Dotting all along Yew Dell Botanical Gardens are shiny metal sculptures. They curve and curl around themselves. Some shoot skyward, coming to points.
They are the work of Kentucky sculptor Dave Caudill.
“I was drawn to do work outside because I was really interested in the idea of providing a metaphor of humanity and harmony with nature,” Caudill said.
He has works at Yew Dell Botanical Gardens. They are mainly stainless steel, giving them a mirror-like quality.
“It picks up all the colors of the flowers, the grass and the sky and it's a real active piece,” Caudill said. “Even though it stays in one place, there's always change going on. And so it makes it real interesting for me to get out and see it in different lights.”
Over the years, Caudill has placed more than a dozen pieces at Yew Dell in his classic reflective metal style.
Yew Dell leadership said Caudill's works fit well into the botanical garden’s landscapes.
“The graceful lines of Dave's work allow his pieces to nestle comfortably in a garden of just about any style, while the gleaming steel provides drama and intrigue that constantly changes throughout the day,” Yew Dell executive director Paul Cappiello in a news release about Caudill’s work.
Yew Dell is one of many places people can see Caudill’s work in the state.
He has pieces at the University of Kentucky, University of Louisville and at a Louisville Free Public Library branch.
Caudill will have more pieces going up in the state soon. At a Lexington Detention Center, he will soon unveil his piece “Birth of Hope.”
Caudill said the city of Lexington and its public art commission wanted a piece to welcome people to the site and address issues impacting the community.
“I felt that hope is the most significant common denominator that all the people who are associated with that facility have together,” Caudill said. “It's certainly really important for the inmates and their families, but also everyone else.”
When he starts to create a piece, Caudill said he rarely enters with a preconceived notion about what he wants to make.
“Many times I'm looking at the pieces of steel that I have in my shop that I've already started forming, and they start to come together,” Caudill said. “It's just organically putting together things that I have, and at some point I may realize that I need something else, and I'll go have it made. But many times it's, it's a serendipitous process that's almost like improvising in jazz music.”
When people see his work, whether at Kentucky universities, in Yew Dell or his piece in the ocean off the coast of the Bahamas, Caudill wants to foster the curiosity that could lead to more creativity.
“I think that creativity can be expressed as problem solving, and someone who doesn't regard him or herself as creative is very creative. They just haven't discovered it yet,” Caudill said.
Some of Caudill’s work is on display at Moremen Gallery in downtown Louisville.
