Dr. Marvin Tadlock poses with his sculpture, Ararat. (Photo by Jay Phyfer)
The sculpture "Ararat," by Dr. Marvin Tadlock, professor of art at Virginia Intermont College, is on the second year of a two-year long exhibition as part of the Art In Public Places competition and exhibition in downtown Bristol.
A new plaque is now displayed in front of "Ararat." The plaque is placed in memory of Merle Warren Dickert, a wonderful friend, tireless supporter, and lover of the arts in Bristol who passed away in July of this year.
The piece, which is over seven and a half feet tall, is placed in front of the Bristol Library on Piedmont Street.
The name "Ararat," was taken from Mount Ararat, a mountain in Turkey where Noah's Ark is thought by many to have come to rest.
The piece incorporates windows or portals in its design. In the windows are highly abstracted figures, both singles and a couple, made of stainless steel. Perched on top of the piece are three stainless birds, and below the figures are two stainless fish, one on each side of the upright base. Tadlock likes the idea of having the viewer see through the windows of the piece, as well as having the figures actually projecting through them.
