Mother Goose’s wings are dramatically outstretched and she wears a pointed bonnet tied at the neck.
Two children are nestled in front of those unfurled wings – clutching and staring intently at an oversized book.
Every bit of this whimsical scene is rendered in steel.
“This sculpture was done by my dad, Ric Larson, quite a long time ago,” said Zach Larson, a software engineer in the Quad Cities who grew up in the Galesburg area.
As a kid, Zach would tag along with Ric to art fairs all over the Midwest.
"Whenever those fairs would happen, my dad would spend Friday getting the van packed up. He had a whole display set-up that he made, a tent for a booth and everything. All the inventory, he'd have it ready to go,” Zach said. “I'd get home on the school bus, and immediately just hop in the van and we'd hit the road.”
Zach said his dad started off as a woodworker, carving birds and other wildlife. Then Ric started working with resin and eventually welded steel.
“The work started small and over the years got bigger and bigger. That was the other thing outside the art shows. He'd get commissioned work around the country and would travel and I'd go with him and go install it and see these people's amazing houses that they were having his stuff in, which I thought was awesome,” Zach said.
Those days with his dad on the road are some of the most fun times that Zach can recall. He grew up understanding that his dad’s job was different from what other kids’ dads did for a living.
“I always tell my wife I could always tell how good the art show went by what kind of pizza we'd have. It was either Domino's if the show didn't go very well, or be something really good,” Zach said.
Ric Larson was born in Galesburg and earned a bachelor’s degree in fine arts from Eastern Illinois University. Zach said one of his dad’s mentors was beloved Galesburg High School art teacher and sculptor Jimmie Crown, who inspired generations of local artists.
“He was a big influence on my dad. I remember my dad pointing at sculptures around Galesburg. There's one specifically at the high school and he would always tell me, you know, I worked on that with Jimmie Crown,” Zach said.
Zach was studying at Western Illinois University when his dad was commissioned to create the Mother Goose sculpture for the Galesburg Public Library, which was then on East Simmons Street. Zach remembers it being a huge honor for his dad to be asked to do that.
“His stuff is installed all around the Midwest and other parts of the country,” he said. “This was the first big one that I can remember that was local and his name was on it. I think he was very proud of that just because it was local.”
The Mother Goose sculpture was commissioned in 2003. Zach remembers coming home from college and seeing the sculpture in various stages of construction in his dad’s garage.
It was installed in the Story Book Garden on the east side of the old Galesburg Public Library, a beacon of creativity on the corner of Cherry and Simmons streets for more than two decades.
The artist Ric Larson died in 2014. Now it's Zach who drives his kids around Galesburg to share the meaning of a sculpture.
“He passed away when my daughter was one and my son was four. So this is what we stop and see,” Zach said.
That library on Simmons Street was meant to be a temporary location after Galesburg’s Carnegie library burned in 1958. After six decades in that temporary location, a dream for Galesburg came true. Its new $20 million public library opened on Main Street last year.
When Zach and his brother Jake first heard about construction beginning for a new library, they had one thought.
"Oh no, where's the sculpture going to go? So I reached out to the library and I said, my brother and I, our dad made this sculpture. We would just like to know what the plan is for it. If you have a plan for it, if you don't, I'll make a plan for it,” Zach said.
The library said they did plan to take Mother Goose to the new location. But first, Zach had plans to spiff her up. Mother Goose had rusted a bit at the old library. She had lichens on her. Wasps had moved into that oversized book the children hold in the sculpture.
So with the permission of the library, Zach decided to take Mother Goose on a little road trip late last year. He drove to Galesburg, backed his car up on the sidewalk, and cut Mother Goose loose.
“I had a hacksaw and some various tools and I managed to get it ripped off the base. I threw it in my car and took it back to the Quad Cities,” Zach said. “I found a local guy up there to do this. He sandblasted it and got it all cleaned up for me. I put a clear coat on it, which was kind of funny because I remember my dad doing the same thing, however long ago that was.”
At first, Mother Goose migrated to the new library and rested on a concrete slab. Then Galesburg’s Lacky Monuments installed a new base for her. She greets visitors not far from the entrance.
Looking at the sculpture for the first time on that new base in the new location, Zach sees more than Mother Goose, the two children, and the oversized book.
He sees the artist.
“I see his style. He was influenced by Jimmie Crown and Giacometti,” Zach said. "I'm just reminded of all the pieces that he made over the years.”
The plaque that hung on the old base also came with Mother Goose to the new library, with an inscription reading:
Mother Goose by Ric Larson
In celebration of imagination giving flight to the written and spoken word.
Friends of the Library, 2003
“It looks great,” Zach said. “I think he'd be proud to see where it's sitting right now.”
Tri States Public Radio produced this story. TSPR relies on financial support from our readers and listeners in order to provide coverage of the issues that matter to west central Illinois, southeast Iowa, and northeast Missouri. As someone who values the content created by TSPR's news department, please consider making a financial contribution.
