Sculpture brings life to downtown

October 12, 2009

Cecil Long works away at his sculpture in front of his high-end clothing store on Church Street. GREG AGNEW/TIMES & TRANSCRIPT

Have you gotten that feeling of someone looking over your shoulder lately, whenever you go down Church Street in Moncton? That just might be because Cecil D. Long’s tree sculpture has been out from under wraps and taking shape a lot lately.

The work, which graces the front lawn of his clothing store Cecil D’s, has been in progress for a couple years now and Long believes he will have the chisels out for another year more before he’s done.

“I’m on the third face of five,” he said this week of the carving he’s doing as a far superior alternative to cutting the whole tree down. The ancient maple was rotting and had to have its overhanging limbs removed, but Long believes he can extend its presence in the community another 50 to 75 years by carving and burnishing and varnishing what remains of it.

And in that fact are the two main inspirations for the piece. First, “it’s about community. It’s about your mother, your daughter, it’s about all of us,” he said. From his shop in Moncton’s diverse downtown, he sees the hustle and bustle of city life all around him and he also talks each day with the people from all stations in life who pass by on the sidewalk. “It’s a friendly place,” he says, crediting that energy for the energy of the work.

Even though he has lived all over the world, he always comes back to Moncton because he loves its sense of community. It’s that love that inspired his vision for the tree. Second, the artist said he also wants to honour the tree itself, which shaded and sheltered the neighbourhood for probably a century or more.

BY BRENT MAZEROLLE, Times and Transcript

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