Artist carves sculpture of Indiana woman who escaped slavery
NEW ALBANY, Ind. (AP) - Over the past few weeks, New Albany sculptor David Ruckman has begun to transform a towering slab of limestone into the image of Lucy Higgs Nichols fleeing slavery with her young daughter, Mona.
As he captures part of her story in stone, he hopes that viewers will appreciate the courage and perseverance of Nichols, who later became a nurse for the Union Army and lived in New Albany until her death in 1915.
"She'll be coming out of the stone, basically - out of slavery into the light," Ruckman said. "That's what this is about."
Ruckman was commissioned by Friends of the Town Clock Church to create the sculpture, which will be placed in the Underground Railroad Gardens behind Second Baptist Church in New Albany. Since early March, he has been carving the sculpture in his New Albany workshop.
The project will likely cost more than $50,000, according to Friends of the Town Clock Church treasurer Jerry Finn. The organization received a $26,000 grant from Samtec Cares in January, and it is receiving a number of other donations for the sculpture, which will be placed near Nichols' historical marker behind the church.
Nichols was born into slavery in 1838 in South Carolina, and she escaped from a farm in Bolivar, Tenn., in 1862 to a nearby Union camp. She found acceptance from the Union 23rd Regiment from New Albany, and she served with the soldiers as a nurse.
Both her husband and her daughter died during the war, and Nichols, who was known by the soldiers as "Aunt Lucy," followed the 23rd Regiment to New Albany. She continued her service as a nurse until the end of the war, and she was later named an honorary member of the Grand Army of the Republic.
Within his workshop, David Ruckman pulls sketches of variations he drafted for the sculpture he is creating for the Friends of the Town Clock Church that will be placed within the garden behind the Second Baptist Church in New Albany.
Ruckman first learned about Nichols' story about six months ago. He said he was inspired by the permanent exhibit about her life in the Carnegie Center for Art and History, where he saw a photo of her among Civil War veterans.
"She's this old lady standing in the middle of them with a strong face - straight and sincere - and her picture there looks through you," he said. "You stand there and study that face, and she's a 60-year-old woman or so, but you can just see the composure and strength in her face."
He hopes to capture that quality in the face of the young woman depicted in his sculpture. He started off with a series of sketches to figure out her face and the exact story he wanted to portray.
A sketch depicts the journey of Lucy Higgs Nichols escaping from slavery with baby in tow, emerging from the woods.
Ruckman decided upon the image of Nichols holding her young daughter as they journey through the woods toward freedom. She is looking ahead to her left, and she carries a stick for protection.
He then created a small model in clay before starting on the monumental limestone sculpture. Padgett, Inc. in New Albany transported a nine-foot-tall, 10-ton slab of Indiana limestone - the same kind of stone used for the Empire State Building - and he got to work.
He said with stone sculpting, it is important not to mess up. If he accidentally chipped off the figure's nose, for example, he would have to start all over again.
Ruckman said he is probably about halfway finished with the piece - creating the image was the most difficult part. He isn't exactly sure how long it will take to finish the sculpture, but the process has come naturally to him.
"She's always been in the stone - it's up to me to bring her out," he said.
Finn said he has enjoyed watching the image of Nichols emerge from the stone. She was a member of the Second Baptist Church congregation, and he is excited that her story will be memorialized in the church's Underground Railroad Gardens.
"I think Lucy has a lot to teach us about bravery and strength and doing things you didn't think you were capable of," he said.
The permanence of stone has always appealed to Ruckman, and he intends for his sculpture to tell Nichols' story for years and years to come.
"This is for posterity," Ruckman said. "Even if the courthouse burns, she's probably not going to burn. She's probably still going to be here. She could be here for 1,000 years, and several societies might come and go, and we might just keep her, because it's a good story of human struggle."
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Source: News and Tribune
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Information from: News and Tribune, Jeffersonville, Ind., http://www.newsandtribune.com