The Lopez Lobo, Last Chapter.

Bruce Richardson

After saying a temporary goodbye to my apprentices in December I was once again amazed that they wanted to get right back to work on their wolf in the middle of winter when I got home.  It didn’t matter, rain or cold, they were determined to get it finished before Bryan graduated in June.  By the end of March when I took another sun break, the wolf was well roughed out and the fretting nearing an end.  We were all on cloud nine seeing it actually happening!

In early May it was full steam ahead, a month to get it done.  The details on the head were the biggest challenge, but slowly it emerged.  As the smoothing with angle grinders progressed, all the parts started flowing together and the Lobo began to come to life.  At one point we struggled with the engine hoist to put the stone on its side to flatten the bottom and drill holes for stainless steel pins to complete the mounting on the base rock.  This was scary business at this stage of the project!  After placing the holes and making a template it was another challenge to lift it back up. Next it was on to water polishing, starting with 30 grit. 

As always there are surprises in the end, like a few odd bits of black rock inclusions that popped out, and on the positive side, a faint golden hue in the granite that showed up as the polishing grits got finer. It was going to be finished before graduation!

At this stage it was time to actually talk to the school about where the Lopez Lobo should be placed.  Bryan and Manuel went to talk it over with the principal and she said, “It is wonderful, let’s put it out on the corner of the street so everyone can see it when they drive by.”  They looked discouraged when they told me the story the next Saturday, so we had a long talk.  “We want it to go where the kids see it, not out on the street.”  So, off we went to the school for a look at the possibilities, bearing in mind that it couldn’t go where there were already drainpipes, buried phone and electric cables, fiberoptics ….   In the end they chose a flat spot near the sidewalk that all the kids pass by when they walk into the school after getting off the buses.  Then the boys made a plan to try to change the principal’s mind.

And, the principal said, yes.  I think she forgot why the boys wanted to make the Lobo, for the students and the school, not for the car traffic.  Now it was back to making it happen; finish the polishing, flatten the top of the base rock, drill pin holes, get the pins and epoxy, put on the sealer and deal with the move.  Once the site was approved by everyone, the boys laid out a circle in the grass and dug it down about a foot to leave space for a crushed rock base layer.  Next the Lopez Sand and Gravel owners donated the rock, and the boys shoveled it into the hole and got ready for the last event, actually moving everything half a mile to the school.  But how??? 

Naturally I had been struggling with that and trying to find someone on the island with a big enough front-end loader to lift the two pieces and a trailer for the move, plus all the straps and cables to put it together.  No way it could happen!  OK, think out of the box.  Who do you know that could solve the problem?  Maybe, just maybe, a very generous fellow sculptor on the mainland could be persuaded to come to the rescue.  I asked Carl Nelson if there was any way he could come with his lift truck for a day and make it happen:  Food, drink, gas, entertainment, you name it, we would make it happen, even a ferry reservation.

Lo and behold he said “YES.”  Our prayers were answered!  Next thing we knew he was here, the base rock and Lobo on the truck, moved to the school, unloaded. The base rock got leveled with more crushed rock, the pins epoxied in the holes and the wolf lowered into place.  Wow, it all fitted together, was   truly level, and looked just like we had imagined.  Carl had been a lifesaver.

Now the last event, the unveiling.  The two boys left the Lobo covered with a plastic tarp when it was installed after school, so no one knew exactly what was there.  With one week of school left, the principal and superintendent found time to get the students together for a ribbon cutting ceremony and it happened.  I wish I could describe the looks on the kids’ faces when the cover came off!  Wow, you guys made that!  How did you do it?  Can we touch it?   

I can imagine Bryan and Manuel bringing their kids to see it and then grandchildren, etccccc.  It is not going away.  What a gift to the school, to themselves, and to me.  I feel so lucky to have been part of it all and to have seen two young boys come to carve with me for almost four years and to have created something that changed all our lives in such a positive way.

Missed the previous Chapter? Read Chapter 1: Apprenticeship on Lopez Island