expression ↘
ART
MEMORIES IN BRONZE
Sandy Proctor’s sculpture, My Little Prince, is one of seven Proctor pieces located at McCord Park. The sculptor has made contributions to Tallahassee’s body of public art at locations that include the FSU campus.
Sandy Proctor makes lasting impressions by MARINA BROWN
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n November of 2022, Florida State University President Emeritus John Thrasher stood staring at himself on the lawn of Westcott Plaza. He was pleased with what he saw: “Humbled,” he says. With his sculpted bronze hand extended toward imagined new graduates, the larger-thanlife likeness is a tribute to the outgoing president from his successor. Now John Thrasher will stand along with three other emeritus heads of FSU. “And he even gave me a little more hair, too,” Thrasher jokes. The “he” is Tallahassee sculptor, W. Stanley “Sandy” Proctor, among whose many works are in the British Museum, the Smithsonian and the White House. Proctor, a specialist in turning what is transitory into matter, attempts to choose one moment in time and preserve it for the ages. At 70, the prolific sculptor continues his work. Academics, fallen soldiers, beloved animals, midair football players and soaring ballet dancers have all become solid metal that emulate life. Today, relaxing in the living room of what appears to be a veranda-encircled farmhouse, Proctor waves an arm toward walls and tables where every surface holds his output of busts, painted birds, delicately water-colored tobacco barns, and careful portraits of friends and strangers. And in a soft North Florida drawl, he muses on how he came to be an artist — a final result that was anything but certain. “I was born in Tallahassee, son of a fuel oil supplier, who later became mayor,” Proctor smiles.
108 May–June 2023 TALLAHASSEEMAGA ZINE.COM
“My mother was a pianist who taught at FSU, and me … well, I was drawing as soon as I could hold a pencil.” But Proctor says he couldn’t see how he could make a living “doing art.” Besides, he wasn’t an “artiste.” He liked fishing and hunting — and football. After college and a degree in history, Proctor went on to join his family’s fuel business and tucked art away as a “hobby.” And yet in the year he turned 40, now a married man with two children, Sandy Proctor and his wife, Melinda, would decide on an existential U-turn. “Though I had never had an art lesson in my life, we gathered up my paintings of birds and headed to New York City.” Door to door they
↓ MCCORD PARK SCULPTURE GARDEN
Located on Armistead Road in the Betton Hills neighborhood, Guyte McCord Park features seven bronze works by Tallahassee’s own Sandy Proctor. The sculptures are placed along a walking path that encircles a pond filled with birds (and maybe alligators). It’s a peaceful spot to take in Tallahassee’s flora and fauna.
photography by ALICIA OSBORNE