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Photograph by George Sakkestad

These metallic giraffes are 'Entwined in Love' on Sunnyvale Avenue.

Playful pair brings peace of mind

Giraffe sculpture graces quiet Sunnyvale street

By Barbara Doheny

Passersby may occasionally be startled by the sight of life-sized metal giraffes nuzzling above a lawn on a quiet stretch of Sunnyvale Avenue.

For mourners approaching the Wyant & Smith Funeral Home, the 12-foot sculpture may provide a moment's respite from sadness.

That's the hope of Dick Smith, the funeral home's owner, who set the playfully affectionate pair by the mortuary's driveway last summer.

"They're so quiet, and they're kind of loving and caring," Smith said of the piece, entitled Entwined in Love, by San Jose native Robert C. Browning. "I just thought it was symbolic."

The giraffes stand close together, one arching its neck far back while the other rubs its forehead against it. Their stalky legs, flying tails and mutual absorption add a touch of comedy and vulnerability.

Smith says the lightness of the scene is not out of place at a funeral home. Services can be joyful and hopeful as well as sad, according to Smith, particularly if the person has died after a painful illness.

Although they appear fragile, the figures are made of steel from their tasseled tails to the tight spring coils that form their nubby little antlers.

Browning's work captures the animals' spirits within a brittle lacework of steel. They are composed almost entirely of their spots.

Palm-sized, jagged pieces of sheet metal were tack-welded together and to an inner frame. The pieces were allowed to rust to a tan color before a protective coating was applied.

The result is a metal "skin" that wraps itself into the shape of an animal, like a magician's handkerchief wrapped around thin air.

By contour alone, Browning manages to convey the heft and weight of a quadruped as well as the delicacy of its neck and legs.

At night, the piece is lit from below, sending light through the sculpture like spirit through matter.

The giraffes were created at Zeigler Studios in Falls City, Ore. Browning joined the studio six years ago after working as a plumber for 13 years, learning welding and the basics of metalwork.

Browning originally modeled his giraffes on encyclopedia photographs but said he no longer needs them.

"I can pretty much pose them the way I want to," he said.

Entwined in Love took about a month to sculpt.

"Putting the spots on is pretty easy," Browning said. "The real work goes into the wire framing."

A network of steel rods mounted inside the sculpture gives it shape. The angle and length of the rods determine the contours of the sheet-metal "skin" laid over them.

The process could be standardized with computer-aided design, but none was used.

"It's all hand and mind," Browning said.

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This article appeared in the Sunnyvale Sun, November 19, 1997.
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