“Spike”

a bronze sculpture of an adolescent humpback whale by R.T. “Skip” Wallen, was created for the University of Alaska SE in late fall 2010. “Spike” was installed on the lawn at the JACC for the summer on May 14, 2010, and will migrate to its permanent site on the Auke Bay Campus in the fall.

At 8 feet, this sculpture is ONE THIRD of the size of the planned life-sized Humpback Whale sculpture, a celebration of the 50th anniversary of Alaska’s Statehood. The full-sized sculpture will be situated on the waterfront in a large reflecting, infinity pool, and will feature fountain works creating churning bubbles at the surface, sheets of water cascading off the fins and body, and mist near the blow-hole, all lending to the dramatic, majestic playfulness of the sculpture.

Funding for the full-sized whale is underway – We are a little over ½ of the way there: You can help – Donate on-line, stop into the office and make a contribution, purchase a brick for the plaza that surrounds the pool. Help bring the full-sized adult humpback home to Juneau.

Background:
In 1993 former Juneau Mayor Bill Overstreet approached Skip Wallen about doing a whale sculpture for Juneau. The idea was discussed several times over the summer with the result that a proposal for a humpback whale sculpture was written. The proposal slept for thirteen years but somehow the idea stayed alive and last year was resurrected as a project for the city of Juneau on the 50th anniversary of Alaska becoming a state. Skip Wallen, the gifted artist who presented the bronze bear statue, The Windfall Fisherman, to Juneau for the 25th anniversary of Statehood, was still interested in completing the project. Wallen has developed a maquette, or working model, as well as concepts for a pool and fountain to contain and enhance the whale sculpture.

Of the humpback whale, Herman Melville has this to say in Moby Dick: He is the most gamesome and light-hearted of all the whales, making more gay foam and white water generally than any other of them. Southeast Alaska people know this whale from such behavior. In these waters it likes to catapult itself into the air, crashing down in a marvel of briny spray and foam to send a booming report, like artillery fire, rolling over our fjords for miles around. It is the embodiment of that description that is envisioned for Juneau’s waterfront.

The Artist:
R. T. (Skip) Wallen has been celebrating Alaska in drawings, paintings, and stone lithographs since territorial days. For the Silver Anniversary of Alaska Statehood in 1984, Lynn and Skip Wallen donated the bronze sculpture Windfall Fisherman to the city of Juneau. This study of an Alaska brown bear, based on Wallen’s field notes and sketches, stands in front of the State Capitol and was cited by the Juneau Empire as “the most photographed spot in the Capital City”. Wallen also volunteered his time to create a sculpture for the River Blindness Foundation on behalf of an effort to eradicate riverblindness, a parasitic disease for which 80 million people are at risk in tropical Africa and Central America. Maquettes of this bronze study of a boy leading a blind elder are given to million dollar donors to the Carter Presidential Center, which has adopted the eradication of riverblindness as one of its prime objectives.

Wallen has monumental sculptures in Geneva, Switzerland; Amsterdam, Netherlands; The World Bank, Washington D.C.; The Carter Presidential Center, Atlanta; Merck & Co. World Headquarters, Whitehouse Station, New Jersey; Lion’s Clubs International World Headquarters, Chicago; The University of Houston, Texas; and, most recently, the WWII Alaska-Siberia Memorial at Fairbanks, Alaska.