Sculptor looking to elevate Canada's game

CORNER BROOK - There is something about the game of hockey that screams Canada, but even though it inspires and captivates us, its role in Canadian culture is decidedly 'low-brow' - that is to say it is on par with situation comedies and bingo games.

Ontario sculptor Tim Schmalz feels that for a sport which is at the centre of our national identity and which so often serves as a measuring stick for our successes and failures to be so underrepresented in fine art is mind boggling. He was in Corner Brook Thursday to continue his work on what he calls his National Hockey Monument - a project to both elevate and celebrate what the sport means to our nation.

You can be forgiven if the idea of a man travelling the country making a monument to hockey elicits a chuckle, but you would be laughing at the wrong person. Schmalz is no hack and his resume is long and his work is intricate, passionate and intelligent.

Growing up in small-town Ontario he was one of a few who didn't play hockey and he clearly feels like he missed out on something good. Standing next to the barrel-chested six-footer you can't help but wonder if hockey didn't miss out on something good too. But, instead of using his thick, powerful hands for cracking helmets or wiring the puck on goal, he has spent the last 20 years as a sculptor, bringing life out of wood, wax and bronze.
He has taken as his subject matter the highest themes of Christian religion, war and heroic sacrifice.

Highlighting his impressive list of sculptures, which includes a large portfolio of religious works installed in churches around the world, are the Canadian Veterans Memorial and a 9/11 memorial entitled "First from the Flames", which details four 9/11 first-responders carrying a fire chaplain.

"If an artist wants to do something that expresses or celebrates culture in Canada they cannot not consider doing something about hockey," he said during an interview with The Western Star at the Pepsi Centre Thursday. "I want to acknowledge hockey as part of our serious culture."

Schmalz looks back to the ancient Greeks and works like The Discus Thrower to show how sport is a natural subject for fine art.

"In a thousand years when people look back on Canada this period of time will be seen as one where the whole country is excited about hockey," he said.

The National Hockey Monument is being envisioned as a 40 to 50-foot high sculpture in bronze and it will be set in the middle of an NHL-size hockey rink made of marble.
Scattered around the surface of the ice will be granite pucks, each one carved with the name of a person who contributed greatness to the sport of hockey. Schmalz figures that the sculpture will be the largest monument in the country.

There is a truly popular element to his direction for the monument. For Schmalz, national does not mean 'for' the nation, but rather 'from' the nation. He is in the beginning stages of a tour across the country with a 10-foot-high model of the piece. He is working on the model, which is a stage of the actual development of the piece. He is turning the country into his studio and is asking for people who have a passion for hockey to donate a loonie to the cost of development of the project. In this way the monument will be paid for by the people for whom it has the most meaning.

To donate to the monument fund or to see an artist rendition of the final product visit www.hockeymonument.com and for more about the artist visit www.sculpturebytps.com.