Andy Wasserman, the lead artist on the Danville Green project, was impressed by the movie Lincoln and the part Thaddeus Stevens played in the passage of the 13th Amendment that made slavery constitutionally illegal in the United State. She decided to dedicate one of the granite posts of the Green project to him and met with Society representatives to discuss it.
“I didn’t want to use images that have been overused,” explained Andy, “such as broken chains and clasping hands.” Instead, after much thought, she gravitated to a symbolic tree and after discussion has settled on a single rootstock emerging from the stone, then branching out into two stems, one black and one white, with their upper limbs becoming integrated. All present were pleased with the idea.
Andy tells us that the artists will wait for VTrans to complete their part of the project before beginning the final artistic phase. She feels that will probably be in mid-July. Some of the artistic features are already completed and are waiting for installment.
