Tending the Fire
43°1′53.196″N 87°56′5.44″W / 43.03144333°N 87.9348444°W / 43.03144333; -87.9348444
Tending the Fire is a public art work produced by MJM Studios located on the south side of Milwaukee, Wisconsin in the Menomonee Valley. The bronze sculpture depicts a Native American figure seated near a small fire.[1]
Description
The figure has a bare torso and wears fringed pants. His hair is parted in the center, and two long braids reach down across his chest. Three eagle feathers extend from the back of his head, two facing upward and one facing downward. He is seated on the ground with his legs crossed in front of him. His back is curved forward. Both arms rest across his ankles. In one hand, he holds a twig toward the fire. His gaze is directed toward the space above the fire, which is an arrangement of logs that radiate outward from a center point and flames that reach skyward in a pyramidical form.[1]
Commissioning process
The Potawatomi Historical and Cultural Board commissioned MJM Studios to produce the sculpture for the new Potawatomi Bingo Casino in 2000. The sculpture recognizes the Potawatomi tribe's heritage as "keepers of the sacred fire," a role derived from Neshnabé legend.[2] The design of the sculpture is based on archival photographs.
Location
MJM Studios produced two Tending the Fire statues. One is installed in front of the main entrance to the casino, and the other is installed at the administrative office on S. 13th St. and St. Paul Ave.[1]
References
- ^ a b c "Tending the Fire--The Story behind the Statue". Potawatomi Bingo Website. Forest County Potawatomi Community. Archived from the original on 22 January 2013. Retrieved 14 February 2013.
- ^ Edmunds, R. David (1988). The Potawatomis: Keepers of the Fire. Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press (Civilization of the American Indian Series). ISBN 0-8061-2069-X
- v
- t
- e
- The Victorious Charge
- Family
- The Calling
- Wisconsin Workers Memorial
- Wind Leaves
- Birds of Knowledge of Good and Evil
- The Great Double
- Woodland Indian and Whistling Swans
- Solomon Juneau
- Leif, the Discoverer
- Letter Carriers' Monument
- Argo
- Bronze Fonz
- Walkways Through the Wall
- Abraham Lincoln
- George Washington
- Referee
- Immigrant Mother
- King Gambrinus
- RiverSculpture!
- Gertie the Duck
- General Douglas MacArthur
- The Spirit of Polonia
- World War I Memorial Flagpole
- Pedestrian Drama
- Midsummer Carnival Shaft
- Acqua Grylli
- Laureate
- Diana
- Trigon
- Pere Jacques Marquette
- Spanish–American War Soldier
- Ruins X
- Ex Stasis
- City Yard
- Mahatma Gandhi Memorial
- Peter John
- A Beam of Sun to Shake the Sky
- Rainbow Machine
- Topiary Lucere
- Dancing Through Life
- Mother Teresa Monument
- Jacques Marquette
- You Rise Above the World
- The Last Alarm
- John Plankinton
- Celebrating the Arts
- Christian Wahl
- Elk
- On Watch
- Pattern
- Lapham Memorial
- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
- Music
- Fishing
- Spirit of the Firefighter
- Dauntless Guardian
- Buildings 1992
- Gear 23
- All in the Air at Once
- First Flight
- Sea of the Ear
- Kindred Ties
- Cleopatra's Wedge
- Float
- Polyphony
- Boy with Goose
- Eight Stone Lions
- Three Bronze Discs
- Holocaust Memorial
- Happy-Go-Luckies of Nature and Technology
- Blue Dress Park
- Sentinels
- Hermes
- Milwaukee
- Eclipse
- 'X' Intertwining
- Compass
- Erastus B. Wolcott
- Sharing the Load
- Robert Burns
- Near Here
- Compass
- Walk Like a River
- Spillover II
- Tip
- Jantar-Mantar
- Cass Street Park
- Brady Street Beasts
- Connect
- Fairies Candles
- Menomonee
- Count Casimir Pulaski
- Spirit of Commerce
- Bay View Series
- A Place to Sit
- Stratiformis
- The Hill Climber
- Deflected Jets
- Angel in a Cage
- R. D. Whitehead Monument
- Memorial for Belle Austin Jacobs
- T. A. Chapman Memorial
- Nature Belle
- Oops, Missed
- Space Game
- Engine Company No. 10
- William A. Starke Memorial
- Steel Reborn
- Red Flower Rising
- Equestrian statue of Tadeusz Kościuszko
- Patrick Cudahy Memorial
- SOARING
- Two Opposites Reaching Up Toward the Peak of Progress
- Edge Elements
- Ribbons VI
- Bridge
- Stone Bracelet
- Untitled
- Quartet
- Tending the Fire
- Bird and Fish
- The Sower
- The Reaper
- Giving Gifts
- Watertower
- Henry Bergh
- Goethe–Schiller Monument
- Chrysalis
- The Ideal Scout
- Uptown Triangles
- Tree of Life
- Magic Grove
- Steuben Monument
- Kneeling Camels
- Teamwork
- Aaron Monument
- Yount Monument
- Selig Monument
- Uecker Monument
- Fire and Water
- Vliet Street Commons
- Miller Valley Veterans Monument
- Children of the West End
- Sinai
- Wandering Rocks
- Sea Form (Atlantic)
- Sky Fence
- Floating Sculpture No. 3
- Mo, Ni, Que
- Trio
- Two-Piece Reclining Figure No. 9
- Way Four
- Compound Junior
- Salem No. 7
- Bremen Town Musicians
- Ancestor
- Queen of Sheba
- Rhythm in Space
- Peristyle, Three Lines
- Orizzontale
- Embrace
- Ursa Major
- Three Graces
- Large Torso, Arch
- Double Up
- Upstart
- The Lovers (di Suvero)
- Poland
- Axeltree
- Orbits
- Ritual II
- Hara
- Olympus
- The Lovers (Daen)
- Tensione No. 2
- The Source
- Rainbow
- Unfolding
- Vegetative Sculpture I
- Round About
- Lodgepole
- Twist for Max
- Bench-Stone
- Windfall
- Knife Tree
- Conversations with Magic Stones, Figure Three
- Conversations with Magic Stones (Magic Stone Three)
- Kumo
- Untitled
- Arch
- Epicenter
- Epicenter II
- III Columns
- Flight
- Pin Oak I