Jerry Sanders

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

Jerry Dane Sanders, Sculpture

Jerry Dane Sanders was born in Decatur, Illinois on September 9, 1949. After several moves from Decatur to Champaign and back to Decatur his family moved to Vincennes Indiana where Jerry went to high school and to Vincennes University. In 1971 Jerry transferred to Indiana University. Jerry graduated from Indiana University in 1973 with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Art Education. In 1974, only a few months out of college, Jerry started his first monumental sculpture. Being unable to raise enough capital for such a sculpture, he decided to set up a Sculpture for Indianapolis Project. Jerry personally raised over $20,000 in services and materials and after two and a half years of hard work he constructed a 22 foot, 10,000 pound steel sculpture titled Quaestio Labrae, which is Latin for Question of Balance. This was a sculpture that was being done for his master's thesis with Indiana University. It was installed in front of the City County Building in August of 1975. This was the first major contemporary sculpture to be placed in the city of Indianapolis. Jerry moved to Ft. Worth Texas In August of 1978. After living in Ft. Worth for only one year Jerry decided to do another monumental sculpture project, only this time he wanted someone to benefit from all the effort it takes to run a project like this, not to mention the actual construction of a 30 foot, 10 ton stainless steel sculpture. This time around, however, Jerry's monumental sculpture took less than a year to finance and build. Some thirty different businesses and art patrons have contributed to this unusual endeavor. Jerry pledged the profits from the sale of his sculpture to charity. After touring the sculpture to five cities, Ft. Worth, Dallas, San Antonio, New Orleans, and eventually the Art Expo in Chicago, the sculpture, Motion II, was sold to Hunt Properties Inc. of Dallas. The profits were given to the Ft. Worth Children's and the Cook Children's Hospitals and the Muscular Dystrophy Association. When asked why he gets involved in such projects without financial compensation, Jerry replied, I believe that in order for the public to have an interest in an artist, they must first see what he can do. The exposure from this project should help introduce me to the public as well as art museums and galleries. I feel that in order to get other people or companies to support such a project, I had to set an example of giving of oneself. This project is different in several ways. First of all it is very unusual that a sculptor would tour a piece of sculpture as large as this one. Usually, a sculpture like this is commissioned and erected only once. It is even more unusual that Jerry has literally designed and built a sculpture that, by design, can be assembled and disassembled with relative ease.
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Also, the sculpture was built and toured to three different cities with virtually no money ever changing hands. Jerry donated almost two and a half years of his life to this sculptural gift and the work continues. This project is a prime example of how the private business sector is willing to support the arts when the project is worthwhile. As of 2003 Jerry has worked for over twenty-nine years as an artist-sculptor with over a decade of teaching experience at the high school and college level. He has done work for such companies as Trammell Crow Inc, Hunt Properties Inc., Shell Oil Inc., Freto-Lay and Pepsico just to name a few. He prides himself in doing only the best quality work using the best material available. He enjoys helping others and bringing a little beauty into this world.

Jerry Dane Sanders, 7917 Pebblebrook Dr. Ft. Worth, TX 76148
817-581-8795,
Web page is ~jerrysanders