Peter Wolf Toth

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 This article or section needs to be wikified to meet Wikipedia's quality standards.
Please help improve this article with relevant internal links. (June 2007)

Peter Wolf Toth (born December 1947) is a Hungarian-born sculptor who immigrated to the United States and settled in Akron, Ohio. He later studied art at the University of Akron. He created a series of sculptures called "Trail of the Whispering Giants" to honor Native Americans. Overall, he has created over 60 sculptures, including at least one in each state of the United States and several provinces in Canada.

Contents

[edit] "Trail of the Whispering Giants"

He completed his first sculpture out of stone in La Jolla, California in February of 1972. The sculpture of an indian head, measuring nearly six feet in length from chin to forehead, was carved into a sandstone cliff located between Marine Street and Windansea Beach. It represented three months of work (see La Jolla Light newspaper, July 12, 1979, page C-9, and also July 19, page A-1).

Thereafter, he decided to embark upon a journey to create a sculpture in each state. His second sculpture was located in Sand Run Metropolitan Park in his hometown of Akron, Ohio. Since then he has completed a statue in each of the 50 states and several provinces in Canada. Some states have more than one sculpture. Florida has three scultures located in Deland, Fort Lauderdale, and Punta Gorda. Other sculptures have been made to replace earlier ones. His second sculpture in Ohio was vandalized and destroyed. In response, Toth carved Rotaynah at Fairlawn Elementary School (now Judith A. Resnik Community Learning Center). Afterwards, he continued until his journey ended in May of 1988 when he completed a sculpture in Hawaii.[1]

The sculptures can be quite large, standing over 20 feet in height, with some exceeding 50 feet. When discussing his interpretation of what to sculpt for his Winslow, Arizona, Toth had this to say:

"I study the Indians of the area, then visualize an Indian within the log. It is a composite of all the native people of the state."[2]

[edit] After 1988

He is currently contemplating creating other sculptures in other countries. He also spends time making repairs and performing maintenance on the existing sculptures. He has created replacement sculptures if the statue is damaged.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Geeslin, Ned and Cable Neuhaus. Peter Toth has heads-up works in every state, so Canada is next. People, September 5, 1988.
  2. ^ Peter Wolf Toth Sculpture in Winslow, Arizona -Roadtrip America (Accessed May 27, 2007)

[edit] External links

Links to other information

Links to specific sculptures