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Patterson resident Jose Lopez recently collaborated on a sculpture of Nelson Mandela that is now on display at the Fresno State Peace Garden.
Lopez, who is a Fresno State graduate, said the project was unveiled during a ceremony in the garden recently, honoring the Nobel Peace Prize winner. The life-sized bronze statue is the most recent in a collection of statues in the garden, accompanying others such as Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Caesar Chavez, Mhatma Gandhi and Jane Addams.
Lopez said the project had been worked on for about six years before they were able to get funding for it and he got on board with the project in 2023 before it was finally completed in Spring of 2024.
The sculpture was a collaboration between Ed Dwight, Ed Gillum and Lopez.
“They had me create the whole bottom portion of it,” Lopez said.
Dwight, who is an American sculptor, veteran and has a history in aerospace engineering started the bust of Madela, but was unable to finish it, Lopez said.
“So I created the figure in tandem with him and another professor, Ed Gillum, my mentor for graduate studies at Fresno State,” he said.
Lopez said he created a moquette of the sculpture’s body out of clay and helped retouch the head, before scanning both items and implementing it into 3D software. They then did 3D printing and casting, he said, adding there was a mix of old and new technologies used to create the piece.
The Patterson artist said he’d like to see more art in the city, but he understands it usually comes down to funding.
“Art only comes up when the city’s doing really good, and that’s usually every city. There’s places around here like Blues (Café) that has artwork that they let people see, but there definitely needs to be more art here in this town,” Lopez said.
It is his hope that through his work, he can motivate Patterson youth to also be interested in pursuing art. Someone motivated him toward drawing and making things and he said he knows there are other students who feel the same way.
“And everybody’s stuck on screens nowadays. Just get out and go make something with your hands,” he said.
In the meantime, Lopez plans to continue working on a series of sculptures with a focus on waste products of fabric and nylon.
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