[MSN] Artist hopes statue will be returned. The sculpture of a little girl, "Jumping for Joy, " created by Jim McGinniss, disappeared from the Union Square shopping center.

[Museum Security Network Mailinglist]

Artist hopes statue will be returned
By: Linda Seida, Staff Writer
12/13/2006

The sculpture of a little girl, "Jumping for Joy," created by Jim McGinniss,
disappeared from the Union Square shopping center.

 
   NEW HOPE — Jim McGinniss' voice turns soft and sad when he talks about
his sculpture of a little girl that disappeared from the Union Square
shopping center.
   "She's kind of like part of the family," said the Stoney Hill Road
resident.
   She was modeled after his own daughter, Tracy, who is grown now with
children of her own.
   Police Chief Rick Pasqualini's voice gets hard.
   "Criminal mischief and this kind of theft really annoy the hell out me,"
he said.
   The statue, "Jumping for Joy," is a delightful curiosity that frequently
attracted visitors, adult and child alike, to pause and wonder how the
sculptor created its unique stance.
   Bronze colored, but not made of bronze to keep it lightweight, the little
girl depicted is about 7 or 8 years old, an age when girls "just start
getting free," Mr. McGinniss said.
   At 4½ feet tall and 85 pounds, the statue captures that light and airy
feeling of freedom in a three-dimensional snapshot of a child jumping rope.
Her skirt is flaring, and her ponytail is bouncing in mid-hop.
   "That's the way my daughter was; always going and happy," Mr. McGinniss
said.
   The sculpture is balanced at the point where the rope skips across the
ground and nowhere else. Everyone pauses to try to figure out how Mr.
McGinniss achieved that effect. He often sat nearby, watching and listening,
finding his own joy in their pleasure.
   "Jumping for Joy" stood at Union Square since June 2003. Sometime around
Thanksgiving weekend, she disappeared.
   Folks who work at Union Square thought the sculptor had retrieved her for
cleaning, Chief Pasqualini said.
   All that remains is an identification plaque.
   "It looks like a grave marker," Mr. McGinniss said. "I'm going to leave
it there."
   The day he discovered she was missing, Mr. McGinniss said he looked all
over, thinking it could be a case of vandalism, and he might find her tossed
somewhere.
   "It's gone," he realized. But where to?
   The sculpture has been featured on the Internet and in art catalogues.
Mr. McGinniss estimates perhaps tens of thousands of people would recognize
her. If anyone installs her as a part of his or her landscape, surely she
will be recognized, he hopes.
   Police are asking anyone with information about the missing statue to
call (215) 862-3033.


http://www.zwire.com/