Statue of Eugene Skinner

Bronze sculpture in Eugene, Oregon,

44°02′55″N 123°05′41″W / 44.04871°N 123.09460°W / 44.04871; -123.09460

Eugene Skinner is an outdoor bronze sculpture of the founder of the city named after him, installed outside the Eugene Public Library in Eugene, Oregon, in the United States. The life-sized statue was created by local artist Jim Carpenter, who estimated Skinner's height to be around five feet, four inches, based on the distance between the butt and trigger of the rifle which appeared in photographs of the pioneer.^[1] Skinner is depicted sitting with a hat in his hand; the sculpture rests on a basalt block, quarried from Skinner Butte.^[2] Carpenter has said of the statue:

I kind of thought that the big, standing, fist-in-the-air hero kind of thing was maybe a little too much. This is more modest. He is sitting there holding his hat and looking off in the direction of Skinner Butte. There is some public art that is not accessible or not very friendly. It seems to get ignored or walked past or spray-painted. I thought this would be a nice scale for kids. They could sit down next to him.^[2]

Reception

The Register-Guard's Bob Keefer said, "With its informal sitting pose, that statue has a certain anti-heroic quality."^[2]

References

External image
Eugene F. Skinner (sculpture), Eugene Public Library (Eugene, Oregon), University of Oregon Libraries

^ Hernandez, Christopher (April 29, 2013). "Jim Carpenter: The man who built Eugene Skinner". KVAL. Retrieved November 9, 2015.
^ ^a ^b ^c Keefer, Bob (December 15, 2002). "Beyond Words: Artwork, from stained glass to whimsical sculpture, will grace Eugene's new library". Eugene Register-Guard. p. 1G–2G. Retrieved November 9, 2015.