CHESTERFIELD, MO (KTVI-FOX2now.com) -
A mystery's rising from the earth in Chesterfield. Whatever it is, is hidden from view in Chesterfield's Central City Park. But Fox 2 got a peek Tuesday night, at what is a hard thing to hide. It's a second casting of artist J. Seward Johnson's famed sculpture, "The Awakening".
It's 70 feet long, 17 feet high at its tallest point.
The organization, Chesterfield Arts, is using actual army parachutes to cover it and build suspense for the big unveiling set for Saturday, October 10th, 11:00 a.m. It's working.
"We've had so much traffic, people stopping and looking," said Stacey Morse of Chesterfield Arts. "I like the parachute material, you can see through, you kind of get a glimpse of what's under there. It's a teaser."
Even moreso when you move the sandbags and pull off the covers, which Morse agreed to do for Fox 2, showing us the giant's head and foot.
Just a peek was enough to have kids come running; three children climbing on the sculpture during our brief preview.
"I'm the first kid to play on this. What do you think ?" bragged one of the kids.
"This will be a magnet for kids," Morse said.
For adults too, wondering, what does it mean ? Morse said the artist told her it was up for the viewers to decide. "He said the guy's been buried for 100 years. He 's coming to, and only God knows what's going to happen. That's the fun part, everybody draws their own, builds their own picture and their own story."
Johnson's originial sculpture near Washington, D.C., surfaced in 1980. Chesterfield developer, Louis Sachs, envisioned it as a centerpiece of the "new downtown" Chesterfield now taking shape; giving a strip mall strewn suburb more of a cultural identity and city feel.
"My husband and I have considered living closer to the city [of St. Louis]," said Chesterfield resident, Lisa Durham. "But this is nice that you don't have to drive downtown for this sort of thing. It's definitely good to have it here instead of everything centered in the downtown [St. Louis] area."
"You can rub his nose, pat him on the cheek, whatever you want to do," Morse said, sitting on the giant's head.
Morse said more than a million dollars and year's worth of planning went into this; with Sachs leading the way in the privately funded project.
It's 70 feet long, 17 feet high at its tallest point.
The organization, Chesterfield Arts, is using actual army parachutes to cover it and build suspense for the big unveiling set for Saturday, October 10th, 11:00 a.m. It's working.
"We've had so much traffic, people stopping and looking," said Stacey Morse of Chesterfield Arts. "I like the parachute material, you can see through, you kind of get a glimpse of what's under there. It's a teaser."
Even moreso when you move the sandbags and pull off the covers, which Morse agreed to do for Fox 2, showing us the giant's head and foot.
Just a peek was enough to have kids come running; three children climbing on the sculpture during our brief preview.
"I'm the first kid to play on this. What do you think ?" bragged one of the kids.
"This will be a magnet for kids," Morse said.
For adults too, wondering, what does it mean ? Morse said the artist told her it was up for the viewers to decide. "He said the guy's been buried for 100 years. He 's coming to, and only God knows what's going to happen. That's the fun part, everybody draws their own, builds their own picture and their own story."
Johnson's originial sculpture near Washington, D.C., surfaced in 1980. Chesterfield developer, Louis Sachs, envisioned it as a centerpiece of the "new downtown" Chesterfield now taking shape; giving a strip mall strewn suburb more of a cultural identity and city feel.
"My husband and I have considered living closer to the city [of St. Louis]," said Chesterfield resident, Lisa Durham. "But this is nice that you don't have to drive downtown for this sort of thing. It's definitely good to have it here instead of everything centered in the downtown [St. Louis] area."
"You can rub his nose, pat him on the cheek, whatever you want to do," Morse said, sitting on the giant's head.
Morse said more than a million dollars and year's worth of planning went into this; with Sachs leading the way in the privately funded project.
