Artist: Gary Lee Price
Title: Great Contributors - Shakespeare Bench
Medium: Bronze
Dimensions: 53"h x 74"w

"Shakespeare was a very involved and exciting piece to sculpt. Any time I create a piece, especially one of this magnitude, I try to close myself off from the world and totally get into that ‘zone’. For a few months I was reading every play and watching every program or production I could find on Shakespeare. I particularly enjoyed the biographies and controversies on whether or not one man could really have had all the knowledge necessary to create such a vast array of work. The most difficult part of creating my life-size Shakespeare was to quit working on it. Trying to represent him and his work was like trying to sculpt all of humanity in just one figure. The bench ended up being my storyboard and it could have gone on ad infinitum! 'All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players: they have their exits and their entrances, and one man in his time plays many parts…' -William Shakespeare (As You Like It Act II Scene VII)" Gary Lee Price

Part of Price's Great Contributor series, this is a bronze statue representing Shakespeare seated on an ornately decorated bench. The figure is dressed in traditional Renaissance attire and is positioned in a relaxed manner, with one arm resting on the back of the bench and the other hand resting on his leg. The bench features intricate carvings, including a prominent lion’s head, a skull, a crown, and various other decorative elements attributed to Shakespeare's plays. The statue showcases detailed craftsmanship in both the figure and the bench. The integration of the bench into the sculpture is an invitation for interaction, to sit along Shakespeare.