Web Site Guide | News | About OWDNA | Neighborhood Info | Photographs of OWD | Media Spotlight | Citizen Resources | Home Artist's sculpture unveiled on 9th Street Karl Pfister and Betty Green enjoy a moment before the unveiling. (Herald-Sun, September 1, 2002) Fending off drizzle with umbrellas and raincoats Saturday, dozens of people cheered as two streamlined metal birds were unveiled. The sculpture, "Seconds Before Flight," is surrounded by flowers and stands on a small, grassy plot on the corner of Ninth Street and Hillsborough Road to designate the Old West Durham neighborhood. Each sculpture consists of a long arch that outlines the bird's body, leading to a golden head with the wings tucked behind the body. "The idea [for the sculpture] is that at any time we can change our lives," Karl Pfister said. "That people can do what they want at any time." OWDNA board member Betsy Puckett reads, "Why I Love Living in Old West Durham" (by Kelly Rimer). Pfister came up with the idea for the sculpture several months ago and approached the Old West Durham Neighborhood Association. "This area didn't really have an identity as a neighborhood," Pfister said. "I wanted to do something that would look nice in the space. I was thinking it'd be a great place to have something like this here for a long time." Pfister, who works as an artist and blacksmith for Cricket Forge and Vega Metals, worked on the sculpture after hours in his spare time and completed it in about a month. His boss, Frank Vega, donated the steel for the sculpture, and his co-workers helped him with sandblasting and painting, Pfister said. Karl unveils the statues as Congressman Price looks on. Pfister said the birds were designed so that passing motorists could take them in visually in a few moments. Pfister donated the sculpture to the association in Saturday's commemoration ceremony. It was placed beside a sign reading "Old West Durham: Diversity, Harmony, Community." The artist and his son. "A hundred years ago, this corner was very different," said John Schelp, president of the association. "We had the humming of the Erwin Cotton Mills right across the street." Schelp outlined the area's history and landmarks, including the textile mills and a cemetery. "We are very proud of this corner and this neck of the woods," Schelp said. Congressman David Price then congratulated the group on its efforts. Pfister thanked the crowd for its support and expressed his love for the neighborhood in which he and his wife have lived since 1996. Pfister is married to Gaye Weaver, and their son, Eli Pfister, is the fifth generation of their family to live in Old West Durham. Weaver's grandfather lived with his parents and five siblings on Edith Street. "I want to say that I love this neighborhood," Pfister said. "This place just means so much to me and my wife and my child. It means a lot to me that we can call a place like this home." Pfister has also created other sculptures around the Triangle and recently completed the iris fountain for the Doris Duke Center. "I've done my job as an artist if this place is just a little bit nicer because of my sculptures," Pfister said. "And I feel like I've done my job." Pfister helped create this iris sculpture at the nearby Duke Gardens. From cold steel comes warm art Herald-Sun (2 April 2004) As a sculptor, Karl Pfister creates warmth and beauty from cold, hard steel. Dark, curly hair framed his face as he gazed though wire-rimmed glasses at his creation of forged steel and zinc, coated with epoxy paint and accented with brass wrappings. Pfister poured more than two months of his free time into this modern art with its swirls and curls, metal kissing metal, symbolizing a man and a woman embracing. "When I originally did the piece, the whole idea was of a male and a female," he said. "When other people started looking at it, they said, 'That's not what it looks like at all. It looks like a woman.' And I could see that. I decided people could interpret it any way they wanted." "Significant Other," his work in Durham Central Park, was commissioned by The Grace Fund in remembrance of Grace Richardson, a Durham resident who was killed by a drunken driver. The sculpture will be dedicated at 10 a.m. Saturday. The Grace Garden is tucked away on a rugged strip of ground near the Durham Farmers' Market. A serpentine, herringbone brick path runs past a sculpture by Andrew Preiss and toward the hillside where Pfister's 9-foot work is dwarfed by a pair of huge white oaks. The artist also helped create 23 incredibly realistic flowers for Duke Gardens and has his own sculpture on the grassy traffic island at the intersection of Ninth Street and Markham Avenue, a pair of stylistic steel swans with copper tails entitled "Seconds Before Flight." "I really like copper," said Pfister, who also works in bronze and steel, heated by coal or gas and stretched and bent with special tools. "It's always beautiful. It even smells good when you work it, when it's warm." But there is special significance to "Significant Other," his offering in Durham Central Park. "I'm really just happy to be a part of this," he said. "For years I've walked around this whole area of town and felt like it was my little personal fiefdom, because there weren't many people around here. "But over the past few years, with the Central Park going on, it just makes me happy to be a part of this. It's a small part, because it's obviously not the biggest sculpture in the world, but there are a lot of artists in this area and it's neat to be a part of this." Pfister, who inherited a creative nature from his father Robert, a commercial designer, works for Francis Vega and Neal Carlton at Vega Metals, and its sister business, Cricket Forge, located on Hunt Street just around the corner from Durham Central Park. It was in the midst of a haircut when Pfister's barber told him about Vega Metals, created by two construction welders almost two decades ago. "He showed up one day and said, 'I want to work for free,' " said Vega, who surprisingly enough was not surprised at the statement. "People think, for some reason, that artist blacksmith work is romantic, or something of that nature," he explained. "We have a lot of people coming by to try and volunteer." When Vega decided to give Pfister -- who studied journalism and law in college -- a chance, he had no great expectations. During a break from learning to weld aluminum, Pfister was asked to explain how he ended up a metalworker. He couldn't help but laugh. "I didn't really want to be a journalist," he said. "I wanted to be a musician, but it didn't work out. I did want to do something creative, and law school wasn't going to cut it." It did not take long for Pfister to realize ordinary people would not last more than a couple of months in this job. "When I first came to the shop, I couldn't do anything," Pfister said. "I've learned everything from welding to hammering to forging. It takes a good five years to learn to be a metalworker. "It's a hard job," he said. "The thing about it is it does allow you -- if you're willing to put in the time -- to be creative." Seven years later, it is obvious there is nothing ordinary about Pfister. "He has keys to our facility and you'll find him here evenings and weekends, learning and creating art on his own," said Vega. "He's had some shows of his own and created some wonderful pieces. I was pretty amazed at his piece over on Ninth Street."