One Year’s Work - Almost Done
By Carol Norville for MTSU Sidelines April 9, 1974
At the time the cover is lifted from a bronze sculpture in the plaza of the First American National Bank in Nashville, one full year of work for Jim Gibson will have been completed. It has been one year since a representative of that bank called Gibson to talk with him about doing a sculpture to go in the bank's plaza.
Gibson, associate professor of art at Middle Tennessee State University, said, "Allen Diefendorf called me and said, 'Here's what we want.' There were six or seven artists from across Tennessee who were also contacted by the bank. They asked us to come look at the space and then submit ideas for the sculpture that would go in it."
About three months passed, Gibson related, and finally one day he got a telephone call from the bank. "I had been wondering those three months if I had gotten the commission or who had gotten it, then when Ihe phone call came, I knew. My 11-year-old was standing there saying, 'Daddy got the big one.’ while I was on the phone." Gibson laughed as he recalled the situation.
The tall, bearded artist said he immediately went to work on the project after having thought about it three months while waiting for the phone call. "I had to order all the welding the welding equipment plus all the material that went into the sculpture itself, the brass. It was a great feeling of power knowing that I was ordering a ton of brass,” laughed Gibson.
Gibson explained that from the time he started work on the project until recently he totally immersed himself in it. "Then just last night,” he said, "I realized that my son was really involved in getting a speech ready for a contest, and that he was probably just as involved in his project as I was in mine.
"I had been hassled all day about getting the sculpture loaded lo take to Nashville, I was worried about what would happen to it then, and I suddenly just said to myself, ‘Don't worry about it, Gibson, you're a father and a husband as well as an artist.’”
Gibson has been commissioned to do other pieces, all in West Virginia where they lived before moving to Murfreesboro in 1970. They were for Inorganic Chemical Division of F.M.C. in South Charleston, Lewis Chevrolet in Beckley, and Morris Harvey College in Charleston.
A member of the Tennessee Artists and Craftsmen Association, Gibson has shown in South Carolina, West Virginia, Columbus, Ohio, Washington, D.C. New York City, Dayton, Tenn., Memphis, Springfield, Mo., Evansville, Ind. and in Nashville.
Gibson will return to West Virginia April 8-10 to participate in Arts '74. While there, in Clarksburg, he will lecture, show slides of his work, and demonstrate wood carving. He also will be discussing the exhibit of the West Virginia State Permanent Collection of Art.
Gibson said he felt like he got the commission to do the brass sculpture fountain at First American because he was thorough and businesslike.
"When we went up to take our plans, I submitted this portfolio of drawings of my plans," he said, as he leafed through the collection, as well as a model of the finished product, made of brass and done to scale. I think they were surprised," reflected Gibson, "because, you know, artists are supposed to be sort of flaky, not at all organized," he smiled.
"But they surprised me, too." Gibson admitted he expected them to be stuffy and demanding, but "They were extremely understanding as well as cooperative. Any suggestions or ideas I made they were willing to go along with."
Gibson said although the commission was such a large part of his work, he wouldn't even consider quitting teaching lo produce art full time. "I love walking into that classroom, working with those kids. They're stimulating, and they're good for me." Gibson's sculpture will be unveiled Friday, April 5, and will open to the public Sunday, April 7.
Installation photos by Vicky Randall.