Bob Presto

Written by Lori Boatfield

Photos by Michael Bradley

Bob Presto is an artist who makes his home in Huntsville. As a licensed attorney and homebuilder, his career has spanned many years and different job titles, including County Attorney for Escambia County, Ala.

LB: What inspired you to become an artist, particularly a sculptor?

BP: In all honesty, I’m not sure that I actually ever chose to try my hand at stone sculpting. One day, back in 1993, I just knew that I was somehow compelled to pursue it. It’s now a part of my life that I cannot abandon. My only wish is that I had accepted its challenge decades before I did so.

LB: What is your stone of choice?

BP: My stone of choice is limestone. Plain and simple. It’s harder than alabaster, but softer and more friendly than marble and granite. When it’s polished, you can see multitudes of fossiliferous life forms from whence it came to be. It has been chosen as a medium for the creation of works or art for millennia. It’s beautiful.”

LB: You have a vision for a major project. Can you talk about that?

BP: The ‘Saturn Project is a work that I am compelled to create. Somehow, it simply has to happen. I hope to bring it to the people of Huntsville in order to commemorate all that they have done, all that their forebears did, and all that my father accomplished in order to launch this city into space.

My father, Bob Presto, was instrumental in the Saturn Program and in much of what caused Huntsville to evolve into the Rocket City. I envision sculpting a large-scale Saturn V rocket. If I can find the proper rock face, I’d like to create an image that is 25 feet long. I’d also like to sculpt a life-sized image of the Friendship 7 capsule which was manned by John Glenn. I’m also interested in creating a sculpture of the Artemis rocket or its capsule.

The beauty of all of this is that these images will endure for a very, very, very long time. Much of the stone in this area, along with much of the pertinent cliff face, is what I believe to be dolomite, which is harder than the limestone that was used throughout Egypt and other ancient sites. I want to create something that will cause people to remember Huntsville for thousands of years.

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