No one was prouder than sculptor — and RCG client — Richard Stravitz on the Friday morning of homecoming weekend at Old Dominion University. The school had just unveiled the results of his painstaking work (that took over a year) of a bronze statue of popular mascot Big Blue. “It’s an honor to have had this opportunity,” said Stravitz, who fashioned the seven-foot-tall replica in the studio of his Virginia Beach gallery.
Students in attendance were thrilled and encouraged to begin a tradition of rubbing Blue’s belly when they enter freshman year, before stressful tests and then when they are itching to graduate. The president of the student government association, who came up with the idea for the sculpture, hopes everyone gives Big Blue a rub “for good luck.”
Stravitz, who ran Boars Head meats before retiring to pursue his artistic passion full time, fashioned Big Blue with a Styrofoam form and covered it with clay. The bronzing, done by a caster in North Carolina, accounts for most of the work’s 1,400 pounds. Anchored to the floor, it will have a permanent place in the lobby of the Webb Center student union and is sure to become one of the most-photographed spots on campus.
The sculptor has numerous other impressive pieces, all a bit smaller than Big Blue, for viewing and sale at his galleries on Laskin Road and Atlantic Avenue. Another of his popular public works, this one at Grommet Island Park on the Oceanfront near Rudee Inlet, portrays two young surfers.
“This was the first time our firm has represented a sculptor,” says RCG Founder Joel Rubin, who helped Stravitz, Marketing Director Janice Henderson and the rest of the team at the gallery. “I was very impressed with his attention to detail and his commitment to make Big Blue perfect. It is an ideal representation of the mascot as well as the spirit of the school.”
Two local TV stations, the Virginian-Pilot and other media were on hand to capture the reveal.
You don’t have to be an ODU student to rub Big Blue or walk into Webb Center. You do, however, need to go around to the back of the statue to learn who is responsible for it. That’s where Dick Stravitz signed his largest creation to date.
