By Megan V. Williams
Wilmington, NC – Martin Tadlock still finds the Wilmington waterfront in everything he does.
The sculptor says memories of a childhood spent fishing on Wilmington's docks and boating on the Cape Fear infuse the massive sculptures he now welds in his Virginia studio.
So it's appropriate that Tadlock's first step onto his hometown art scene has the river as its backdrop.
Tadlock is one of four sculptors whose works arrived on downtown plinths last Friday as part of the third installation of the public art program, PedArt. Three of the pieces sit along the Riverwalk, with the fourth in Front Street's Bijoux Park. PedArt founder Matthew Dols says he'll install a fifth and final sculpture in the park later this week.
On Friday, Dols helped Tadlock position his sculpture Icarus under the trees across from the Federal Courthouse, debating the perfect angle show off the piece's many curving surfaces. As he prepared to seal the sculpture with a butane torch and wax, Tadlock said he'd hoped to be awarded this particular location
The sculpture's many blades and thick cylinders, Tadlock said, "look like things you see on the waterfront from time to time. Kind of like the propellers on ships or the tie up pieces."
In November, PedArt expands out of downtown Wilmington, with its first installation at Mayfaire Town Center.
The waterfront sculptures will be on display for the next six months.