Sculptor, Artist Prepares Creation for Lewis
Raleigh Register, April 12, 1968
James Gibson, Charleston art instructor, is at work on the massive 200-pound brass construction located in front of the newly remodeled Lewis Chevrolet building on Neville Street. The Charlestonian was commissioned to do the six-foot high artistic creation in January.
Something organic which will enhance but not take way from the building’s natural beauty. This is the way Charleston sculptor James Gibson described Lewis Chevrolet’s attraction between the two Neville Street doorways of the building. Lewis Chevrolet President Charles S. Lewis Jr. commissioned the Morris Harvey College art instructor and sculptor in January to do a solid brass sculpture to be located in a niche between the entrance doors of the newly remodeled building.
About 250 hours of work have gone into the production of the six-foot high massive “organic” artwork. The sculptor said it was the consensus between the building’s architect, Richard Kanackanui, Lewis, and him that the work should have no modern man-made lines to detract from the building.
This, he said, directed him to build the project from solid brass, about 200 pounds worth, and then cover the surfaces with molten brass. Covering it with the molten metal, he said, will cause it to discolor evenly and within a few weeks will look like it has been there or years. This will go along with the outside scheme of the building which is of slate and brick construction and features planters on either side of the sculpture.
The artist-sculptor also was commissioned to do a similar fountain-sculpture for the gardens of the FMC Inorganic Chemicals Division office building in Charleston. Gibson has distinguished himself as a skillful printmaker too. Friends of the arts recall his cylindrical folk figures that bespeak a world of silent contemplation, and not without an occasional whimsey. The recently completed fountain and sculpture add another dimension to his talents.