'Family sculpture' will grace Samson Oceanfront Park
By Bari Auerbach

At the July 22 City Commission meeting it was announced that a sculpture created by local artist David Fisher will soon be gracing Samson Oceanfront Park.

"Mr. Fisher lives here in Sunny Isles Beach and he has done sculpture work in Russia as well as New York City," Mayor Norman Edelcup said. "He has won awards for his work."

Edelcup went on to explain that he had spoken with Fisher about creating an appropriate sculpture for Samson Oceanfront Park representing the "future of the city." Subsequently, Fisher presented the concept of a sculpture depicting a family.

During discussions regarding the sculpture, Commissioner Roslyn Brezin said, "I've been [to the park] several times and studied [the design for the sculpture] in depth.I think it's magnificent and commend [Mr. Fisher]. It will be spectacular - the only thing is my feeling is that it should be set back further because you can't see. A telephone pole is blocking it.If [the sculpture] was set back it would be better visually."

Brezin also said she felt the pedestal portion was too closely related in size to the actual sculpture and was "detracting from the beauty of the figure itself."

Subsequently, City Manager Christopher Russo noted a Russian interpreter would be communicating the city's requests to Fisher "to make absolutely sure he knows what we're talking about."

Residents speaking on the topic of the sculpture included Casey Gabor. "I think it's beautiful," she said. Reiterating Brezin's comments, Gabor said the location of the sculpture should be altered to allow for greater visibility from the north and south.

Resident Janet Belzano noted, "I commend the artist for [this] beautiful rendition but I'd like to point out it does not highlight the cultural diversity in our community.I think you're sending out a nice message with the family but you have to be sensitive that everyone does not look like those depicted in the statue and it might need to be a little more abstract in its rendering."

Vice Mayor Gerry Goodman later noted, "I was in Connecticut and went into a beautiful mall.They had a statue there of a man, woman and two children which depicted that families come to the mall. It was a beautiful, life-size statue.When I saw that and came back, I said, 'Our park is a family oriented park and something to do with [that theme] would be nice.' I also want to say I don't see any 'ethnicity' - you could put anyone's face there and I wouldn't know the difference."





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