Wednesday, March 13, 2002
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Wednesday, March 13, 2002 |
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Fayette ballerina poses for a dance that's bigger than life By SALLIE SATTERTHWAITE
Imagine, if you will, a sculpture of a young ballerina in a pose reminiscent of a Degas painting. Imagine the figure, bigger than life, in front of a performing arts center. Now imagine that the dancer has the sweet face, the hair pulled into a bun, the slender limbs of your teenaged daughter. That dream could come true for Sharon and George Boyd of south Fayette County, whose daughter Meagan, 14, is modeling for sculptor Andy Davis as he shapes in clay a small ballerina that may prove to become public art. Meagan is a student of Fayetteville dance instructor Carla Gillespie, and has studied for more than 11 years. An award-winning student, she can now add "model" to her résumé. Sculptor Davis is a self-trained artist who discovered as a child his unique viewpoint of the world. His Murals and Graphics Company won him the attention of interior designers and decorators, as well as commissions for private customized artwork. In 1998, the American Red Cross commissioned him to do a sculpture of Margaret Mitchell for permanent display at the Margaret Mitchell House and Museum in Atlanta. Davis' acquaintance with the Boyd family came through a couple of less-glamorous commissions they offered him, and when he began planning a series of ballerinas, he thought of Meagan. "I asked her mom if Meagan could sit for me for a couple of sculptures," Davis explained recently. "She'd be a possible model for some life-sized sculptures I hope to do for an art center." He said it would be premature to indicate exactly what facility, or where. The piece for which Meagan is sitting now is about 24 inches tall, and will be one of a set of figures in an international benefit show at Madison Gallery in Buckhead, probably in early May. The proceeds of the show will go to Operation Smile, a program launched 12 years ago to help fund surgery for Colombian children with facial malformations such as cleft palate. "William McGee and his wife [of North Carolina] they're both plastic surgeons," Davis explained recently. "It costs $750 to $800 per child, but surgery changes these kids' lives forever." Davis went on to recount the story of a young girl who had never been outside of her own house until her cleft palate was corrected at age 14. Davis, who is in the process of moving his residence from Clayton County to Henry, and his studio into a loft at StudioPlex on Auburn Avenue in Atlanta, has numerous local installations already to his credit. Besides the Mitchell sculpture, he did another figure for the Red Cross inspired by a 1946 photograph of a little boy orphaned in Nazi Germany. He did the statue of Judge Harold R. Banke for the Justice Complex in Jonesboro, and is completing a life-sized bronze for the Georgia Police Officers memorial based on a Pulitzer Prize Life magazine photograph. But it's smart for an artist to be versatile. Davis was between sculpting projects when he went into George Boyd's tire store in East Point, and Boyd mentioned he needed someone to do some painting for him. Painting, as in touching up walls and woodwork. Why not? Davis thought, and took the job himself. As they became better acquainted, Boyd told the self-taught Davis about his wife's dream of a mural on the walls of the couple's young son, George Boyd IV. Sharon Boyd's father had built a model of the Piper J-3 Cub in which he first soloed, and it hangs from the ceiling of his grandson's room. She conjured a mural with Atlanta's Hartsfield Airport and Northwest Airlines in it. The result: A bright scene in primary colors combining cartoon-like perspectives with precisely rendered airplanes, including a Douglas SBD dive bomber flying out of the painting, directly over the Boyd family's tire business, established by George Boyd I. "Andy spent a lot of time with our family," said Sharon Boyd, "and he said he thought Meg was the ideal model of a dancer. He was working on some dancers for the art center project, and asked if we'd let her sit for him." The Boyds doubt that they could afford to buy the figure Davis is working on, but they're grateful to be the parents of the model. Her mother describes Meagan as "very different, a special gift from God." Now a diminutive eighth grader who has won awards as an outstanding student in English and geography, Meagan has been developing her talent since she was 3. "It comes natural to her," Sharon Boyd said. "She doesn't have to work real hard at it." Meagan has had several jazz and ballet teachers, but at present studies dance at Carla's Dance Factory in Fayetteville. "Carla works hard to find steps for Meagan," her mother said. "She told me, 'I just wish once I could give Meg a step and have her make it look like it's hard.'" The young ballerina wins "every competition she enters," said her mom, and once, when she was small, complained, "Why do I always have to have a blue ribbon? I don't have any red or yellow."
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