Three sandhill cranes and ten cattails, one for each of the festival’s first ten years, hand-forged in steel by members of Athens Forge. The sculpture will be unveiled Thursday, September 24, at Walden Oaks Park, one month before River Clay returns downtown October 24 and 25.
DECATUR, Ala. The cranes started as a conversation at the end of last year’s festival.
Athens Forge had spent the weekend at River Clay as a key demonstrator, invited by board president Holly Whitt, working hot steel in front of a crowd that stopped to watch. As the show wound down, the festival asked whether the group would consider building something permanent for River Clay’s tenth year. Athens Forge is a volunteer organization and puts decisions like that to its members. The vote was unanimous.
A year later, the result is going into the ground. River Clay Fine Arts Festival will unveil the sculpture on Thursday, September 24 at 10 AM CST, at Walden Oaks Park, and the community is invited to be there when the cover comes off. It is the festival’s first permanent public art gift to the city of Decatur.
“These cranes will become part of the experience at Walden Oaks Park and, over time, part of the memories families make here,” said Council President Kyle Pike, District 2. “That is the power of public art, and I appreciate the River Clay and Athens Forge volunteers who gave their time and talent to create this lasting gift.”
Three cranes, ten cattails, and a few things you have to look for
The piece is arranged as a crescent, roughly seven and a half feet across the front and four feet deep, so that the shape of a crane reads from any angle you walk up on it. The three birds are a family group rather than three copies at different scales: a full-grown adult, a juvenile, and a third bird headed off on its own. They are posed doing what sandhill cranes actually do. One reaches up to take something off a cattail. One is hunting fish at its feet. Ten cattails ring the perimeter, one for each of River Clay’s first ten years, each with a bundle of solid steel leaves twisting up around it.
The piece also includes a couple of details the artists haven’t pointed out. Finding them is the point.
“We’re hoping to pull you into the center and invite you in, so that you can actually look for details and look for things,” said Dustin Patterson, Forge Master of Athens Forge. “There are a couple of little hidden details in there if you look for them.”
The design was the blacksmiths’ own. Whitt brought the group ideas about birds and animals and then got out of the way. Athens Forge landed on sandhill cranes because the birds move through North Alabama on a seasonal migration, which meant the group spent weeks studying photographs of a bird most of them had never had reason to look at closely. Patterson suggested the cattails, common enough around here that they come up at the edge of any water left alone long enough. The count of ten came out of the anniversary.
Who made it
Athens Forge is the Athens chapter of the Alabama Forge Council, or AFC, a statewide nonprofit founded in 1985 by a small group of blacksmiths and bladesmiths: Gavin Harrison, John Beckweth, and Dr. Jim Batson, a rocket scientist who spent years at NASA before turning to knives. The Council comprises thirteen chapters, from Athens and Elkmont down to Mobile, and exists to preserve and pass on the trade, from the most basic handwork to master-level skill.
The Athens chapter has more than forty members. The youngest is ten years old. The oldest is in his nineties. They meet on the 4th Saturday of every month at member Travis Fleming’s shop, Artistic Anvil, located at 722 Commercial Dr. in Athens, AL. Fleming has been at the anvil for thirty-six years, previously served as president of the AFC, and graciously opens his shop to the group for free.
Five members built the sculpture: Dustin Patterson, Travis Fleming, Ashton Reynolds, Al Stevens, and Nolan Brewer, a seventeen-year-old bladesmith. Because everyone involved volunteers and has a job elsewhere, they worked on weekends. Design and drawing took roughly two months. Fabrication took at least eight weeks after that, in Friday-to-Saturday sessions that ran eight to ten hours at a stretch, spent forging a single bird or chiseling in one set of features.
“Without organizations like River Clay, nonprofits like mine would never get an opportunity like this,” Patterson said. “This is my first major installation. It is a huge deal for me personally. I’m proud of the work we’ve done, and I’m proud that River Clay gave us the chance to do it.”
Patterson makes a case for the craft, too. Most people assume that blacksmithing has gone away – it has not. Smiths are still working today, forging everything from cabinet hardware to extravagant art. Blacksmiths have often been referred to as “Masters of Crafts” because they were historically the go-to people for creating tools that were used in other trades, such as mining, masonry, and carpentry. The techniques that blacksmiths still use today originated centuries ago and will continue to be passed down by current and future smiths, forging a long lineage of blacksmithing tradition, trade, and art.
“I think it is a reminder that we can build and make beautiful things,” Patterson said of the park. “All we have to do is want to make them.”
The festival
“River Clay has spent 10 years enriching Decatur through art, and this sculpture ensures that legacy will endure in our community for generations. We are grateful to River Clay and the Athens Forge volunteers for creating something meaningful, beautiful, and accessible to all,” said City of Decatur Mayor Kent Lawrence.
“We told Athens Forge this was their work and their craft, and we meant it,” said Holly Whitt, board president of the River Clay Fine Arts Festival. “River Clay is one weekend a year. The tents come down, and everybody goes home, but this will remain. Ten years in, we wanted to leave something behind for the person who will never buy a piece of art in her life and will still walk past these cranes on a Tuesday morning.”
Beyond the festival weekend, River Clay has reinvested more than $65,000 in arts education across North
Alabama through classroom grants, student programming and community arts initiatives, including a combined $15,700 awarded this August across 17 classroom grants to teachers at Decatur City Schools, Morgan County Schools, Decatur Heritage Christian Academy and Hartselle City Schools.
The weekend opens Friday evening, October 23, with the Rendezvous, a ticketed preview party that gives guests first access to the artists and their work before the gates open to the public. Rendezvous tickets are $60 and include a weekend pass. The festival itself runs Saturday and Sunday, October 24 and 25, on the grounds of Decatur City Hall, with more than 70 juried artists from across the country, live music, food, and family programming. General admission is $5 and covers both days. The festival is presented by Plastic Recyclers Southeast, Inc.
Unveiling details and festival information are available at riverclay.org.
About Athens Forge
Athens Forge is the Athens, Alabama chapter of the Alabama Forge Council, a statewide nonprofit founded in 1985 and dedicated to preserving and passing on the craft of blacksmithing. The Council operates thirteen chapters across Alabama and holds public demonstrations, workshops, and an annual gathering. Learn more at athensforge.org and alaforge.org
About River Clay Fine Arts Festival
River Clay Fine Arts Festival is a juried fine arts festival held each October in downtown Decatur, Alabama. Now in its eleventh year, River Clay welcomes more than 70 artists from across the country for a weekend of original work, live music, food, and family programming. Proceeds support arts education in North Alabama through classroom grants, student programming, and community arts initiatives. Learn more at riverclay.org.
About PRSEI
Plastic Recyclers Southeast, Inc. is a post-industrial and commercial plastics recycler and compounder headquartered in Decatur, Alabama, providing material recycling and landfill diversion solutions since 1991. PRSEI operates facilities in Alabama, Tennessee, and Wisconsin and processes an average of 50 million pounds of material each year. Learn more at prsei.com.