Wayne Wood was just 5 or so when he first confronted Charles Adrian Pillars masterpiece of a sculpture, looming over him at Memorial Park on the Jacksonville riverfront.
Cast in bronze, designed to honor those from Florida who died in the horror of World War I, the sculpture portrays a nude, winged male figure. He s poised on one foot atop a stylized globe, holding an olive branch out to the sky. Below him rise the shapes of partial human figures, women and children, as if struggling to come out of the chaos of the world.
It s called Life.
Visiting his grandmother in Riverside, up from his home in Belle Glade, the young Wood was terrified by the size and scope of the sculpture. He might even have cried.