WEBVTT 00:00:06.850 --> 00:00:36.574 - . . . . . . . . . . 00:00:36.898 --> 00:00:48.208 - What do you think about law? Not much. I think it's very decorative and attracts a lot of attention. 00:00:48.208 --> 00:00:59.743 - It brings good spirit. Irrelevant. I think it looks kind of junky. I like them. I have no problem with 00:00:59.743 --> 00:01:06.014 - them. I think it would be nice to get some around here. 00:01:07.010 --> 00:01:09.630 - It's ugly. Most of it's pretty ugly. 00:01:58.434 --> 00:02:06.368 - They're nice looking. I think lawn sculptures should be banned. I think they're evil and I think they 00:02:06.368 --> 00:02:14.147 - promote a really kind of thoughtless ethic in the American public. I feel they're wonderful. I hope 00:02:14.147 --> 00:02:22.470 - to make some when I grow up and I'm a working artist and think probably concrete would be the best medium. 00:02:22.470 --> 00:02:28.382 - Oh yes, I like a certain amount of things, the cement type things and that. 00:02:29.666 --> 00:02:39.178 - I don't like to get carried away with it. I think it depends. Sometimes they're tacky and other times 00:02:39.178 --> 00:02:43.934 - I think they're really interesting. Indispensable. 00:03:32.898 --> 00:03:44.863 - the cement and this thing and it's sand and gravel and fiber fiberglass fiber and then vibrate them 00:03:44.863 --> 00:03:56.947 - and shake them and and reinforce them if they need to be with wires or whatever no it's rubber latex 00:03:56.947 --> 00:03:58.622 - rubber uh-huh 00:04:01.474 --> 00:04:08.758 - We can pour one like today and tomorrow it can be taken out if it's warm enough and then it takes a 00:04:08.758 --> 00:04:16.187 - few days for it to cure out and to be strong enough to go out into the yard so that's why we have two 00:04:16.187 --> 00:04:23.471 - yards one for this and one for the other over there. We've been doing this let's see we're starting 00:04:23.471 --> 00:04:27.550 - into our 15th year. Kind of a whim somebody came in and 00:04:28.226 --> 00:04:36.215 - talk me into it more or less to say that we've needed to get into the business and we did and then we've 00:04:36.215 --> 00:04:44.128 - gotten to be one of the larger ones in it probably so yeah yeah it's a lot of work but it is profitable 00:04:44.128 --> 00:04:51.812 - bird baths are probably the most popular thing bird baths and fountains has gotten beef strong other 00:04:51.812 --> 00:04:57.214 - than that it's just small animals like deers and rabbits and that sort 00:04:58.786 --> 00:05:04.190 - Strangest, probably a little monkey. We made a big monkey. Um, have you had any formal training to do 00:05:04.190 --> 00:05:09.488 - this? No, no, we learned it all on our own. There isn't anybody that really will teach you anything 00:05:09.488 --> 00:05:15.104 - because they're always worried about competition, you know, which is wrong. I mean, competition is great, 00:05:15.104 --> 00:05:20.560 - but they're always worrying that you're going to take a little business away from them. So nobody will 00:05:20.560 --> 00:05:26.494 - teach you anything. You have to learn it on your own. Now I have taken a lot of people under hand and tried it. 00:05:27.394 --> 00:05:32.441 - We had some people in the summer that was from Indonesia. I don't know if you've seen the paper, the 00:05:32.441 --> 00:05:37.539 - ad in the paper or anything, or not the ad, but the newspaper came out and took an article on it. And 00:05:37.539 --> 00:05:42.586 - we had some people from Indonesia that we taught how to make molds and how to paint the stuff and so 00:05:42.586 --> 00:05:47.134 - forth. And they were very interesting to work with. They were with us for about six weeks. 00:06:45.154 --> 00:06:52.282 - just keep adding to it, it gets bigger every year. So how did you start or how did you become interested? 00:06:52.282 --> 00:06:59.006 - In the yard deal. People would bring me a little yard ornament and I'd set it out and I just got to 00:06:59.006 --> 00:07:05.260 - where I really enjoyed it and the more the better. What's your favorite piece? I don't know. 00:07:05.260 --> 00:07:12.118 - I like them all. One of my deers I like, the deer laying down. I got a tiger that my daughter brought 00:07:12.118 --> 00:07:14.270 - me from Texas. Have you had any 00:07:14.434 --> 00:07:20.614 - problems like vandalism? Absolutely none. We lost one little dog sitting over there and I feel probably 00:07:20.614 --> 00:07:26.853 - with some child that disliked it and took it. As far as stealing or vandalism, no. I think people really 00:07:26.853 --> 00:07:32.854 - respect, you know, what we've tried to do. We have people come here like once a week and bring their 00:07:32.854 --> 00:07:38.796 - kids in the summertime and we let them walk up, we don't let them get over in here, but we let them 00:07:38.796 --> 00:07:44.382 - walk up down the sidewalk, you know, act like they're petting the animals or feeding them and 00:07:44.706 --> 00:07:51.166 - You know, it's kind of rewarding for little kids that want to come back here. That happened as a funny 00:07:51.166 --> 00:07:57.437 - little thing. You see the church here. There's a lot of little old ladies walking down through here 00:07:57.437 --> 00:08:04.085 - to and from church. And we fixed our deck so we could sit up there. If we wanted to sit in our underwear, 00:08:04.085 --> 00:08:10.482 - we could not be seen. I was sitting up there one night about 8 o'clock. It was just getting dark. And 00:08:10.482 --> 00:08:14.558 - two little old ladies came up the street, and they stopped here. 00:08:15.010 --> 00:08:19.851 - like little old ladies with, they were pretending like they were feeding the animals. But they didn't 00:08:19.851 --> 00:08:24.597 - know I was up there. And they would say, well, here, doggy, you don't have a dog. And just a little 00:08:24.597 --> 00:08:29.485 - thing, and I'm up here just dying laughing, you know. Finally, I thought, now, I'll have a little fun. 00:08:29.485 --> 00:08:34.421 - So I just raised up. I was fully dressed and everything. I said, ladies, please don't feed the animals. 00:08:34.421 --> 00:08:39.357 - Well, they just went nuts. I mean, they was laughing and carrying. I thought, boy, that's an idea right 00:08:39.357 --> 00:08:42.110 - there. So I went and got me a board, and I have a router. 00:08:42.562 --> 00:08:49.917 - And I just made me a sign put up there and said, please do not feed the animals. Well, that's the way 00:08:49.917 --> 00:08:56.190 - that come about. What do you think about your husband in his yard? Well, he enjoys it. 00:09:13.410 --> 00:09:21.907 - I've got a cat, and some chickens, and a bluebird, and a water, you know, bird battle, like my bird 00:09:21.907 --> 00:09:30.575 - says here. What? A lawn ball. Lawn ball? What's a lawn ball? You know, those shiny things, those real 00:09:30.575 --> 00:09:39.582 - tacky shiny balls that people have in their hearts. I kind of like the little bees that sit on the porch. 00:09:39.582 --> 00:09:42.046 - Better than smaller animals. 00:09:42.274 --> 00:09:51.592 - some reason I find more tolerable than the big stuff. When Mary's out there and with her sheep and everything 00:09:51.592 --> 00:10:00.062 - and all the bright lights. Like whatever kind it might be. Well, my general attitude toward culture 00:10:00.062 --> 00:10:05.822 - is the more multi the better. You know, the more the better because 00:10:06.370 --> 00:10:13.764 - It's the diversity of different quirky things that are terribly important to keep up so that people 00:10:13.764 --> 00:10:21.601 - don't feel they have to conform to, you know, one idea of how, you know, what art should be on somebody's 00:10:21.601 --> 00:10:28.995 - lawn. So this whole range between what's utterly tasteless and what's genuinely beautiful or moving 00:10:28.995 --> 00:10:34.910 - I think is part of what our culture is about anyway. So I wouldn't want to make 00:10:36.578 --> 00:10:45.393 - interdictions, unless you put some blatantly racist thing up on your remote lawn. I guess, yeah, there's 00:10:45.393 --> 00:10:50.430 - some bad connotations about the little black jockey player. 00:11:34.978 --> 00:11:43.604 - Definitely the cow and the horse. Cow and the horse is the most popular item. How much do you sell them 00:11:43.604 --> 00:11:51.898 - for? The cow is with the calf, but there's two pieces, $175. There's the little calf. And the horse 00:11:51.898 --> 00:12:00.441 - is $150. What are they made of? Concrete. And the cow weighs about 400 pounds, and the horse about 250 00:12:00.441 --> 00:12:02.846 - pounds. So if you could make 00:12:03.042 --> 00:12:09.921 - a particular piece of lawn art or something that you would really like to see that's not made, what 00:12:09.921 --> 00:12:17.351 - would it be? That would be a kind of German type, the Dutch boy and the Dutch girl, since I'm from Germany, 00:12:17.351 --> 00:12:24.368 - naturally. That's what I would like. And the windmill and the bridge, that type of thing. That's what 00:12:24.368 --> 00:12:30.078 - I would like. Do people in Germany have lawn art? Oh yeah, a lot of it. Like what? 00:12:30.274 --> 00:12:40.319 - like mills, wind mills, and those little ceramic pickers like I was talking about. And that's just all 00:12:40.319 --> 00:12:50.558 - over in Germany. Would you say it's more in Germany? Definitely more in Germany than in America. I think 00:12:50.558 --> 00:12:58.750 - we are about 15 years or 20 years ahead of the concrete in Germany. Oh, do you have 00:12:59.170 --> 00:13:06.585 - stories or any stories that you know about people with Monard, anything interesting that you can think 00:13:06.585 --> 00:13:13.784 - of? Any really strange customers that have come in with bizarre requests? Or strange? Where we have 00:13:13.784 --> 00:13:21.271 - people coming in who ask for like a collar boy who goes fishing or a collar boy with watermelon, eating 00:13:21.271 --> 00:13:27.102 - watermelon. We're really not going to get into it because I think it's not fair. 00:13:27.842 --> 00:13:32.158 - to do that kind of thing. So we just frankly tell them we don't do it. 00:15:18.434 --> 00:15:24.927 - that experience it, I think it's not frequently encountered enough. I'd say that probably in Bloomington 00:15:24.927 --> 00:15:31.174 - there's as much as you'd find anywhere, but I think about what it really constitutes. It constitutes 00:15:31.174 --> 00:15:37.482 - individuals either as individuals or as families sort of expressing themselves in maybe you could say 00:15:37.482 --> 00:15:43.666 - a prefabricated way, but what's wrong with that? So I think it's neat stuff. I like it. What do you 00:15:43.666 --> 00:15:45.150 - think that the cultural 00:15:49.282 --> 00:15:54.541 - Let me pace a little while I think about that, the cultural implications of one art. Well, there are 00:15:54.541 --> 00:15:59.748 - several, and I think maybe they spill right out of what I said a second ago, because one of them is 00:15:59.748 --> 00:16:05.008 - if they are prefab, if they're the kind of things that people just go and buy, and I'm going to slap 00:16:05.008 --> 00:16:10.215 - this down in my yard. On the one hand, that's a statement, right? That's like drinking trashy beer, 00:16:10.215 --> 00:16:15.422 - because you like all the advertisements on TV, and you know everything about the taste of the beer. 00:16:15.422 --> 00:16:18.494 - But on the other hand, seeing as how there isn't that much 00:16:19.170 --> 00:16:25.059 - When you think about it, there really isn't that much, at least not on every block, except for perhaps 00:16:25.059 --> 00:16:30.948 - around Christmas time. But seeing as how there isn't that much long art, maybe it's a substantial, not 00:16:30.948 --> 00:16:36.838 - just a cultural statement, not just a social statement, but a statement about the way you see yourself 00:16:36.838 --> 00:16:42.955 - fitting into your culture, your society, your city, even your neighborhood. It's that kind of a statement, 00:16:42.955 --> 00:16:47.358 - too. So really, I guess it would depend a lot on exactly what the stuff was. 00:16:48.002 --> 00:16:53.106 - and what kind of a neighborhood it was. Somehow that would seem important to me. And also, 00:16:53.106 --> 00:16:58.772 - it would be, you need to talk to people and say, well, so what is this one in particular medium? And 00:16:58.772 --> 00:17:04.605 - if they tell you, first of all, that they got it at Kmart, then you want to know, well, OK, so how does 00:17:04.605 --> 00:17:10.383 - Kmart enter into this? How is this an expression of you? Does it need to be an expression of you? See, 00:17:10.383 --> 00:17:14.814 - in the end, I don't have a good answer for that question. I better pace again. 00:17:35.362 --> 00:17:44.744 - you can see. Of course, I've got them, part of them put up in the wintertime, but we really like them. 00:17:44.744 --> 00:17:54.217 - Well, some of them are set up up there in the flowerbed. Did you see those? Well, I don't have too many 00:17:54.217 --> 00:18:02.142 - more than that. How long have you been collecting? About four years. About four years. 00:18:05.666 --> 00:18:28.694 - We're not that, not that wealthy. Why do they do it? I have no idea. I mean, like here, you know, you 00:18:28.694 --> 00:18:33.886 - can have a live little 00:18:35.458 --> 00:18:54.046 - animal coming into your yard, but here's fake little things that are just there. Why? I'm just wondering 00:18:54.046 --> 00:19:02.366 - why. Everything mixed and you stand around and 00:19:02.786 --> 00:19:08.530 - You hear water dripping and everything, because the water drips out of these things after you pour them, 00:19:08.530 --> 00:19:14.000 - you know, because it's so wet. And you hear water dripping here, there, and everywhere. And it gets 00:19:14.000 --> 00:19:19.689 - so dreary in here. If it wasn't for the radio and the lights, I guess, you'd have trouble. But we enjoy 00:19:19.689 --> 00:19:25.268 - it. It's something that, when you make something on your own and you take it out of a mold, you feel, 00:19:25.268 --> 00:19:29.918 - you know, you've accomplished something when you see something coming. That's right. 00:19:31.618 --> 00:19:37.480 - particularly when you make the mold yourself and everything, you've done it from scratch, or particularly 00:19:37.480 --> 00:19:43.286 - some things that we have even sculpted ourselves, and you see it come out, it just gives you a different 00:19:43.286 --> 00:19:49.037 - feeling, you know. It's worth it all then. But then you have to part with it. Well, yeah, but you don't 00:19:49.037 --> 00:19:54.844 - feel bad about that, or I don't. You get people out there, that's what they want and they're happy with, 00:19:54.844 --> 00:19:59.102 - and that just makes you happier, you know. It's just something to work with.