Public Art
Rock Ants Roll
Artist Statement:
Ants and their antics have fascinated me since early childhood and I still spend time crouched over anthills observing their societies. Rock Ants Roll is an anthropomorphic attempt to bring larger ants into my audience’s life, with the hope that we can slow down long enough to see the cities of activity below our feet.
Location: Belgrade Avenue at Range Street (outside Spinners Bar and Grill)
This sculpture was in the 2014 Walking Sculpture Tour and was purchased by Business on Belgrade.
About Al Belleveau
I was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1959. I moved to my grandparent’s farm in 1970 and continue to roam the hills and valleys of Maple Ridge Township. I live in a log house surrounded by the fullness of nature that inspires many of my works. I have primarily created with metals in my mature years but before I had the technology to weld I would collect sticks, stones and steel and glue them together to create my little sculptures – I did this primarily between the ages of 7 to 16.
After joining the work force as a welder at 17 I often spent my coffee and lunch breaks welding sculptures at my various places of employment, and have always been haunted by the shapes and possibilities of cast off materials.
In the last few years I have begun to re-explore the materials of my youth and compose them in more mature themes. What I’m really feeling with my stick and stone and steel sculptures is the merging of the human spirit with the organic materials of our creation. The human form shaped of the stuff we often overlook leads us to the excitement of “seeing the new in the familiar”.