ART: Kindred

A new outdoor sculpture has been installed in The Columbus Museum’s fountain in memory of the late Mark D. Porter (1957-2015). Porter was a past president and longtime member of the Museum’s Board of Trustees. The commission of the sculpture, Kindred, was made possible by the overwhelming generosity of friends of Porter. Porter, Group Vice President at Columbus Bank and Trust until 2015, died in November 2015, and designated The Columbus Museum for gifts in his memory. With the outpouring of donations, the Museum decided on the commission of an outdoor sculpture to commemorate his love of both the Museum and its Bradley Olmsted Garden.

The artist, Andrew T. Crawford, grew up in Atlanta and maintains his studio there. He has a Bachelors of Fine Art in sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design. Crawford has work at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens and has exhibited work at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia and The Bascom in Highlands, North Carolina, among other museums. “The sculpture, Kindred, is based on the observation of the similarities and differences between natural and man-made forms. It finds its origin in objects that exist in environments that are not exclusively of nature or mechanical origins. Through realism, ambiguous shape and form, scale, and surface treatment, the sculpture seeks to draw recognition to the relationships we find in everyday objects. It is a celebration of the crossover of form and imagery that exists between objects that are part of or of a whole, man-made or occurring completely in nature,” said Crawford.

Special thanks to Merecedes Parham, Columbus Museum.