Larry opened the gates to his wife Anne’s garden and his studio building for a tour of finished and unfinished sculptures.
The celebrated Blacksburg sculptor was recently commissioned to make a monument to replace a Robert E. Lee statue with one of Roanoke’s Henrietta Lacks.
We recorded our first video conversation July 26, 2023 for this site talking about where he is in the process, other works in progress, and his thoughts on downtown sculptures in Blacksburg. [Video In-Processing]
Here’s the New York Times article about the announcement.
He was commissioned to make this sculptor for the downtown Roanoke Police Station in 2004.
Officer Down:
https://www.roanokeva.gov/265/Fallen-Officer-Memorial
From: http://www.bechtelsculpture.com/
During the competition phase of this commission, I visited the site of the proposed sculpture at the entrance to the newly completed Police Department headquarters for Roanoke, Virginia, looking for ideas. I literally bumped into a Lieutenant Sidwell, excused myself, explained my purpose, and asked about the memorial picture of a young officer I’d seen in the lobby. He explained that this officer had been shot and killed during a domestic dispute call, and then he added, to my amazement, that he had been present. Heart pounding, I asked if he would be willing to describe what happened. He nodded, asked me to step into his office, closed the door, and then laid out the whole incident in detail. I knew I had my idea. Once home, I started on a small model, closely based on what Lieutenant Sidwell had told me–and later modeled–and with this and other submission materials, won the commission. It took about eighteen months to get the sculpture completed and installed, and during that time I came to know quite a few officers, from both the Roanoke City and Virginia Tech Police Departments. I went on a night shift “Citizen Ride Along.” I was loaned a full police uniform, with protective vest, and all the belt gear, with a “dummy” gun. From all of this I came to understand police work a bit, and recognize that quite often the work involved simply counseling people in awkward, difficult, or traumatic situations.
The officer–David Rickman–who had been killed during the domestic dispute call, had been a rookie. When Lieutenant Sidwell, the commanding officer on duty that evening, heard the “Officer Down” call go out, he rushed to the scene, “clocked” a big drunk man coming out the front door, pulled Officer Rickman to safety behind a bush, opened his shirt and loosened his vest–and saw that the young man had been shot through the lungs and heart. Just as you see in the sculpture, Lieutenant Sidwell held the dying officer’s hand in both of his. Those linked hands are for me the focal point and emotional center of the whole sculpture.