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U of G’s Gryphon Statue Anchors the Campus
At the Gryphon unveiling, from left: Dustin Wilson, Nicole Vogelzang, Kim Kozzi, Alastair Summerlee and Dai Skuse.Jacqueline Murray
of G ’ s G ry ph on statue was unveiled June 21 with great fanfare and picture-taking. It’s the centrepiece of the newly landscaped front entrance to the campus at the corner of Gordon Street and Stone Road. Or, as one Guelph grad put it: “The Gryphon statue is like the hood ornament on a Rolls Royce. You’ve got the Rolls Royce of universities; now you’ve got an eye-catching hood ornament.â€? Those words are from Myros Trutiak, a 1980 biology grad who owns the art foundry where the bronze statue was cast. “I’ve always thought the University should have some kind of monument,â€? he says. He was quick to jump on board when artists Kim Kozzi and Dai Skuse, a.k.a. FASTWĂœRMS, approached him about casting a sculpture for U of G. And the artists, both fine art faculty at Guelph, were equally enthused when former president Alastair Summerlee asked them to design a statue for the campus entrance. Guelph grads Nicole Vogelzang, MFA ’08, and Dustin Wilson, MFA ’13, were hired to help with the project.
4 The Portico
The $300,000 Gryphon was funded entirely by donations, primarily from alumni and student groups. In antiquity, the mythical gryphon (griffin) was depicted as a creature with strength, power and wisdom. The Guelph Gryphon designed by FASTWĂœRMS rests on a book and is lit at night to represent the illumination of knowledge. The pose was inspired by artist John Tenniel’s illustration of a sleeping Gryphon in Lewis Carroll’s 1865 novel Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. “It provided a good pragmatic direction for us,â€? says Skuse, “but we also like the surprising connection to multidisciplinary creativity in academia. “Lewis Carroll himself confounds the typical image of professors as ivory tower intellectuals.Very few people know of his lifelong work as a mathematician and teacher.â€? “I like that it’s a little bit whimsical,â€? adds Trutiak. “It’s friendly. It personalizes the university. Visitors will take pictures, and Alumni will bring their kids over to see the big Gryphon. A university needs something monumental to rally around. Sculpture is that important.â€?
“Our motivation was to make a significant and exceptional work of art that would be both commemorative and enduring,â€? say the FASTWĂœRMS. U of G’s big Gryphon took six months of research and development work, followed by a full year of daily production and creative work in the FASTWĂœRMS studio and the MST Bronze foundry in Toronto. Weighing in at 1,800 kg, it’s one of the larger projects that Trutiak has manufactured. About U of G, Trutiak says: “The University of Guelph was fabulous. It opened my mind to many different things and I figured out how to really think.â€? He studied biology, chemistry, physics, welding and metal fabrication and says he still uses all of that knowledge in his business. Trutiak has worked with FASTWĂœRMS for 20 years; they describe him as a “master craftsman.â€? Two of their joint projects are the “Snomun,â€? which sits outside the Metro Toronto Convention Centre, and “Monocerosâ€? in the city’s Liberty Village. “I’m really lucky to be in this business,â€? says Trutiak, “working with great artists, helping them produce fabulous works of art.â€?