Ever since he was four or five years old, Bloomington artist Dale Enochs said he has been infatuated with art.
His grandmother was a Victorian parlor artist, Enochs said.
When he was a child, his grandmother would draw Gibson girl-styled drawings and write poems and stories. Enochs cited his grandmother’s artistry as a significant influence on his own.
“I recall as a child just poring through her scrapbooks and books of drawings and wishing that I could do things like that,” Enochs said.
However, he said he is interested in making public art instead of painting.
For more than 30 years, he has been professionally working as an artist mainly on large-scale, garden-scale and other print-related projects.
Last year, Enochs said he came across a national call for artists to submit ideas for sculptures to be included in the Bicentennial Plaza in Indianapolis.
Two new sculptures were planned to be included in the plaza to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Indiana’s statehood.
There was to be one statue on the north end of the state house and one on the south end in downtown Indianapolis.
Both sculptures had themes for the artists to choose from, according to a press release from the Indiana Art Institute.
The one on the north end was to relate to enduring flame while the one on the south side was to be a living time capsule.
Enochs said he pursued the latter theme.
Enochs said he entered a partnership with Smock Fansler CEO Thomas Fansler for the project.
Enochs and Fansler had worked together multiple times in the past for large-scale infrastructure projects, Enochs said.
Together, the two became finalists for the competition.
All of the finalists were asked to create proposals for their sculpture before the winners were chosen to start their projects, Enochs said.
“I started developing ideas and thinking in terms of what is a time capsule and what is time,” Enochs said. “And I started making conceptual relationships to time as a river, time is water, time is always flowing.”
Along with this, Enochs said he also considered the people of Indiana, the land of Indiana and its water.
Enochs said he believes water is the lifeblood of the land.
By the end of September of last year, Enochs said he was told he had won the contract to build the sculpture for Indiana’s bicentennial.
He has dedicated most of his time since then to complete the project.
The sculpture is made up of a square, a serpentine pathway and a large ring, which are symbols Enochs said he believes are representative of the people, land and waters of Indiana.
It was Fansler’s job to provide the material needed to complete the ring, Enochs said.
At the center of the ring, which Enochs said is representative of a portal through time, is a stone on which the Albert Einstein quote “Time is an illusion” is inscribed. The installation of Enochs’ sculpture, which he titled “Time Flow,” began Sept. 7 and should be finished by the end of the month, Enochs said.
The sculpture will be dedicated Oct. 15.
Given his long history as an artist, Enochs said he has created his own signature style and is no longer influenced by specific artists.
“I have been influenced by many, many artists in a whole variety of points in time and cultures throughout the world,” Enochs said. “But I believe that I have developed my own way of going about things.”
If this sculpture is deemed successful, Enochs said he believes he will be given many more projects to work on because one project often leads to another.
Enochs said he is grateful to have a career where he is able to express his creativity to others, and he hopes “Time Flow” will be received positively by its viewers.
“It’s a big honor to be able to do this kind of stuff,” Enochs said. “I just only hope I can do something that speaks to people and is special and enlightens their world.”
