Scrap Tanker Car Becomes Giant Steel Mantis

Bill Secunda’s sculpture Mantis Dreaming was inspired by The Verve’s song Catching The Butterfly. Of it, he writes:

I imagined a praying mantis might have that dream, his opposite, the butterfly, beautiful, delicate, and always out of reach. He is so infatuated with it, when the butterfly lands on him he stands frozen. His instincts clash with his fascination, all he can do is hope it doesn’t fly away.

The work stands twenty feet tall, weighs 1.5 tons, and was welded together from scrap steel (most of which came from a junked rail tanker) over the course of about six months. It’s now listed as a “Top 10” entry in the ongoing ArtPrize 2011 contest in Grand Rapids, MI.