HANDSome Al Who Says
Howdy NEIGHbor

Sponsor Al Sigl Center

Artist Marilyn Little Corder

A year ago when I was in Chicago to visit our son, and for my husband to run the Chicago marathon, we kept seeing cows along the streets, in front of buildings, sometimes on top of buildings, and in parks. They were so amazing that I was determined to paint one if the opportunity ever was offered in Rochester.

Last fall the opportunity came when the High Falls Brewery decided to sponsor Horses On Parade. The design I created for the Al Sigl Center was to represent the hundreds of people served by the center, and the caregivers. My concept was to create a calm and friendly horse in shades and tints of blue, turquoise and "grape." The children's and adult's involvement would come from drawing around their hands, and also drawing hearts which I would paint on the horse, using a range of bright colors.

On January 27, the kitchen table was moved out, and a 120 pound fiberglass horse moved into its place. He was 6 feet tall, 8 ? feet long, and he looked like a pale gray ghost. 200 sheets of paper full of hands representing the Sigl agencies came with him. He looked huge!

Using a small 2-dimensional drawing to create a design on a very large 3-dimensional horse seemed a formidable task. I started by drawing a rough grid on the horse which enabled me to establish placement of the design. Every few days I e-mailed photographs to my Sigl contact, who then sent copies to the agencies to keep people posted on Al's progress.

Within 5 weeks there were over ninety hands, plus hearts, painted on the horse, including a number on the belly where people on rolling cots can see them. There are no names because I wanted people to look at HANDSome Al and say: "that's my hand right there."

On the day Al was moved to his summer pasture at the corner of South and Elmwood, he first made a visit to the Sigl Center. The children were delighted to see him! They put their hands on the painted hands, certain that "this one is mine."

Some one asked me, "if you could do another horse, would you?" My reply was, "absolutely!" It was an amazing project.