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The Royal Treatment for Sardonis' Sculpture
Prince Charles of England, left, was this year's winner of the Global Environmental Citizen Award and former U.S. Vice President Al Gore was last year's winner. Here, at a ceremony at the Harvard Club of New York, they admire the award itself, a sculpture by Randolph's Jim Sardonis, made out of antique verde marble quarried in Rochester. Hefting it, the prince quipped that he was glad he hadn't dropped it on his toes. (Photo provided / Jim Sardonis) By M. D. Drysdale hen Prince Charles, the next King of England, flew to New York City two weekends ago, he did so to accept a prestigious global environmental award that came in the form of a carving by Jim Sardonis of Randolph. When former Vice President Al Gore received the award last year, he also took possession of a sculpture by Jim Sardonis. And when media icon Bill Moyers accepted the same award two years ago, again it was a Sardonis sculpture. This is, in fact, the fifth year in a row that Sardonis has provided a small marble sculpture to the winner of the Global Environmental Citizen Award, given every year by the Center for Health and the Global Environment, of the Harvard Medical School. Other previous winners were Harrison Ford and Jane Goodall. And for the fifth year in a row, Sardonis and his wife Diane were invited to attend the $1000-a-plate dinner and ceremony free of charge, chatting with the famous recipients and also actress Meryl Streep, who serves on the board of the Center and provides its public face. This year, because of the presence of royalty, the annual awards ceremony attracted a much bigger crowd than usual- some 350 people at the august Harvard Club of New York. It also attracted international attention, especially in Britain, where some protested that the Prince and Camilla Parker-Bowles had squandered too much airplane fuel by flying to America to receive the reward. (In compensation, Charles cancelled a ski trip to Switzerland.) Marble from Rochester This year's award for the prince was notable, too. Sardonis carves virtually the same statue every year, a compact 18-pound design he calls "Sleeping Dove." Each year, however, he carves it out of a different marble, and this year the marble was none other than the beautiful antique verde stone quarried in Rochester. It will look awfully good on a shelf at Windsor Castle or Balmoral, the Randolph man thinks. The statue, along with other work, can be found at the artist's website, www.sardonis.com. This year's trip to the awards ceremony was also especially exciting, Sardonis admitted this week, especially for his wife. Diane's mother and grandmother grew up in England, surrounded by photographs and memorabilia of kings and queens, and the chance to meet with Charles was a treat. They found him "charming and accessible, very gracious," he said. Photographers swarmed the place. The Sardonis' table was next to a slightly raised platform where about two dozen photographers elbowed each other, pointing 500-mm lenses at the Prince and other guests. A crowd of paparazzi crowded the street outside; they were alerted to the event by the New York Times, which published the location, though it was supposed to be secret. Guests included Streep and Gore, and also Yoko Ono, fresh from the scandal pages, who had purchased a table for herself and friends. Streep and Gore addressed the dinner meeting and were followed by a longer exhortation by Prince Charles, who spoke about global warming calling it "a war we simply have to win." A Chance Meeting Sardonis won the chance to craft the annual award through a chance meeting at the Boston Aquarium, during a dedication ceremony of another Sardonis sculpture, this one picturing two great auks, a species which went extinct in 1844. There, he met a woman who worked at the Center for Health and the Global Environment, who told him about the annual award- and who was quite taken with his Boston sculpture. She later looked at his website and was entranced by the Sleeping Dove, which he had already crafted. She tried to buy it for the next ceremony, but Sardonis wanted that one for himself and convinced her to let him make new ones for the ceremony. The statue makes a perfect award because it is always the same, but always different because of the different marble. Sardonis, who is most famous locally as the creator of the Whales Tails, said he generally sculpts two at one time. He goes to the award presentation every year because it is a great and gala event but also with a hope that more commissions might come his way. This year he had a conversation with Moyers who told him that his son John, a Vermonter, liked the Sleeping Dove a lot and maybe should have something similar. And in the package delivered to Prince Charles, along with the dove, was a personal note from Sardonis. Noting the Prince's activities with a group devoted to saving the endangered albatross, the Randolph sculptor pointed out that he could be persuaded to turn his hand to carving an albatross, as well as a dove. ____________ | |||||
