Sikeston to show model of artist's statue-in-the-making

SIKESTON, Mo. -- More than two years have passed since Columbia, Mo., artist Sabra Tull Meyer was commissioned to complete a massive 8-foot-tall monument to the Lewis and Clark expedition to be placed in Jefferson City, Mo.

During that time, a maquette, or small model, has traveled to several areas of the state, but never to Southeast Missouri.

Until today, that is.

Tonight the Sikeston Depot Museum will feature the maquette, a nearly two-foot-tall statue made up of the smaller figures of Merriwether Lewis, William Clark, George Drouillard, York and the dog Seaman.

The maquette is a mock-up of a monument of "heroic" proportions that will be located atop a limestone bluff, overlooking a reflecting poll above historic Lohman's landing along the Missouri River.

The maquette will accompany a larger exhibit of Meyer's bronze sculptures called "Images in Bronze."

Meyer has been working in bronze for many years, creating busts and statues of famous Missourians like Edwin Hubble and Roger Wilson that are displayed throughout the state. But the Lewis and Clark monument is by far the largest work Meyer has ever completed, she said.

"It's very exciting," said Meyer. "We have worked so long and hard on this, and now that the unveiling is coming it's really beginning to get exciting."

The finished "heroic" version will be dedicated in September 2006.

One of the Corps portrayed in the exhibit is a son of Southeast Missouri, even though it wasn't Missouri at the time.

Drouillard, the lead hunter of the group and an interpreter, was born near Cape Girardeau, a nephew of Louis Lorimier. Meyer said as far as she knows, Drouillard has never been pictured in a Lewis and Clark monument, despite the fact of his importance to the Corps of Discovery.

Meyer's work will be on display at the Depot throughout October.

msanders@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182