Steadfastis fabricated from steel and painted; its dimensions are 151 x 72 x 21 inches (383.5 x 182.8 x 53.3 cm). The sculpture was completed in 2000 and installed at its current location in 2008.

Steadfast is from a series of sculptures derived from utilitarian objects specifically chosen for enlargement to monumental scale. I am drawn to common and obscure objects from a modernist appreciation of form. My interest is equally sustained by an awareness that these objects were designed for hand use and they are artifacts of a time when technology was still largely dependent on manual processes. The acquisition of a relatively large and old bronze ship’s rudder with an intriguing tapered hole inspired this sculpture. The shape, part-to-part functional relationship, age and wear became points of interpretation and abstraction. Resemblance to the rudder’s form and function were not as important as developing a sculpture that elicits a range of representations and associations.
Robert Craig