Finding the "right" new home for an object that has been kept in our midst for years but can no longer remain can be a difficult job.
But the quest for a new home for a life-size statue of St. Anthony of Padua became double difficult because the artist, Amelie Zell Wright, is a fervent devotee of the saint, and the statue had always been with her at home.
Many persons kindly offered to accept the statue as a gift and place it in a garden, in a Florida room, "anywhere" that would substitute for the room the artist now lacked. But "just anywhere" was not the answer.
The new home and the right welcome by one and many was finally found when Msgr. David E. Bushey, Pastor of St. Brendan's, 8725 S.W. 32nd St., Miami, extended an invitation to have the statue become a permanent guest of the parish.
The St Anthony statue now at St. Brendan's is the plaster replica of a life size bronze figure commissioned in the early 50's by Mr. and Mrs. Leonard. The Leonards were and are fervent devotees of the saint.
When the statue was finished, the artist recalls the couple was very pleased with the way she had captured in clay, then into bronze, the reverent concept they shared about the great saint. With permission from the Leonards, Mrs. Wright reproduced the statue to keep in her own home, which she did until she moved into the small apartment complex where she now resides. ...
Mrs. Wright graduated with honors from Academia Nacional de Bellas Artes "San Alejandro" in her native Havana, Cuba, and from the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia. Her work, much of which consists of massive life-size sculptures, is exhibited in many private collections and museums both in Cuba and the United States.
She now devotes her time to teaching ceramic arts and crafts to retirees and working on small figures done in her favorite medium, terracotta. ...
https://phillyandstuff.blogspot.com/2013/07/amelie-zell-felton-cuban-born.html
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