Renee Sevenski
Contributing Writer

(Photo provided)

When last we were together, Darryl had just entered Lansing Community College and created his sculpture called “Struggle” inspired by the riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

It seems Darryl always had someone admiring his talent even though he was usually unaware of it. A church member’s mother knew Dr. Avard Fairbanks and made a call to him about Darryl. Fairbanks is internationally renowned for creating historical monuments, classic works of art and as a sculptor, anatomist and educator. He was a member of the faculty at the University of Michigan’s Institute of Fine Arts and had earned a Master of Fine Arts and PhD. Fairbanks designed the Dodge Ram symbol and the Plymouth Flying Lady Hood ornaments for Chrysler Motor Company. After speaking to the church member and the artist, Dr. Fairbanks invited Darryl in as his apprentice.

Darryl packed up and headed to Salt Lake City, Utah where Dr. Fairbanks and his family were located. He was welcomed into their home and began assisting in the studio making molds and cleaning. There, he gained invaluable experience mastering the craft of creating castings. He made trophies for the world karate championship at the Salt Palace in Salt Lake City but the experiences did not stop at the Salt Palace. In 1969 Dr. Fairbanks received a commission to make a mold of the golden spike, the last spike driven to complete the Transcontinental Railway at Promontory Point, Utah. It was the 100th anniversary of the event so they needed a mold to create replicas for the celebration. Darryl held the Golden Spike in his hands, a piece of history; he recalls was quite heavy. For a more durable mold, instead of plaster Fairbanks used the automobile fender mender, Bondo. They waited in anxiously for the mold to set; Bondo was intended to stick to metal. Fairbanks was aware of this from his time in the automotive industry creating hood ornaments. With great caution they finally opened the mold and, lo and behold, the casting came out of the mold perfectly; the spike had been coated with olive oil. The names of the “Big Four” had been engraved on the spike and included: Stanford, Huntington, Hopkins and finally Crocker all of whom had built the transcontinental railroad connecting the Eastern United States to the West. As Darryl held the spike in his hands, he knew it had been beautifully reproduced. Complete success in his eyes.

Dr. Fairbanks admired Abraham Lincoln very much and created many sculptures of him. Fairbanks was always in demand and sculpted 3 marble portraits of Lincoln which are now in the U.S. Supreme Court building and in Ford’s Theatre in Washington D.C.

Darryl remembers having learned from Dr. Fairbanks to make plaster piece and rubber molds for sculptures; he spent many hours assisting Fairbanks in creating plaster casts and has a memory of working 24 hours straight working on a casting of, “Lincoln the Rail-splitter.” That cast was to be shipped to the Roman Bronze Foundry in NYC to be cast in bronze. Dr Fairbanks also created heads of various historical tigress sculptures in demonstrations for schools and businesses and Darryl recalls how fortunate he was to witness and learn from these. He was able to do one such demonstration on Lincoln’s birthday on the Ed Sullivan Show.

Dr. Fairbanks and Darryl next went to Pietrasanta, Italy, a town of marble carvers 10 miles from the very quarry where Michelangelo got his marble. Fairbanks needed marble because he had been commissioned by Utah Valley University to work on the life-size marble statue of Florence Nightingale for their nursing school. It can still be seen there today.
With Pietrasanta as a base Darryl traveled to Milan, Florence, Pisa, and Rome to study the great masters: Piano for the Pisano pulpits, Milan for Michelangelo’s Rondanini Pieta, Florence for the David, the Slaves and the Pitti Palaceand Ufficci Galleries then finally back to Rome and the Vatican. His life’s goal to study first-hand the frescos of the Sistine Chapel. As Darryl entered the Chapel and looked up, he immediately fell to his knees. How could a man achieve such heights was his first thought. He began first to draw figures from the Last Judgment then figures from the ceiling. Suddenly there was a commotion among the crowd and Darryl remembers someone yelling, “the Pope is in the square!” and all at once everyone exited the Chapel leaving Darryl alone with all this grandeur. He stayed! He remembers saying at this moment “No one was going to let the Pope spoil his spiritual experience”.

With money running short, Darryl had to go back to Pietrasanta. While still in Rome, Darryl was touting the beauty of the Colosseum to an onlooker, a gust of wind blew a crisp American 20-dollar bill in front of him. He knew his prayers had been answered and this allowed him to stay and study the Chapel a couple more days.

This has been the second part of Darryl’s fascinating journey which took us  to Italy. And remeber it all started right here in Eaton County. Stay tuned for more!