Friendly Dragon [Bronze]
Dublin Core
Title
Friendly Dragon [Bronze]
Subject
Animal sculpture--20th century
Description
Small-scale bronze Friendly Dragon with green patina.
Creator
Fredericks, Marshall M., 1908-1998
Date
1988
Rights
Use of this image requires permission from the Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum
Type
Sculpture
Coverage
University Center (Mich.)
Sculpture Item Type Metadata
Physical Dimensions
5" x 11.5" x 5"
Materials
Bronze
Catalog Number
1991.116
Object Location
Main Exhibit Gallery
Notes
FROM JOY COLBY INTERVIEW
MF
It's sort o a great big smooth frog and it has great big round polished gold eyes that are half a sphere and they're just like mirrors so when you look in them you can see yourself all distorted like you do in a circus. So every time you go there you see all this. It worked out fine. So I did three, that's all. I did another one but it was of a dragon, I called it The Friendly Dragon. The architect said he didn't think he would use it because he said the children would be frightened of a dragon. But children love dragons and it's not an ugly dragon, it's a friendly dragon with a big smile and it's cozy and you can sit on its back on those humps on its back. It's just that he never was a child, I guess, so he doesn't know. So they put up a thing, a structural beam thing. I've never seen a child near it so maybe they didn't get the audience that they wanted really. I think maybe I'll do that Dragon. I like dragons anyway, they're special.
JC
Why are dragons special to you?
MF
Well, Rozzie- one time I guess it was when I was sixty, Rozzie and the children got Earl Krentzin to make a walking stick for me with a dragon on top, which I love. And because she said that all these things, like all these big commissions which, you know, could kill you almost believe me the problems, Joy, are so manifold you can't believe in a thing like that Cleveland fountain… And to do it all alone, I mean without a big staff or anything, or if I were some company that does it for you like they do today, you know, their sculpture things are manufactured things, the things I do are sculpture things. And she said that all these things have been dragons that I've fought against, you know. And in a way that's really true, they been sort of dragons that you have to conquer and slay one way or another.
MF
It's sort o a great big smooth frog and it has great big round polished gold eyes that are half a sphere and they're just like mirrors so when you look in them you can see yourself all distorted like you do in a circus. So every time you go there you see all this. It worked out fine. So I did three, that's all. I did another one but it was of a dragon, I called it The Friendly Dragon. The architect said he didn't think he would use it because he said the children would be frightened of a dragon. But children love dragons and it's not an ugly dragon, it's a friendly dragon with a big smile and it's cozy and you can sit on its back on those humps on its back. It's just that he never was a child, I guess, so he doesn't know. So they put up a thing, a structural beam thing. I've never seen a child near it so maybe they didn't get the audience that they wanted really. I think maybe I'll do that Dragon. I like dragons anyway, they're special.
JC
Why are dragons special to you?
MF
Well, Rozzie- one time I guess it was when I was sixty, Rozzie and the children got Earl Krentzin to make a walking stick for me with a dragon on top, which I love. And because she said that all these things, like all these big commissions which, you know, could kill you almost believe me the problems, Joy, are so manifold you can't believe in a thing like that Cleveland fountain… And to do it all alone, I mean without a big staff or anything, or if I were some company that does it for you like they do today, you know, their sculpture things are manufactured things, the things I do are sculpture things. And she said that all these things have been dragons that I've fought against, you know. And in a way that's really true, they been sort of dragons that you have to conquer and slay one way or another.
Files
Citation
Fredericks, Marshall M., 1908-1998, “Friendly Dragon [Bronze],” Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum, accessed April 19, 2024, https://omeka.svsu.edu/items/show/5158.