Artist Lorann Jacobs: ‘The woman in that sculpture kept starting to look like me and I kept trying to change her’
Dallastown, Pa.,-based sculptor Lorann Jacobs is seen in her studio with what appears to be pieces of her Vietnam War memorial, now standing at the York Expo Center. Sculptor Lorann Jacobs molds York’s past for posterity and Dick Boyd’s memoir tells inside story of York workers’ statue and Marine and his military dog meet 60 years later
Lorann Jacobs will give a tour of her sculptures around downtown York at 6 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 7.
And I’ll join her to give historical context.
We’ll see as many as 10 of Jacobs works in this tour sponsored by Downtown Inc..
Jacobs’ work will be an important public art element for decades.
Here is a sampling of Jacobs’ local sculptures as well as those standing elsewhere… .
LORANN JACOBS’ LOCAL WORK
·Unnamed statue
Location: Private property along the shore of Lake Meade, visible from the water
Year: 2006
Size: 5 feet tall
Weight: 200 pounds
Cost: $6,000
·Leo the Lion
Location: Lobby of Red Lion Area Senior High School, Red Lion.
Year: 1998
Size: 6 feet from nose to back of foot
Weight: 500 pounds
Cost: $5,000
Jacobs: “We used a natural rock for that, which was really fun to go find. Five thousand dollars isn’t what something like that should cost, but … ”
·World War II statue
Location: Southwest corner of Continental Square in York
Year: 2000
Size: More than 12 feet tall
Weight: About a ton (without the granite stones)
Cost:$250,000
Jacobs: “Those blocks (of granite underneath the statue) are solid. It’s really beautiful stone.”
·Korean War memorial
Location: Next to the Codorus Creek on West Market Street, York.
Year: 2005
Size: 9 feet tall
Weight: 1,000 pounds
Cost: $150,000
Jacobs: “I really like the whole design of it and the stone. And I didn’t even design it. (The veterans) worked out all that.”
·Abstract woman
Location: Garden at Unitarian Universalist congregation, 925 S. George St., York.
Size: 3 feet wide, 4 feet tall
Cost:$5,000
·Gift from Market
Location: At the Beaver Street entrance to Central Market House, York.
Year: 2001
Size: 42 inches tall
Weight: 120 pounds
Cost: $1,200 (for materials, labor donated)
·Cat & The Fiddle, Cow & The Moon, Spoon & The Dish
Location: Martin Library, East Market St., York
Year: 2005
Size: 42 inches tall
Weight: 120 pounds
Cost: $18,000 for the set
·Workers of York
Location: Agricultural & Industrial Museum of York County, 217 W. Princess St., York.
Year: 1999
Size: 11 feet tall
Weight: 2,000 pounds
Cost: More than $100,000
Jacobs: “The woman in that sculpture kept starting to look like me and I kept trying to change her.
“They had a hard time finding a good, clear black piece of stone for that piece. When they shipped it, they had to cut it in half, so the Labor Council asked for another one. It really sets everything off really nice.
“They wanted everything for that to have been made in Pennsylvania and I thought, ‘Gosh, I hope they don’t want me to use a union foundry because artists don’t have that kind of organization.”
Later, Jacobs said of the work: “It was my first big break.”
·Girl in a Sundress
Location: Cherry Lane, York
Year:2000
Size: 36 inches tall
Weight: 100 pounds
Cost: $5,000
Jacobs: “I did her right after Princess Diana (of Wales) died. I saw a newspaper photograph of a girl along the (funeral) parade route holding flowers and modeled her after that.”
·Indian with spear and fish
Location: Indian Steps Museum
Year: late 1980s, early 1990s
Size: 20 inches tall
Weight: 40 pounds
Cost:$500 (for materials, labor donated)
Jacobs: “I think it would be nice to have a piece in the center of the pond they have outside there.”
·Pal the dog
Location: York County Rail Trail Heritage Park at King Street, York
Year: 2006
Size: 5½ feet long, 2½ feet tall
Weight: 300 pounds
Cost: $10,000
Jacobs: “I made him double thick because I knew he was going to go close to the ground and near the street. So if someone runs over him …”
·Marquis de Lafayette
Location: Gates House and Plough Tavern, West Market St., York
Year: 2007
Size: 6 feet 6 inches
Weight: 800 pounds
Cost: $18,000
·Brooks Robinson A statue of Brooks Robinson wearing a White Roses baseball uniform and two young children in baseball uniforms. The piece stands about 6 feet tall and weighs about a ton. It is positioned at the entrance to York’s new baseball stadium. Cost about $130,000.
·Vietnam War memorial
In a speech dedicating this memorial at the York Expo Center, Barre Shepp, veteran leader and master of ceremonies, stepped to the microphone on the stage before the crowd, more than 2,000 in chairs and hundreds more standing. “Welcome home,” he said.
A sampling of places to see her art· Pennsylvania State Museum’s PA Craft exhibit
· Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Camp Hill
· Trinity Lutheran Church in Gettysburg
· Christian Brothers Academy, Lincroft, N.J.
· St. Elizabeth High School, Wilmington, Del.
· Immaculata University Library, Allentown
· Baum School of Art sculpture garden, Allentown
· Boalsburg, Pa.
· Lebanon Valley College
· St. Joseph’s Preparatory School, Philadelphia
· Please Touch Museum, Philadelphia
· Firefighters Park in Rutherford, N.J.
· Private collections of corporations such as Glatfelter Insurance, Liberty Trust, B.F. Goodrich; Rodale Press; AMP, Inc. and Wind Dancer Productions. Her sculptures are also part of private collections in at least 20 states, Japan, Ireland, Germany and the Netherlands.
· She has designed and produced an estimated 1,000 sculptures during the last 20 years.
