Art conservator Rosa Lowinger refers to the time it takes for something to happen as “dwell time.” In the case of the Grecian maiden nicknamed Rachel at the Well, it’s been one year, six months and 29 days since the stately sculpture was damaged by Hurricane Ian. Too much time to suit the residents of the Edison Park neighborhood where she stands. Too much time for the scores of motorists who travel past Rachel each day. Happily, lead conservator Kelly Ciociola reports that Rachel’s dwell time is coming to an end.
“Soon, not too much longer,” she promises.
Rachel’s actual name is The Spirit of Fort Myers. Rumor has it that her creator, Helmuth von Zengen, was asked to judge a local beauty contest and used the winner as his muse, but she’s officially a representation of the Greek Goddess of Water.
Since her completion 98 years ago, she’s withstood the Great Miami Hurricane of 1926, Hurricane Donna in 1960, Charley in 2004 and Irma in 2017. Her luck finally ran out with Ian.
“When we first started working on her, she was essentially split in half, and her neck was broken,” says Ciociola of the sculpture’s condition on the day they first began work. “So she was leaning forward at about 90 degrees and was being held on essentially only by an original pin that was throughout the entire sculpture.”
Ciociola likens Rachel’s restoration to a puzzle. But putting a precious century-old statue back together again requires more than a Junior Mint and a tooth pick.
It starts with a substantial amount of historical research. Ciociola had worked on the sculpture in 2017, and knew that von Zengen employed a groundbreaking technique to make the cast stone statue.
Rather than carving Rachel from a block of stone, he engrafted layer upon layer of a specially-formulated concrete over a metal armature and paper machete.
But it wasn’t until Ciociola, Nicola Macdonald and John Klinkose detached her head and torso from her waist that that they could peak inside and really appreciate von Zengen’s process.
“We did find some of the original paper fragments from the hallow casting that was done,” Ciociola said.
“I really enjoyed seeing the layers of concrete because, you know, each layer of concrete has a slightly different color and you can sort of see the lifts, and it was really interesting for me, as somebody who’s particularly interested in materials to see those details.”
The team brought in an engineer to tell them the best way to reattach the head and torso to the waist and strengthen the entire sculpture.
“She’s rated for wind loads of a hurricane now by the engineer,” Ciociola adds. “[Ed] Blot Engineering was the company that was good enough to come out and help us with this unique project and so she should be good to stand up to the wind.”
Perhaps the biggest challenge that Ciociola and her team faced when it came to reattaching the two pieces was figuring out the exact angle at which to position the head and torso.
“Because of the way she was damaged and how she fell forward, a lot of the areas at the break edge – both above and below the break edge on the front - were completely gone, you know, just sort of pulverized into dust, and so we didn’t have a whole lot of information in place to tell us what ... how she was standing.”
This is where Ciociola’s prior history with Rachel really paid dividends.
“So we had photos from every angle due to our previous work, and were able to sort of meticulously walk around her and make sure she was standing the way she was standing before.”
When they’re done restoring The Spirit of Fort Myers, the maiden will look just as she did when Helmuth von Zengen completed her in April of 1926. But internally, she’ll be much stronger than before. This pleases Ciociola for two reasons.
“It’s been really fun to see everybody driving by and waving and honking and very excited to see her…. People are really intrigued and interested. They want to know what’s going on and they’re showing their support and lots of thumbs up. I always love working on something that means a lot to the community because it’s special, and it’s special to us and we get excited to do this. So it’s nice when you can see that reflected in the community.”
She is also honored to bring such an iconic work of art back to life.
“It’s also a beautifully shaped piece and when you go over a sculpture inch by inch over the course of three weeks, you really get to know the sculptor’s hand and its really interesting to see and it’s really well done.”
After Rachel's restoration is complete, bids will go out for repairing the surrounding columns and arches. While those repairs are being done, the statue will be covered once again in the protective box.
While no one enjoys dwell time, some things are worth the wait — like having The Spirit of Fort Myers back and better than ever — and knowing that the repairs were done right.
To read more stories about the arts in Southwest Florida visit Tom Hall's website: SWFL Art in the News.
Spotlight on the Arts for WGCU is funded in part by Naomi Bloom, Jay & Toshiko Tompkins, and Julie & Phil Wade.
Videographer/Editor WGCU's Amanda Whittamore. Script and audio engineered and produced by WGCU's Tara Calligan.
MORE INFORMATION:
- Read here for more on the history of The Spirit of Fort Myers and her heritage as an anchor artwork within the City of Fort Myers public art collection.
- The first step in the sculpture’s conservation involved detaching the head and torso from the sculpture’s waist. To do this, the conservation team brought in lift company from Sarasota. Once the top half of the sculpture was securely rigged, they cut the pin that was holding the two halves together and placed the head and torso on a gurney that afforded a stable work area for the work they had to do to stabilize the maiden’s head and neck.
- With the two halves now separated, Ciociola and her colleagues, Nicola Macdonald and John Klinkose were surprised to find that the head, neck and torso were relatively hollow while the lower portion was virtually solid. “The bottom half had been filled in with concrete at some point,” Ciociola reports. That actually occurred in 1983 when the Fort Myers Beautification Advisory Board hired the late Don “D.J.” Wilkins to remove rusted cast iron pipes from the base of the statue and turn the sculpture back into a fountain. Wilkins also designed and installed special lighting to illuminate the sculpture after dark.
- By contrast, the paper mache that sculptor Helmuth von Zengen had used in the sculpture’s core was still in evidence in the maiden’s check, neck and head above the PVC piping that runs to the urn the maiden is holding in the crook of her right arm.
Amanda Inscore Whittamore/WGCUDavid Zonstant, Kelly Ciociola, John Klinkose and Nicola Macdonald of Ciociola Conservation and RLA Conservation begin the process of reattaching the torso of the “Rachel at the Well” statue on Tuesday, April 16, 2024, in Fort Myers. The statue was damaged by Hurricane Ian in 2022. The team worked with an engineer and installed new pins to reinforce the statue. - Art conservators are loathe to use materials that are different from those employed by the artist in the creation of their work. The prime guiding principle among art conservators is to do well by the artist—that is, to help preserve a work as close as possible to what the artist intended. Von Zengen used pigmented concrete to make the sculpture. The mix he developed, and later patented, was pliable and could be molded into finely-crafted attributes like the maiden’s hair, nose and the shift he added to appease Mina Edison and the ladies of the town who objected to the maiden being a nude. But for this repair, the conservation team needed something stronger - materials that will provide additional support when the maiden is next subjected to lateral wind loads like she experienced during Hurricane Ian. So Ciociola and company replaced the concrete in the area of the maiden’s stomach and pelvis (which was pulverized when the wrought iron fence landed on the maiden’s back) with mortar. And they used epoxy in the small of her back. From the vantage of Code of Ethics and Guidelines for Practice of the American Institute for the Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (AIC), both materials are permissible, and are expected to better preserve Rachel for enjoyment by future generations.
- Following the site inspection that FEMA conducted in April of 2023, a number of fragments that broke off during the storm were collected, photographed and placed in bubble wrap. “Many of the finish fragments will be able to be returned into place, but some of the fragments were interior pieces that are now filled with more modern materials that are stronger in holding the pins and things like that,” notes Ciociola. “But all of the surface fragments will be replaced.
- One fragment that was not found in the debris field that spread out from the basin at Rachel’s feet was a chunk of Rachel’s nose.
- “We had to give her a nose job,” jested conservator John Klinkose. She’ll be getting a neck lift as well to replace a gaping hole on the left side of her neck.
- When the fence crashed down on Rachel, it dragged along the huge bougainvillea that had become entwined in the fence’s spires. The branches and thorns left scrapes and gouges throughout the maiden’s back, arms and shift. Using spatulas and a host of other tools, the conservators are carefully removing the statue’s outer layer of paint and, along with it, most of the scrapes and gouges that covered Rachel in the aftermath of Ian’s wrath. Once she’s repainted, the conservators expect her to look just as she did when they touched her up in 2017. While Ciociola concedes that the statue may have a blemish or two that can be seen upon closer inspection, they simply won’t be visible to people driving by in their cars or walking their dogs along the sidewalk on either side of McGregor Boulevard.
- While Rachel has been reinforced with a stronger armature, mortar and epoxy, such measures will provide scant protection should anything strike or land on the statue in a future storm. To be clear, the damage that Rachel sustained was not due to wind. It occurred because the heavy wrought iron fence fell on top of her.
- The “surround” behind and to either side of the sculpture was constructed by Snell Brothers in 1926. It was discovered during the FEMA site inspection that the wrought iron fence only secured to the retaining wall behind the sculpture by inch-and-a-half bolts drilled into open-cell concrete block. While the ends of the fence were attached to spired columns to the maiden’s right and left, they too consisted of open-cell concrete block above six feet. So when the entwined bougainvillea caught the full force of Ian’s winds, the inch-and-a-half bolts proved woefully insufficient to hold the fence in place and as it toppled, it took the west column with it above the in-filled six foot mark.
Amanda Inscore Whittamore/WGCUNicola Macdonald primes the Rachel at the Well statue on Wednesday, April 24, 2024, in Fort Myers. Macdonald has been working with a crew from RLA Conservation and Ciociola Conservation to repair and restore the statue along McGregor Boulevard. - These defects will be remedied when the surround is rebuilt, and measures will be taken to ensure that the bougainvillea is (1) never again allowed to become entwined among the fence’s upright spires and (2) drastically trimmed back in preparation for any storm that threatens the area.
- Miami-based Rosa Lowinger & Associates (RLA) is the lead conservator for the sculpture’s restoration.
- RLA specializes in the conservation of built heritage, a term that encompasses art, architecture, museum collections and public spaces. Rosa Lowinger is a recognized international expert in conservation and a specialist in modern and contemporary sculpture, architecture, and public art. She has been in private practice since 1988. Each of the company’s senior staff has been in practice for no less than five years and, as a team, RLA has more than50 years of combined experience in carrying out conservation, cultural resource documentation, restoration and historic remediation projects for architecture, public art and sculpture in stone, masonry, concrete, metals, ceramic tile, terracotta, wood, plastic, plaster, terrazzo, linoleum and mosaics.
- RLA’s clients include the Hawaii State Foundation for Culture and the Arts and the cities of Los Angeles, San Jose, Ventura, Santa Monica, Inglewood, Sante Fe Springs and Honolulu. Rosa lectures and publishes frequently on conservation topics related to modern and contemporary sculpture and architecture. In 2019, she presented a “Report on the state of Painted Outdoor Sculpture Conservation” at the annual conference of the Florida Association of Public Art Professionals in Fort Lauderdale and led a workshop on emergency for public art collections at the Americans for the Arts’ national meeting. In 2015, she was also a panelist for “Far Sited: Creating and Conserving Art in Public Places,” a symposium at California State University in Long Beach, California. Her book, Dwell Time: A Memoir of Art, Exile and Repair was released last year by Row House Publishing.
- Ciociola Conservation, LLC is working under the umbrella and in close concert with RLA.
- Ciociola Conservation is a woman-owned and managed firm, founded by Kelly Ciociola, a conservator with over 13 years’ experience. Prior to starting her own company in Nashville Tenn., Kelly was the Conservator for Vizcaya Museum and Gardens in Miami, and was responsible for the conservation of the building and all collection items, including decorative objects, outdoor sculptures, lanterns, fountains, and other architectural elements. Prior to her work at Vizcaya, she was Principal Conservator for RLA Conservation where she led all major projects east of the Mississippi River and in the Caribbean. Her career also includes time at Kreilick Conservation, LLC in Philadelphia, Pa., where she worked on the Independence Hall Weathervane, the Merchant’s Exchange Building, and the Joan of Arc Memorial in Meridian Hill Park. She is a Professional Associate of the AIC and holds an M.S. in Historic Preservation from the joint Clemson University/College of Charleston program. Kelly has been based, in Charleston, S.C., Philadelphia, Pa., and Miami, and has traveled extensively. These different environments have allowed her to experience first-hand how materials respond in different environments.
- Ciociola Conservation’s expertise covers a wide variety of materials and applications with experience in a museum setting, public art installations, and construction sites. We specialize in outdoor sculpture and monuments, mosaics and tiled murals, twentieth century buildings, building materials, architectural elements, moving large integrated artworks, and modern and contemporary art.
- Both RLA and Ciociola Conservation adhere to the Code of Ethics and Guidelines for Practice of the American Institute for the Conservation of Historic and Artistic Works (AIC), the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties, and other applicable international charters.
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