“L’esprit du Arkansas”

L’esprit du Arkansas (The Spirit of Arkansas) was designed to celebrate the Louisiana Purchase from France in 1803, the Arkansas statehood commemoration in 1836 and the United States. The red white and blue are the colors of all three flags, and thus, are represented in the colors of the sculpture.

In Hot Springs the sculpture is well placed in a prominent park that can be viewed by people along the trials and surrounding streets. Hot Springs is the permanent residence of the sculpture, however, the sculpture also made a prior one year showing at the Bernice Sculpture Gardens on Main ST in Little Rock, AR.

“The Spirit of Arkansas” Sculpture Process

The sculpture design was first conceived and created by Maritza with a wet clay maquette. She then created a life size model of clay, from which a mold was created and the cast marble was hand laid-up in the mold. The cast upper portion was added to the steel internal structure.

Terry built the internal structure from rebar/expanded material and then the cast marble was colored and scaled-up according to the original model concept. The finished sculpture was then exhibited in Bernice Sculpture Gardens for one year and later placed in Hot Springs. “The Spirit of Arkansas” was then featured in the Hot Springs Sentinel newspaper and You Tube video produced by the city.