Tag: Griffis
thursday july 17th 2008
Larry Griffis: Man of Steel
At the age of 14, Larry III began working on his father’s steel commissions. During high school summers, Larry was involved in moving Griffis Sculpture Park to Ashford Hollow and then erecting and installing the sculptures. There was great excitement in the early years in Buffalo at both the Sculpture Park and Essex Street.
"My father would have these huge projects, and I worked for him in the summers," Griffis said. He taught my brother Mark and I how to work with steel, how to fabricate it and how to bend it. Think Birds Excited Into Flight on Bidwell Parkway. I've been in this for most of my life." Though, when pinned down for an answer, Griffis says his favorite medium is bronze, he has extensive experience with many different mediums.
Griffis recalls a five-minute sketch his father made on a napkin that became a summer-long lesson in fabrication for him. The resultant figure of a giraffe ended up being 17 feet tall. "There was no mold for this one, so there'll n…
