Local woman donates artwork to Brookdale community

Melba Sullivan (center), a member of the Brookdale community, commissioned blacksmith, Boleslaw Kochanowski (second from left), an artist from Junction City, to create a rendition of the “fanciful dance” of a Sandhill crane and blue heron to accent her home. As a result, he created the ironwork piece titled “tango” – as the two birds are visualized to be intertwined in dance – within the parameters of his linear, minimalist, iron lines of hot forged iron bars. After she moved into the Brookdale senior living community, she had the iron art donated to be displayed in the cafeteria of the facility. Participants in the dedication ceremony Friday, Jan. 8, were Alane Flora, Brookdale business development coordinator; Kochanowski; Sullivan; Stevens Point Mayor Mike Wiza; and David Peplinski, master of ceremonies for the program. The sculpture was in the internationally acclaimed Birds in Art 2011 show at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Wausau. (Portage County Gazette photo)