Artist brings out the best of Alberta in golf trophy
Diane Anderson is finishing off her day in a tractor driving what in what seems like endless circles on the family farm near Cremona.
It’s haying season and while the chore is tedious, it needs to be done so she attacks it with the same passion as she does her art and sculpting works.
“I was always the artistic kid in the family,” comments the grandmother of two, a native Calgarian. “I’ve done art since I was a little girl so it’s my first love for sure.”
Anderson’s work on western and wildlife themes is internationally acclaimed. Not only does she take on a large number of commissioned pieces but also sells paintings and brass and resin sculptures during the Calgary Stampede, at Spruce Meadows and off her Tymarc Art Studio website.
And now she’s preparing to take one of the biggest bows of her career during next week’s Shaw Charity Classic at Canyon Meadows Golf and Country Club.
Anderson is the designer and sculptor of the brass championship trophy and accompanying brass keeper miniature that will be awarded to the victor of the $2 million Champions Tour event on September 1.
“I’m not sure he’s going to be able to pick this one up,” said Anderson, giggling ever so slightly. “The main one is 42 inches high and while I’m not sure of the exact weight, I’m guessing it’s going to be around 60 pounds. But maybe he’ll be tough.”
The miniature, if you want to use that expression, is a copy of the championship trophy and checks in at 21 inches tall and somewhere around 25 pounds.
Unlike most of her work, this one is not western or wildlifethemed but rather a montage of everything Alberta. Those were the parameters given to her by Clay Riddell, a partowner of the Calgary Flames and the chief driving force behind landing a Champions Tour stop for the golf club for the next three years.
“He (Riddell) set down all the words, wanted everything from community to oil to commerce to the western image, just everything Alberta and its people are known for,” explains Anderson, “and that’s why I kind of went the abstract route.”
Calling on her vast experience of more than 40 years sculpting, Anderson started piecing together ideas until she wound up with a large series of symbols inside triangles that come together and make one main piece.
It’s not the first sports award she’s done but it is the first championship trophy and certainly the largest.
“I love the western work but more than the image itself, I like to create a piece that gives feeling,” she says. “It’s nice to tell a story and stuff but over the years I’ve watched people come in to look at the displays and relate to the feeling they get from them so that’s kind of the neat part.
“There’s tons of triangles in this piece,” she says, “and it’s very textural. I’ve incorporated all the things that make up Alberta, the things people from all walks of life do to make a living and used that as texture.
“It took two or three different designs over the course of almost two weeks but as the piece evolves it changes on its own and you know when it’s right.”
The trophies should be ready to move to Canyon Meadows by Monday after going through final firings at the Bronze Art foundry in southeast Calgary.
Anderson, who says she enjoys playing golf for the walk as much as anything, plans on taking in some of the tournament action that runs Friday through Sunday next week.
“I’m also going to be there on Sunday when they present it so that’s the icing on the cake for me,” she says. “It’s going to be exciting.”
Even more so, perhaps, if the winner can actually lift it up without dropping it.
NOTES: Tom Kite, the fifth World Golf Hall of Fame member confirmed to tee it up in Calgary next week, added some additional firepower on Friday to one of the deepest fields on the Champions Tour calendar. The 1992 U.S. Open champion, and winner of 19 victories on the PGA Tour, competed on seven Ryder Cup teams throughout his career. Kite has also racked up 10 victories on the Champions Tour including one major title.
Kite joins 2013 President’s Cup captains, Fred Couples and Nick Price, the 81-player field in Calgary will include some of the top PGA Tour’s Champions Tour names from around the world including: Mark Calcavecchia; Steve Elkington; David Frost; Jay Haas; Hale Irwin; Tom Lehman; Sandy Lyle; Rocco Mediate; Larry Mize; Mark O’Meara; Kenny Perry; Jeff Sluman; Craig Stadler; and Bob Tway.
Three Canadians will also vie to have their name be the first etched into the Shaw Charity Classic trophy. Canadian golf icon, Dave Barr (Kelowna, B.C.), will join Champions Tour members Rod Spittle (St. Catharine’s, Ont.) and Jim Rutledge (Victoria) in Calgary. Barr and Spittle are the only two Canadian players to have won on the top senior circuit.