The University Daily Kansan
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B
Entertainment
WWW.KANSAN.COM/SPORTS
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 7, 2000
Sculpting the Past
Jim Brothers forms the clay on a soldier sculpture in his studio. Brothers was commissioned to make 10 bronze figures for the National D-Day Memorial in Bedford, Va. The four pieces will fit together to create a vertical piece entitled "Across the Beach". The small scale previews the final design . Photo by Aaron Lindberg/KANSAN
Local sculptor casts WWII memories in bronze
By Jim O'Malley
Kansan co-editor
It's strange, says Jim Brothers, but he knows he's got it right when his work makes people cry.
Brothers, a Lawrence sculptor, was commissioned to make 10 bronze figures for the National D-Dav Memorial in Bedford. Va.
He said he had seen veterans cry when they looked at the sculptures that were already in place at the unfinished memorial.
tures will depict invasion scenes.
Brothers' assistant, Ken Wheatley, said his mother cried when she saw one of the sculptures called "Across the Beach." She lost a brother in the fighting in Normandy after D-Day.
Brothers said he felt obligated to D-Day veterans to get it right. He's brought pieces of second world war U.S. Army military equipment to his Lawrence studio to use as models. And he's spent a lot of time with D-Day veterans.
But it was not until 1996 that a national D-Day memorial was planned.
Fifty-six years and one day ago, Allied Forces invaded German-occupied Normandy. By the end of June 6, 1944, 6,603 Americans and 3,000 Allies were dead, but Allied Forces had a firm foothold in France, and the defeat of Nazi Germany had begun. It was not until 1986 that a national
"We've researched enough with the veterans that we are like channelers for them," he said. "You want to get it right not just for yourself, but for them. These people are my heroes. You want to get it right for them. They come up, shake my hand, and say I've got it. That's one of the rewards of the job."
Richard Burrow, president of the National D-Day Memorial Foundation, said the memorial was authorized by Congress in 1996. Fundraising started in 1997. Since then, the foundation has raised $12.2 million. Construction has begun and dedication of the memorial is scheduled for June 6, 2001.
The memorial will include a 44-foot, six-inch granite-covered arch on a plaza surrounded by the flags of the 12 Allied nations. Burrows said. Brothers' sculp-
Brothers said "Across the Beach" was placed temporarily at the entrance to the monument, where it is framed by the arch. Brothers said it works so well that it might be kept there permanently, so he could end up doing additional figures for the memorial.
“Across the Beach,” which depicts a soldier dragging a wounded man out of the line of fire, and “Dethn on Shore,” which portrays a dead soldier on the beach, are done.
Brothers is working in his Lawrence studio on a composition called "The Wall" that will depict four soldiers scaling a wall. He said it would be the centerpiece of the monument.
Four seven-and-a-half foot figures made of metal skeletons and foam bodies covered with green clay fill Brothers' Lawrence studio. One is carrying a Tommy gun and throwing a leg over the top of the wall. Another is falling. The third man pulls the fourth up the wall.
The piece is based on U.S. Army Rangers'
assault up sheer cliffs at Pointe-du-Hoc on D-Day.
Brothers said one of the inspirations for the piece was August Rodin's "Gates of Hell."
"If there ever was a gate of hell, it was that day," Brothers said. "Pointe-du-Hoc was considered a suicide mission."
Three-quarters of the 200 men of the 2nd Ranger Battalion were killed or wounded in the assault, according to historian Stephen Ambrose's book, *D-Day*.
Other units had heavier losses on D-Da The A Company of the 116th Regiment lost more than 90 percent of its men at Omaha Beach, the site of the fiercest German resistance. Most of the men of A Company were from Bedford. Twenty-one men from Bedford were killed on D-Day. That's why the memorial is in Bedford, said Memorial Foundation president Burrows.
Brothers said the models for the figures were 17 and 18-year-old kids from Lawrence. That helps remind us of how young the D-Day veterans were in 1944. Brothers said. Ken Wheatley's son Chris is the model for the soldier at the top of the wall.
Brothers said the D-Day memorial was for all World War II veterans. D-Day was the deciding day of the war, and the national World War II memorial is progressing slowly, he said.
"This may be the only World War II memorial these guys will see," Brothers said. "They're dying off at 8,000 a day. This is for them all."
"It's the most impressive monument I've ever seen," he said. "I feel very honored to be part of this. How many people get a chance to do a national monument? I couldn't be prouder. This will be there long after we're dead."
Brothers said he was chosen for the project based on his past work. He recently did burs of the Lakota chief Red Cloud for the Nebraska Capitol and the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, and his sculpture "Flight" is dedicated to the kids and teachers who died in the Oklahoma City bombing.
Brothers originally planned to be an illustrator when he attended Phillips University in Oklahoma, but a sculpture class got him
interested in three-dimensional art. He returned to his native Kansas to attend graduate school at the University of Kansas in 1969 and 1970.
"The art business is less competitive in three-dimensional work than in two-dimensional," Brothers said. "Maybe because it's harder. There's a lot of mess manual labor," he said, gesturing with his clay-covered hands.
Edited by Mindie Miller