Pelican Tales

With more than 70 pelicans in the Art Takes Flight program, there are just as many human interest stories behind the making of each. Some tug at the heartstrings, while others pique your interest and challenge your imagination.

One that attracts the attention of many is the story of "Fly High Danny Boy" by artist/Fairhope High School aide Amy Sorrell. Ms. Sorrell was the instructor for Daniel Eric Mandel, who before age 10 had been a normally active boy until he contracted a rare and terminal disease which affected his central nervous system. He would eventually end up in a wheelchair.

Danny was still able to learn but he was incapable of a quick verbal or physical response. Ms. Sorrell, who also served as Danny's respite care nurse at his home, and Danny became close. "I would go shopping with him, eat out with him, took him to meet girls, took him swimming, and painted with him. We had a great time 'chair dancing' at the 2005 Homecoming dance.

"On July 10, 2006, Danny turned 16. He really wanted to see this day. We don't know why," she said. His health was starting to decline. One week after his birthday, he had to go to the hospital and he never recovered. To honor Danny, Ms. Sorrell's pelican features a split sun and moon because both remind her of Danny in different ways. "I like to believe that Danny is above the clouds and in the stars flying high with no limitations," she said.

Retired Air Force Officer James Hood could visualize airplanes when he saw the pelican models for Art Takes Flight. His father had been a World War II Army Air Corps pilot. To honor his father and others, and the separate branches of service, Hood constructed four World War II "warbirds." At a preview party of the pelicans, Hood invited several former pilots to join him in celebration.

Hood constructed a B-17 bomber, "Miss Fairhope" (which was highlighted at the Mobile Regional Airport for six weeks); a P38 Lightning, "Alabama Angel;" an F4U Corsair "Marine's Dream," and a PBY Catalina "Blondie." These four are hanging under the canopy of the Page and Palette book store on Section Street at Delamare. Hood also constructed a fifth pelican, "Wacky Waco," a pelican version of the 1937 bi-plane owned by the sponsor, which is displayed at the new Fairhope Library and was loaned to the Fairhope Airport Authority for its Festival of Flight in May 2007.

"Initial Flight"is a pelican which features copper feathers each containing the initials of staff and student participants of teachers Judy Humphrey and Felicia Olds from the K-1 Center and Fairhope Elementary and Intermediate schools. The copper feathers were overlapped and tacked to the pelican.

Eastern Shore Art Center Arts Bridging Creativity (ABC) Director Nancy Raia provided many small paper pelicans for children to hand color then glue to her "Catch You On The Updraft" pelican. An objective of Mrs. Raia's program is to bring children to the arts.

Artist Megrez Rudolf, daughter of artist Craig T. Sheldon, did the "The Courier Pelican," which is inspired by the work of her father and Anna Braune, Fairhope librarian who also was an artist and friend of Sheldon's. In addition to his other achievements, including creating the sculpture "Celebration of Life", which we used as a model for our pelicans, Sheldon wrote a column for The Fairhope Courier called "Knee Deep in Fly Creek," which often contained the wise opinions of Godfrey the Bullfrog and certain local residents – renamed to protect their reputations – and stirred Fairhope residents with thought-provoking ideas. Anna Braune designed the masthead to the Knee Deep in Fly Creek column, showing Sheldon with webbed feet sitting on a chair at a desk in Fly Creek typing his column, listening to Godfrey and overseen by a brown pelican. "I, for some reason, thought instead of a carrier pigeon, Fairhope would have had a courier pelican, thus combining Craig T. Sheldon, Anna Braune, the brown pelican and the Courier."

Artist Bruce Larsen is known for his uncanny ability to take natural objects found in the environment or manmade objects found in a junk-heap, and fuse them into sculptures that have line and texture rivaling traditional art mediums. He used recycled objects in his "Pel-Again" and he pays tribute to Craig Sheldon in his "Sheldon" mechanical pelican.

"I have long admired Craig Sheldon's artwork and creative energy so the notion that I could create a mechanical creature and marry it with Craig's finished work from years ago was exciting. It is as if I worked alongside another artist even though he is long gone," Larsen said.

"Fifty Years Of Perfect Formation" visualizes the memories and places of significance for her parents, James P. and Anne Nix, for artist Vicky Nix Cook. James P. Nix served as Fairhope's mayor for 28 years. Mrs. Cook's pelican contains a collage of many familiar Fairhope scenes from the book, Fairhope Watercolor Sketches, which Mrs. Cook illustrated in 2004. The pelican is an anniversary gift to her parents.

"Can't Wait To Get To Heaven," by artist Erin Fitzhugh Gregory is signed by the author Fannie Flagg, and inspired by her creative words.. The Art Takes Flight pelicans' "Coming Out Party" was at a fund raiser that featured Ms. Flagg and her book of the same name. The pelicans were painted all white and were adorned with halos.

These are but a few of the many stories behind the pelicans. To enjoy all the "Pelican Tales," take a trip to downtown Fairhope and view them all.

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