Collectively titled the Spirit of Kentucky, Barry Bingham, editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal commissioned Fredericks to design reliefs for their new building.
After Fredericks received the commission he reportedly traveled through Kentucky…
In this sculpture, a large brown and small black bear sit back to back in quiet thought. Although in nature these two animals are enemies, Fredericks portrays the two in a gentle humanistic way, stressing tolerance.
Marshall Fredericks draws up engineered plans for monumental re-enforced concrete and stained glass airplane beacon from the small-scale model in foreground.