Working Man Sculpture Arrives at Mississippi College

Sam and Margie Gore

Sam Gore’s newest masterpiece at Mississippi College, the “working man” sculpture, arrived on the Clinton campus Wednesday despite a steady drizzle.

A little rain didn’t stop an outpouring of the artist’s fans, family members and colleagues from welcoming the 600-pound bronze piece to the Gore Galleries Sculpture Garden.

The work by the internationally celebrated Gore depicts an American farmer clutching a Bible with a dog at his side. With a few modifications, it’s pretty much a replica of his thought-provoking artwork displayed at the Mississippi Agriculture & Forestry Museum of Jackson.

On the new sculpture, Gore recently added a few verses to the man’s Bible. The passage from Psalm 8 reads “O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! Who hast set thy glory above the heavens.”

As always, Gore gives the credit to God for his extraordinary talents. Psalm 8, he says, remains one of his favorite passages in the Bible.

At the tender age of 83, the former Mississippi College art department chairman is still producing great works at a rapid pace. His art is displayed elsewhere on the Clinton campus, including his Jesus and the Children sculpture, and magnificent bronze pieces at the MC School of Law in Jackson depicting Moses and the Ten Commandments and Jesus and His Disciples. More Gore art remains on display at hospitals, churches and other sites around metro Jackson and other parts of Mississippi.

“This is a great piece,” said Larry Lugar, owner of the Lugar Foundry near Memphis that worked with Gore on his latest project the past few months. “All of his pieces have an intellectual contest,” he said. “He’s an amazing man.”

Earlier this year, Gore borrowed the original sculpture in Jackson for four months. He needed time to do some remolding work with the piece finished in early August at the foundry in Eads, Tennessee. The MC graduate has worked with the Lugar Foundry on other art projects for more than a decade.

Gore Galleries Director Randy Jolly was delighted to be part of the contingent welcoming the “working man” to MC’s permanent collection outdoors.

“We are very excited to have it here – this was something on our dream list to be the foundation for the garden,” Jolly said. “It’s a wonderful piece. I love the character that flows with such depth of meaning.”

Gore summarizes his vision of the sculpture in a few sentences.

The Texas native says he was thinking about the “kind of man I wanted to be like” when he was a boy growing up as the son of a preacher. The sculpture would depict a man “whose handshake was as good as a written contract,” Gore said. It represents an American “devoted to his family and one who knew what a hard day’s work is.”

The late Mississippi Agriculture Commissioner Jim Buck Ross first contacted Gore about doing such a sculpture for the popular museum on Lakeland Drive. Opened in 1983, the museum draws more than 100,000 visitors annually and is well-known for its small town Mississippi setting, including a church, jail and Ethnic Heritage Center.

Gore’s newest work is sure to draw more visitors to the Gore Galleries.

Gore noted he engineered a few other changes to the original at the Jackson museum. For MC’s version, he also improved the man’s posture.

With Gore continuing to make modifications in recent months, the latest “Working Man” clearly shows that “every artist is never finished,” Lugar said.

In fact, there’s much more left to do for the busy Clinton resident before 2011 comes to a close.

Gore’s seven-foot-tall “Fallen Comrades” bronze sculpture was picked up in his hometown Wednesday and transported to the Lugar Foundry for additional work. It should take at least three to four months before the memorial tribute to military veterans is completed and shipped to the Clinton Visitors Center to stay on permanent display. Weighing a couple of thousand pounds, the sculpture is based on what happened to two Clinton friends on a Korean War battlefield.

His new piece, Lugar said, “is about patriotism and love of country.”

The love of Gore’s life, his wife, Margie, added much joy to the sculpture’s Wednesday morning welcome at the Gore Galleries. The former Mississippi College school nurse and Red Cross teacher has served as the inspiration for many of the artist’s works over his career spanning six decades. The Gores will celebrate their 61^st wedding anniversary on Saturday August 20.