Those walking behind Schichtl Hall at the University of Central Arkansas and looking over the courtyard wall will have no trouble seeing what sculptor Bryan Winfred Massey Sr. is working on now. There’s a 15-foot-high steel cyclone looming large.
Massey, who has taught sculpture and other art classes at UCA for 27 years, has been commissioned to create a cyclone for The Center for the Arts at Russellville High School, home of the Cyclones.
Massey, 54, said he was contacted in 2012 about the project.
“Truman Hill contacted me in November 2012 about it,” Massey said. “He had seen my work in Little Rock. He said they were looking for a sculpture by a local artist.
“The first idea they showed me was like a red ribbon, cut in swirls like from a Styrofoam cup. I came up with an idea, did two maquettes (small models) and presented them to the committee. They selected one, and then I did a mock-up of the arts center with the cyclone in front of it.
“They consulted with a civil engineer to make sure the cyclone would be structurally sound. I could understand that.”
Hill, who is a Russellville High School alumnus, said members of the group invited Massey to meet with them to discuss the project.
“We’re very informal and don’t even call ourselves a committee,” Hill said with a laugh. “We’re just a group of people who have the same interests and work on projects.
“We asked Bryan to meet with us, hear what we had in mind and give us his ideas. He came and listened and said he would mull it over and get back with us. He came back with a model of what he could do.
“We were impressed. He made up another model with it in front of the Center for the Arts, and we presented it to the school board. They approved [the model], and it was about a year later that we signed the contract.”
Massey said he signed the contract in January 2013 to do the sculpture.
“I finally ordered the materials in January 2014 and have been working on it ever since,” he said. “It’s scheduled to be installed in August, but I’m looking at June. I’m ahead of schedule.”
Hill said he gets progress reports from Massey, which Hill in turn reports to the group and to the school board.
“We’re excited about seeing it and getting it installed sometime this summer,” Hill said. “It’s a unique piece of sculpture … one of a kind. Bryan’s done a good job.”
Once Massey finishes fabricating the piece, he will take it to Snyder and Associates in Morrilton for powder coating and sandblasting. Massey will then paint the cyclone red.
“But it’s not just any red,” Massey said, smiling. “I’m waiting for the exact name and number of the paint now.”
Massey will move the sculpture “by crane” from Morrilton to Russellville, where it will be installed in front of the Center for the Arts.
“This is the biggest thing, to date, that I have done,” Massey said. “Not financially, but it is the biggest in size. Once it’s finished, it will be 15 1/2 feet tall and 10 feet wide.
“The civil engineer said it should weigh about 2,000 pounds,” he said. “I think it will be closer to 2,500 pounds.”
Massey said the cyclone is made in four full sections of carbon steel, top to bottom.
“The four smaller rings at the bottom took me four to six hours each to make,” Massey said. “Past the fifth ring, it took eight to 12 hours for each ring, and the top two rings, I estimate 14 hours per ring, for a total of 28 hours for those two rings.
“I’ve been working every day as I can,” Massey said. “The weather’s been pretty cold.”
Massey said he does two or three commissions a year.
“Commissions are part of my scholarly research and proof of my professional work,” Massey said when asked about working on non-UCA projects on campus. “It’s just like a science professor who conducts research outside the classroom.”
Massey grew up in North Carolina. He said he always wanted to be an artist.
“I aspired to be an illustrator for Hallmark,” he said.
But things changed, and he became a sculptor instead.
Massey received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in sculpture from East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina, and a Master of Fine Arts degree in sculpture from Louisiana State University in Baton Rogue.
“I never thought I’d be in this place … where I am today,” he said. “Sometimes I am asked to give an artist’s talk.
“I tell them I was homeless for six months back in North Carolina. I lived in the back of my car, … a 1977 Chevy Impala. I’d go four or five days without eating. I had just gotten a job. I knew what I had to do to accomplish my hopes and dreams. I had to work hard to get where I am today.”
Massey continues to take on commissions and seek out opportunities to improve his craft and to pass his knowledge on to his students.
He will take six students to the 2015 National Conference on Contemporary Cast Iron Art and Practices on March 22-25 at Sloss Furnaces in Birmingham, Alabama. The event is a biennial convergence of students, educators, academics and professionals dedicated to exploring and advancing cast iron as an art medium.
Massey said he hopes to cast the first female figure in his Three Sisters series while he is there. It will be 12 feet high.
“They provide the materials, and you can bring your own patterns for casting,” Massey said.
Massey said Sloss Furnaces produced iron for 90 years and is now a national historic landmark.
Massey’s next commissioned work will be building a 12-foot violin of steel for the Grammy Museum of Music, set to open in August at Delta State University in Cleveland, Mississippi.
He has been in California for the past few days, lecturing on “Forged by Fire” at the University of Redlands and making a guest appearance at the Idyllwild Arts Academy, where his work is included in the Sculpture Invitational that opened Feb. 13 and will
continue through March 13 in the Parks Exhibition Center.
“The chairman of the visual arts department at Idyllwild is a former student of mine, from back in the early 1990s,” Massey said.
“I’m having fun,” he said.
“I’m working on commissions that are two to three years out,” he said.
“There’s a small-sculpture international competition in 2016 in London (England) that I am thinking about entering,” he said, noting that he did a one-year residency in London several years ago. “They’ve been after me for a while now. I’m afraid if I don’t do it this time, they will stop calling me.
“I’m going to back off some of the others things I’ve been doing and focus on that. We’ll see where it takes me.”
Although he has a hectic work schedule, Massey takes time for his family. He and his wife, Delphine, have three adult children who are all involved in the arts.
Daughter Junia Massey, 27, is a 2009 graduate of Hendrix College and is a dancer who now lives and performs in New South Wales, Australia.
Son Bryan W. Massey Jr., 25, lives in Conway and is working as a recording artist with hopes of becoming a record producer.
Daughter Javan Massey, 20, is a sophomore at UCA studying multimedia and film. She was recently the stage manager for the UCA Theatre’s production of Doubt.