Stan Mullins is at it again, and he has some really big plans this time.
The local Athens artist and sculptor known best for the statue of Vince Dooley on South Campus is already at work on his next project – a statue of Herschel Walker. He’s well under way on the clay work and figures he ought to be done before the end of the October.
“The hope is to get Herschel down here to help me finish it himself,” said Mullins, a UGA art school grad. “He said he would. He’s such a hands-on guy and he’s totally down with it.”
Mullins said the sculpture he’s making is from a picture by Athens photographer Wingate Downs of Walker as a freshman against Auburn in 1980.
That’s not all Mullins is working on. He has also completed clay sculptures of Georgia’s other two Heisman Trophy winners, Frank Sinkwich and Charley Trippi.
Where might these works go, you might ask? Well, Mullins has some big hopes in that regard.
In what Mullins calls his “Crowns of Glory Project,” he envisions statues of the Bulldogs’ great tailbacks being on the four corners of the property housing Sanford Stadium.
What would be on the fourth corner?
“The fourth would be an un-carved block of Carrara marble,” Mullins said. “As in, who’s next? That could be Nick Chubb. Who knows?”
Of course, to pull this off, Mullins will need some funding and lots of layers of approval from UGA and the athletic association. But the good news is, unlike the last time when he ran into political turmoil between Dooley and former president Michael Adams, Mullins has the freedom move ahead with his art work.
Mullins is now a well-established sculptor. In addition to his Dooley statue, he also did a commissioned work of Erk Russell which is now on display at Georgia Southern University in Statesboro. And just last month he unveiled a gargantuan sculpture of three buffalo called “Ashes to Glory” for Marshall University.
Those completed projects have put Mullins in position to concentrate on his art rather than the hazards that come with commissioned works.
“I don’t want to have another situation like we had with interior politics with the sculpture of Vince Dooley,” Mullins said. “So what I’m going to do is just do the sculpture. Herschel has given me permission. So has Charley Trippi and Frank Sinkwich III. What I’m trying to do is do it so the fans can rally around it and we can help rather than hinder all the cool stuff we’ve got going on.”
You can read more about Mullins' "Crowns of Glory Project" on this Facebook page. You can find out how you can help at the Herschel Walker statue project and see more of Mullins' works on his personal Facebook page.
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