The head of an 81/2-foot statue of Martha Hughes Cannon was uncovered Wednesday as officials prepare for the statue's placement at the state Capitol rotunda July 24.
The statue, commissioned by state officials in connection with the Utah Statehood Centennial, has already been more than a year in the making. Sculptor Laura Lee Stay began working on a clay model last summer and now is soliciting help from the Metal Letters Foundry in Lehi for molding and casting.So far, about a dozen of 30 total bronze pieces of the statue have been poured in preparation to be welded together and transported to the Capitol. The statue will be unveiled in connection with Days of '47 festivities next month.
"This is a really neat to do," Stay said. "The fact I got to sculpt someone who was so outstanding and such a visionary is great."
Stay said she feels a special connection to "Mattie" Cannon, the 19th-century pioneer physician and suffragist who became the first American woman elected to a state Senate post. She was 39 when she was elected in 1896. Stay is 38.
The 20th-century sculptor has also studied Cannon's life extensively in an effort to accurately depict her character. Photographs and descriptions from people who knew Cannon have been key.
"You really get to know the person you're working on," Stay said. "She always wore sophisticated clothing but was not flamboyant. She was always very modest."
At the Metal Letters Foundry Wednesday, members of the Martha Hughes Cannon Centennial Statue Commission helped uncover the statue's 80-pound head by pounding away a silicon-based mold encasing it. The head now will be cleaned by sandblasting and then welded to neck and shoulder pieces.
Photographs of the clay model and miniature bronze versions of the statue show Cannon striking what Stay calls an "active and assertive" pose. The statue rests its left hand on its hip, holds a hat in its right hand and leans slightly forward at the waist.
The statue will be the first of a woman to be placed in the Capitol rotunda and will stand four feet off the ground in a niche in the northeast corner. For some members of the Cannon Centennial Statue Commission, the July 24 unveiling will be a moment they've waited eight years for.
Stay said a statue of Cannon was considered eight years ago to accompany a Mahonri Young statue of Brigham Young in a national gallery in Washington, D.C.
But a statue of Utah inventor Philo T. Farnsworth was chosen instead, and the Cannon statue was forced to wait until the 100th anniversary of her election as a state senator.
Commission members said funds for the statue came from state, county and private sources. The commission also has plans to sell a limited number of 24-inch versions of the Cannon statue to raise the remaining necessary funds.