New sculpture at Bristol Hospital graces entrance of emergency center, provides respite and a bit of whimsy

By David Fortier

Drive down the entrance to the emergency room at Bristol Hospital. Look to the left, just behind the branches of the trees that line the drive and beyond the signage.

First, a hint of color, red, perhaps, catches the eye, then that burst of color–reds, greens, blues, yellows in a tangle, a jumble–and there it is.

The 14-ft. high arrangement of long-stemmed flowers in a 7-ft. high vase–the new, marvelously mischievous, inspired sculpture that was unveiled mid-June outside the hospital’s $16 million newly renovated and expanded Brault Emergency Center.

“I wanted to get [people’s] minds off being in the hospital,” said the artist, Fuller Barnes.

“Everyone brings flowers to cheer people up,” he said, “so what if I did a big flower vase? That would be fun. ‘It wouldn’t take too long,’ I thought. ‘Yeah I will do a flower vase, maybe I get up on my roof and drop flowers in a flower vase. You know, simple.’ Until I started building it.”

That was three years, or so ago, when the hospital commissioned the work, and before he encountered a number of challenges.

*The new sculpture at Bristol Hospital features hearts and flowers, with some whimsical touches such as this doctor flower applying a stethoscope to this heart. | David Fortier*

“Everything I thought would take a week, maybe took a month or more, or I went back to redo something, because there was something I didn’t like, or something thought I could do better, or something I thought I could add.”

“Everything I do is one of a kind,” he said. “I have no idea how long these are going to take, but I have a habit of underestimating how long that could be.”

The biggest challenge, he said, turned out to be the size of project. Its components, there are 27 flowers and it weighs 2,000 lbs, did not fit in his studio, and once that became apparent, much of the work had to be completed outdoors, which isn’t too bad, necessarily, because he has a good-sized yard–and he is working in the Southwest.

Barnes, who operates from his home and studio in Arizonia, is the son of the late Carlyle Fuller “Hap” and Elizabeth “Betty” Barnes. He is also the great-grandson of the hospital’s first president and his namesake, Fuller Forbes Barnes, who oversaw the construction of the first modern Bristol Hospital in 1925.

His medium is scrap parts, and he has done furniture, railings, gates, sculptures, lights, lots of them over 50 years.

“Since I was little, I always wanted to be an artist, and I always wanted to learn how to weld,” he said.

He took a sculpture class in college. One of the projects was to go to a scrap yard and make something out of nothing, he said. That was when his path became clear.

“I thought, ‘Okay, this is it.'”

He started with copper and solder, before learning to weld and working with steel.

“It’s my little contribution to recycling, in a way,” he said, and laughed.

He also laughed, as he recalled several incidents when he was exhibiting his work and people would take a look, turn to each other, and one would say, “Oh, honey you have some extra shovels, you can do that.”

The new sculpture at the Bristol Hospital is created from scrap parts mixed with interesting features such as, in the lower right section of the vase, this mouse saying, “Ah!” | David Fortier

He works alone, but family and friends do get pulled into his projects as needs arise. In this instance, literally pulled in, since he had to build a hoist and pulley and needed assistance to lift the flowers and arrangement in the vase once he was situated outside.

“I never know from one moment to the next what I am going to work on, what is going to inspire,” he said.

He tries to work on one piece at a time, but typically has all sorts of projects in progress.

His vase and flowers absorbed most of his time over three years, he said.

“Logistically, it was all a big challenge, and then when we had to crate the piece, that was a whole other thing.”

He and a friend, a builder, built the crates together and then, there were nine crates in all, they loaded the crates on the truck to transport them.

These were issues that he hadn’t thought about originally, but he said he knew that he would figure things out eventually. He didn’t even know how many flowers would be included.

By the time he was done, he said, “It was, ‘Holy cow, we have 27 pieces here.”

As for his work, he said, it’s pretty self-explanatory.

“I think my main goal is I’d say whimsical, my biggest reward is to get somebody to get a smile on their face, or to have a chuckle, or to see something they didn’t see before,”he said, “because I like hiding things.”

He said he just gets a kick out of people’s reaction, whether they like something he has created or not.

“If they don’t like something,” he said, “that’s fine. That’s what art is about. I am never offended about it. I think that’s the whole point.”

He said his next project will be sculpture garden outside his studio, and that big yard, where he plans to install sculptures and open the garden to the public.

He said he loves what he does and he is fortunate that he had been able to make it into a career.

“Even if it weren’t my profession,” he said, “I would still be doing it. I’ve always wanted to do this sort of thing. It’s just fortunate that it worked out.”

*There are always more objects to identify in this sculpture that sits outside the Brault Emergency Center at Bristol Hospital. | David Fortier*

While there are challenges, he said, it’s really like playing everyday.

“Everything is one of kind for the most part so it’s not drudgery,” he said.

Not only has he been fortunate with his profession, he said, but he was fortunate in who his parents were.

When he started out and people learned he wanted to be an artist, he said, it was “Good luck with that.”

He said his parents were not only supportive but at times when he questioned himself, more positive than he was.

Today, his daughter is an artist.

“You need to enjoy what you are doing,” he said, “so you don’t just want to have to wait until you are retired to start to live your life and having fun.”

In his mid-60’s now, he said, “I am on the second half of my life and it’s like, ‘Man, the coolest stuff is coming.'”

About his vase and flowers, he said, he is very happy.

He likes to think about people driving up to the entrance and seeing it for the first time and then going back and seeing something that they missed.

The hearts are obvious, he said, especially the one with the doctor and the stethoscope, but then there is the little mouse with its mouth open and tongue sticking out. And then there are the scrap pieces and old tools from which the sculpture had been created.

There is too much heaviness in the world,” Barnes said.

“I think art, a lot of the time, is too heavy too. I didn’t want anything heavy. Aside from weight-wise I don’t do anything that’s heavy.”