had to decide on the materials and thickness to use. I wanted something that would last a life time plus use the natural colors of the metals to represent the scout badge with out using paint. The pieces needed to be made of materials to with stand the elements and also formable with what tools I had available at the time. Which were hand tools mostly hammers an anvil, grinders and a welder an like all my sculptures created outside without a covered roof for shelter. The fleur-de-lis being the base had to be made of heavy gauge quarter inch brown plate steel.  The two stars symbolize the ideals of truth, knowledge and guide the scout by night on the seven seas. So the stars had to be bright so they were made of stainless steel. The eagle is the national emblem of the United States of America symbolizing freedom and readiness to defend that hard-won freedom. The eagle and shield will also shine brightly and was made of none tarnishing stainless steel.  I measured then hammered each part creating a raised three dimensional piece. After a lot of time working around weather conditions the many parts came together, welded an also made to disassemble if needed. The left side of the wall would have a piece with the camps name Tukabatchee. Tukabatchee being a Native American name with the rivers and lakes of the area had me think of a woven canoe. I also wanted to show camping so all of the letter “A”s were made to resemble teepee tents with the centers to look like camp fires. I built a five foot long canoe using brown plate steel with twisted wire like rope. The letters and woven areas were made of stainless steel and the stern an bow copper.  The pieces were clear coated with automotive paint an recessed off the wall to farther their protection an longevity. I was very happy to see the reactions I received when they were mounted, an knowing that I had made a positive impact on future generations of scouts like me.    The Boy Scouts of America (BSA) is the largest Scouting organization in the United States of America and one of the largest youth organizations in the United States, with more than 2.4 million youth participants and nearly one million adult volunteers. The BSA was founded in 1910 and, since then, more than 110 million Americans have been participants in BSA programs at some time.  Prominent Americans in diverse walks of life, from filmmaker Steven Spielberg (who helped launch a merit badge in cinematography) to adventurer Steve Fossett to politicians, were BSA members as youths. Over two-thirds of all astronauts have had some type of involvement in Scouting,  and eleven of the twelve men to walk on the Moon were Scouts, including Eagle Scout Neil Armstrong.

• Magnolia at The Alabama Wildlife Federation (AWF)

The Alabama Wildlife Federation was established by sportsmen in 1935 and exists to promote the conservation of the region’s wildlife and natural resources. The federation encourages responsible stewardship of Alabama’s wildlife, forests, fish, soils, water, and air in order to preserve them for future generations.

The AWF’s headquarters is at Lanark, 10 miles north of Montgomery, Alabama. The grounds at Lanark contain five destinations: AWF Headquarters, Historic Lanark, Lanark Pavilion, ANC and the new NaturePlex.

Lanark is the former estate of Isabel and Wiley Hill, a pair of horticulturalists who moved there as newlyweds in 1948. They spent the next fifty years enlarging their house and developing the surrounding 30-acre garden. Wiley Hill died in 1995, and Isabel continued to care for the grounds until her death in 2001. She left the houses, gardens, and surrounding land to the AWF.

In 2013 the AWF had the Alabama Flora and Fauna Arts Festival. A festival to show case some of the best conservational artist and their works. Artist an philanthropist came from all over Alabama for a great cause. The festival had a large turn out which raised a large portion to further its future goals. My sculpture “Southern Magnolia” won The Best of Flora Purchase Award. It is a 1:1 scale metal flower sculpture and is hand painted to exact detail of a native southern magnolia blossom. The piece gained a lot of attention and became part of the permanent collection at Lanark.