Boar no bore: 2-ton metal pig to point out path to Northwest Arkansas firm

Eugene Sargent works last week on the head of a 25-foot-tall boar statue at his studio in rural Washington County. The statue was commissioned by Cliff Slinkard with Hogeye Inc. to stand outside the company office at at the Calypso Crossing Office Park in Fayetteville.
Eugene Sargent works last week on the head of a 25-foot-tall boar statue at his studio in rural Washington County. The statue was commissioned by Cliff Slinkard with Hogeye Inc. to stand outside the company office at at the Calypso Crossing Office Park in Fayetteville.

FAYETTEVILLE -- When it came time for Hogeye Inc. to put up a sign, the company's owner decided to go in a slightly different direction.

Today, a boar sculpture standing 25 feet tall, weighing nearly 2 tons and clad in copper is being placed in front of the company's unassuming offices in the Calypso Crossing Office Park on Martin Luther King Boulevard, right on the city's border with Farmington.

"We thought about a sign but it would have been too small and hard to see," Hogeye Inc.'s founder and co-owner Cliff Slinkard explained. "So we decided to build a landmark."

Slinkard opened the office park in 2007 and moved Hogeye Inc. in from its previous digs in the tiny community of Hogeye, in 2010. Hogeye Inc. sells custom logo items like lapel pins, key chains, patches and other collectibles and trinkets to wholesale clients like the National Park Service and museum gift shops. It employs about 35 people.

"We sell art in the shape of stuff," Slinkard said.

Slinkard said the company's boar logo, which features the fierce beast on all-fours, was inspired by the heraldry he found on an Irish war shield. Slinkard, his wife and Hogeye Inc. co-owner Nikki Slinkard and local artist and inventor Eugene Sargent, decided the statue needed more pizzazz, so they stood the boar on his hind legs, like he was dancing.

"This way he's got character," Niki Slinkard said. "He looks regal. He's got personality."

According to executive summaries from the nonprofit Sign Research Foundation, 54 percent of shoppers have failed to find a business because the sign was too small or unclear and a third of shoppers have been drawn to an unfamiliar store because of the quality of its sign.

While Hogeye Inc. isn't a traditional retail business that relies on sales from walk-in customers, Cliff Slinkard said the office park is situated just off the road in a bit of a depression and is generally difficult to see and locate. He hopes the statue will serve as an easy and distinctive navigation tool.

"Drive till you see the dancing boar," Slinkard said.

The statue was designed and assembled in Sargent's studio in rural Washington County. When in place, the boar will stand about as tall as a utility pole with one of its front legs seemingly pointing up Martin Luther King Boulevard, toward Fayetteville proper.

Sargent's work can be found throughout Fayetteville, including his flower and leaf benches at the Wilson Park castle and the custom front doors at Bordinos restaurant. Slinkard described Sargent as a modern day Leonardo di Vinci -- a man who lives to create in a wide variety of mediums and using a mixture of techniques and technology.

"He's an artisan," Slinkard said. "The guy can literally do anything."

Sargent said the project has taken about 10 months to complete, including initial planning which involved extensive 3D modeling. The dancing boar's skin is made of roofing copper. Sargent said the material will weather naturally into a unique patina and it was easy enough to shape, allowing him to give the boar's skin lifelike wrinkles.

The boar will be trucked in around dawn and plans are for Sargent to film the trek using a drone. A crane will stand the boar on four-foot tall pilings located in the front of the office park, making the boar clearly visible from the road.

While most of the office park has tenants, Slinkard noted there is space available right behind where the dancing boar will stand. He mused it'd be a good spot for a brewery or maybe a barbecue joint. In any event, with the titanic boar in front, the park should be easier to find now.

"It will be one of those things you won't miss," Slinkard said.

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NWA Democrat-Gazette

Cliff Slinkard, owner of Hogeye Inc., describes the models used to guide the construction of a 25-foot-tall statue of a wild boar at the studio of artist Eugene Sargent in rural Washington County.

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NWA Democrat-Gazette

Artist Eugene Sargent’s drawings for a 25-foot-tall boar statue are displayed in a frame at the offices of Fayetteville business Hogeye Inc.

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A map showing the location of Calypso Crossing Office Park

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