Q&A: Meet the artist behind St. Thomas' new gigantic metal dandelions

CBC News

· Posted: May 18, 2025 5:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 11 minutes ago

Move over, Jumbo the elephant. 

St. Thomas has a new eye-catching statue in town: a gigantic metallic dandelion plant.

The dandelions, dubbed Thriving Roots, shoot up much than 7 metres precocious and are a awesome of resilience, maturation and optimism, the metropolis said, serving arsenic a reminder that quality tin instrumentality basal successful adjacent the toughest conditions.  

The metalwork was the imaginativeness and handiwork of B.C.-based blacksmith Kyle Thornley of Metal Mind Forge, and is connected display at the roundabout at Highbury Avenue and South Edgeware Road successful the city's northeast. 

CBC's Matt Allen spoke with Thornley connected Afternoon Drive. 

This interrogation has been edited for magnitude and clarity.

MA: Could you picture what the statue looks like?

KT: It is gigantic dandelion flowers successful their antithetic stages of development. There are 2 dandelion buds, two yellow dandelion flowers and 2 mature fluffy dandelions that are all mounted to a factual base. At the base, determination is simply a volcano of obstruction spikes that they're increasing retired of.

MA: What inspired this prime to physique dandelions?

KT: Putting unneurotic a concept for the task for the plan competition, I conscionable commencement reasoning astir the important parts astir community. Dandelions are possibly a misunderstood flower, but they're a precise thriving species. Especially successful the springtime, arsenic they're some of the archetypal colours to emerge, and I americium trying to track that backmost into the quality acquisition oregon the acquisition in a steadfast community.

The dandelions are to correspond a thriving assemblage with favourable conditions that are due for maturation and development; That leads to the signifier of maturation, of the fluffy dandelion angiosperm sending its seeds disconnected into the world, which signifies residents truly sending disconnected their hopes and dreams disconnected into the world.

WATCH: Meet this blacksmith from Revelstoke, B.C., creating imaginative nationalist art

As acold as growing retired of the obstruction spikes, it's benignant of similar a drafting retired of the ashes, a erstwhile past of the town, right? With St.Thomas being the rail superior of Canada astatine immoderate point, a caller identity but successful a antithetic form, with beardown roots and a heavy history.

MA: I truly like all the thoughts and inspiration you drew connected for the piece. You mentioned St.Thomas. How precisely was it chosen for this peculiar city?

KT: They enactment retired a telephone nationally conscionable for a petition for pre-qualification. So you use with portfolio and CV and a missive of intent and get chosen arsenic a finalist to bash a site-specific design. I'm precise thrilled that my conception was selected for 1 of the roundabouts.

MA: Take america into the your process here. What benignant of enactment really goes into creating a sculpture of this size?

Oh my goodness, a zillion steps. I identify arsenic an artist-blacksmith. I'm benignant of a one-trick pony with the metalwork anyway, but the blacksmithing constituent is beauteous breathtaking conscionable with the blistery processing of the metalwork nether antithetic machinery, powerfulness hammers and a clump of antithetic anvils and dies and tools astatine the store that are each customized made for the antithetic shapes that we're trying to make connected this project. 

It's a batch of plan enactment to commencement the patterning and the sizing of the components, plasma cutting, tons of grinder enactment to cleanable things up. Then, successful the forge, we vigor up the materials and form and signifier them conscionable nether the antithetic machines, which requires a batch of assembly. And past it gets benignant of powder-coated for a protective finish. It's mostly a sculpture that's made retired of stainless alloy with the coloration connected top. So it should beryllium durable for a very, precise long time.

MA: How does it consciousness to spot the finished merchandise being installed?

KT: There are specified large projects that are successful the store for truthful agelong and truly predominate your headspace and your moving days for months, adjacent with immoderate assistance astatine the shop. So it's benignant of a real culmination, right? A existent gathering of the experience, conscionable benignant of with components being made and past the assembly truly taking shape.

LISTEN: Kyle Thornley tells the communicative down 'Thriving Roots' connected CBC's Afternoon Drive

When the flowers are created and the stems are done, everything is benignant of acceptable to go. Then there's a immense travel crossed the state from wherever I unrecorded to get it here. Installs are ever a small spot stressful, conscionable with specified a large build-up. But the crane relation was fantastic and everything acceptable rather nicely. And past determination was a large solemnisation astatine the extremity erstwhile each of this upland of enactment had been completed and truthful galore things had been ticked disconnected the box, and here we person a gigantic sculpture sitting successful the roundabout wherever it was designated to spell a agelong clip ago.

MA: That's awesome. What person you heard from radical gone feedback connected it?

Oh yeah, I've astir apt had much affirmative feedback connected this 1 than any task I've ever done. I mean, conscionable the pursuing day, radical were uncovering retired who I was and looking up my fig and I was getting calls from residents conscionable saying however thrilled they were and however overmuch they loved the project.

So, it's perfectly incredible just getting that benignant of feedback. People are thrilled and saying it's their favourite sculpture successful town. And I deliberation St. Thomas is beauteous good known for its roundabout sculptures now.