By Sally Ann Shurmur
He rolled up in his white Ford pickup, towing a flatbed trailer. Thirty minutes later, “Dare to Dream Big,” the newest three-piece monument by Casper sculptor Chris Navarro, was installed outside the Boys & Girls Club of Central Wyoming in Casper.
The piece depicts a kitten looking into a mirror and seeing a lion looking back at him. The kitten is perched on two thick books with “The Power of Belief,” written on the spines. A mouse peeks from around the base of the mirror.
“If you want to be a lion, you gotta think like a lion,” Navarro said, as he hustled around Wednesday and waited for help from heavy equipment to arrive.
The lion in the mirror is the largest piece, standing just over 6 feet tall. Combined, the two bronze pieces and the interactive welded chalkboard weigh 1,300 pounds.
Navarro spent three months sculpting the art, which then spent three months being cast.
“I like to inspire people,” Navarro said. “I saw a poster of a kitten looking in the mirror and he saw a lion looking back at him, and thought, ‘that would be a neat sculpture.’”
Navarro’s story is inspiring in itself. He quit his high-paying oilfield job in May 1986 when his son was an infant and his wife was pregnant with their daughter to pursue his dream of being a professional bronze artist.
The monument will compete for the prestigious ArtPrize in Grand Rapids, Michigan this fall, at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library.
Navarro says it is one of the largest art shows in the world, attracting 1,500 pieces from 2,100 artists. The People’s Choice prize alone is worth $200,000.
Until August 29, Casperites will be able to view it and write their dreams on the chalk board.
There will be an “unveiling” on Friday featuring Navarro, who will have messages for the teen members of the club at 10 a.m.
“This completely lines up with inspiring the kids to dream, which we do every day,” said Ashley Bright, CEO of the Boys & Girls Club.
And then Bright was urged by Navarro and staffers to write his dream on the chalkboard.
Under the permanent phrase “I dare to dream big and will ....,” Bright wrote, “continue to do my part to build a beloved community.”
As the installation was wrapping up, Navarro said his dream is that the installation finds a permanent home at the Boys & Girls Club.
The retail price is $56,000, and Navarro is donating a third of that. Casperites need just come up with $37,300 to make that happen.
If anyone is interested in donating to the DARE TO DREAM BIG sculpture message me thanks Chris
