Tucson sculptor Joe Benedict had a great idea.
He wanted to create a kinetic, interactive sculpture, then plant it somewhere in the Tucson Botanical Gardens. He knew families would love it.
That idea was two years old when Majestic the butterfly and his dragonfly companion, Juniper, came to life.
The project has been a joyful labor of love for the artist.
“I had so much fun building them,” Benedict said. “Building these, designing these and getting to place them at these amazing gardens, my favorite place in the whole city, getting to do these pieces for them, with them, has just been magical.”
A quick peek through the wrought iron fence that separates the parking lot from the gardens reveals two very tall metal insects. The concept is simple: Turn a wheel, wings flap, the body bobs up and down. The seeming simplicity belies the engineering that went into them, especially when their size is considered. The wingspan on each is six feet. How did he do it?
“Problem solving is one of my strong points and there were a bunch of problems to be solved on this, a bunch of engineering, but the basic mechanics was pretty straightforward,” he said. “It was just a matter of figuring out where to place things, how to place things, how to tension the chains and stuff like that.”
Yes, that’s all it was.
But making the wings flap is also just plain fun.
“I just knew that they would be something so fun for the whole family, from grumpy old grandpa down to the littlest tykes,” Benedict said.
Benedict’s company, Caveman Fabrications, has a nonprofit arm, My Beautiful Spirit Productions. The insect sculptures were created under this umbrella, which also gave the project its name: My Beautiful Spirit Interactive Art.
Using metal, motorcycle and bicycle parts, Benedict started with the butterfly. With no patterns or plans to work from, it came with a fairly steep learning curve. Benedict said Majestic took about a month to build while dragonfly took only a couple of weeks.
Benedict is a successful artist, mainly a sculptor, with a 20-year career, so building is nothing new to him. The engineering know-how came from his dad, who taught Benedict and his brother from an early age how to use tools and how things are put together.
“Well, thank God for my dad,” he said. “One of my very first memories was me with a crowbar. Dad had put a bunch of nails into a 2x4 and had my brother and me with crowbars as we were pulling on those things…We were building bicycles as soon as we could hold a wrench in our hands.”
That know-how stood Benedict in good stead as he turned that which he imagined into real-life action. Still, it doesn’t mean there weren’t challenges. The biggest?
“Getting the balance of the first build with the wings,” he said. “Each one of those wings weighs over 80 pounds and what was happening was (the wings were) getting up at the top and then just coming down hard.
“I ended up having to add four little bitty shocks. They hold the rear part of your hatchback on your SUV. They’re pneumatic shocks.”
Majestic and Juniper aren’t the only pieces of Benedict’s work in the gardens. In his mind, he sees a dozen or more of his kinetic sculptures, including hummingbirds, woodpeckers and hawks, “just all kinds of stuff,” he said.
Laura Leach, the development and marketing director at the gardens, said the sculptures are not just for kids nor are the gardens just for adults.
“We want people to think of the gardens when they think about bringing their families together,” she said. “This is a place for children of all ages.”
Visitors will find 43 of Benedict’s works in the gardens’ upcoming Christmas Light Show. He also just recently installed a pebble chime in the children’s garden. It makes a lovely sound when rocks are dropped into it.
His next project?
“In the future I’m going to build a huge lizard that’s big enough to sit on,” he said. “The cool thing is it’s going to have a saddle, stirrups and everything else. You’ll be able to push the stirrups and it’s going to rise up. It will do pushups and you could do it so it wobbles a little bit by pushing the right (stirrup) and the left one. He’s going to be the size of a horse.”
Tucson Botanical Gardens
WHEN: 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. daily
WHERE: 2150 N. Alvernon Way
COST:Ages 18-61, $19; 4-12, $10; 13-17, $15; military and seniors 61 and older, $15. Free for children 3 and under. Reservations are requested.
INFO: tucsonbotanical.org, 520-326-9686
