Work on the cherry is moving along. After being sandblasted and painted yellow, the cherry got a coat of green fairing compound, a finishing material similar to bondo.
According to Joe King:
Most of what we see on the surface of the cherry will be sanded off on Monday, leaving the compound only in areas that are slight depressions on the surface. At this point all of the sanding is done by hand with a sanding block, to avoid any tool marks or depressions made from having a power sander in the same location for too long. This is extremely labor intensive, but critical to make the surface pristine.
The stem is coated with the second coat of epoxy primer, gray, which is also under the fairing compound on the cherry. After sanding and filling, the entire work will be coated with another coat of the gray epoxy.
The hand-sanding process is expected to take around two weeks to complete and may not be the most picturesque. We’ll keep you posted with progress updates.
Is this happening inside the Walker or off-site?
Comment by Martha — March 25, 2009 @ 8:34 am
After reading the yellow entry, I see all of the work is happening in Hugo.
Comment by Martha — March 25, 2009 @ 8:36 am
I see that from one of the articles on the cherry that it should be ready mid-June. However, when I called the Walker Art Center to see when the cherry would be replaced, they said the end of April or early May. Could you please confirm when it will be replaced? I am taking a group of students on May 5 to the sculpture garden and would like to tell them if it will be replaced by then or not. Thanks so much!
Sincerely,
Becky Hanson
Teacher
Comment by Becky Hanson — March 29, 2009 @ 6:30 pm
I’m also wondering when the cherry will reunite with spoon. Hosting parents from California in mid-May and would love to show them this iconic sculpture…
Comment by Christina — April 22, 2009 @ 3:34 pm