CAMBRIDGE - Instead of what she
calls “concrete and desert” in Las Vegas, artist Sondra Jonson
of Cambridge wanted greenery and the quiet of a small community in which
to raise her sons and pursue her profession as a sculptor.
She and her sons moved to Cambridge in 1994. Since then, her career
has thrived.
Jonson grew up in Philadelphia and studied
art at Bryn Mawr College. Her plan was to paint until she visited
the studio of noted sculptor Donald DeLue in Leonardo, N.J.
DeLue encouraged her to study sculpture. She
would later discover sculpting was her calling in art.
Her works have been installed in public and private collections from
Las Vegas to Washington, D.C. Her small bronzes appear in the Vatican
and the White House.
Her workroom is dominated by a clay mold of
Pope [Blessed] John XXIII, pope
from 1958-1963. It was commissioned by the Lincoln Diocese and will
be placed in the John XXIII Diocesan Center in Lincoln.
A steel frame, called an armature, was built
for the statue's size and framework. Special steel netting was shaped
about the armature to create the basic form of the statue.
“I filled the netting with foam - the
same kind you can buy in a hardware store,” she said.
The foam becomes the core for the statue.
When the netting is satisfactorily shaped,
the hard work begins. The core could be anyone, but as clay is applied
over the core the likeness of a person begins to appear.
Jonson cuts, trims, adds more clay and rubs
it to the exact outline displayed on the miniature. Slowly, the head
acquires its shape.
The work takes several days.
When it is finished and ready for shipment
to the foundry in Springville, Utah, the clay model of the pope will
weigh 450 pounds, Jonson said. At the foundry, a bronze casting will
be made in sections from the clay model, then welded together. Bringing
the welded sections together and eliminating all signs of the welds
requires craftsmanship, she said.
Her sculpture, “Rachel
Weeping For Her Children,” recently was named Best
in Show for 2004 by the American Mothers Association. The bronze
statue has been on display since 1999 at St. Germanus Catholic Church
in Arapahoe.
She is also sculpting a piece for Prince of
Peace Catholic Church in Kearney. This work, portraying the infant
Jesus, Mary and Joseph, will be set against a mosaic background to
hang above the tabernacle.
View more images
of “Pope Blessed John XXIII.”
View more images of “Rachel
Weeping For Her Children.”
