Artist Derek Parker stands with his sculpture at Clipper Magazine Stadium on Wednesday.
Artist Derek Parker unwraps one of the pieces of his sculpture before installing it at Clipper Magazine Stadium on Wednesday.
Looking for inspiration for a sculpture, artist Derek Parker dug through a closet and found an old baseball.
For several days, he would pick up the ball and study it.
Suddenly, "it just popped" in his mind, said Parker.
His inspiration was the simple, iconic beauty of 108 stitches holding together the hand-sewn ball.
For Parker, of North Adams, Mass., the stitches are a metaphor. Arranged on the walkway in front of Clipper Magazine Stadium, Parker's sculpture stitches together the ballpark and the city around it.
Parker was installing the red-painted metal sculpture Wednesday along the walkway leading from North Prince Street to the ballpark's front gate. He might complete the work Thursday morning.
It also stitches together visual arts with writing. A plaque will be added with the words of poet Le Hinton's "Our Ballpark."
"This is the first piece where I've ever integrated poetry, or even text, with my work," Parker said.
The sculpture becomes the sixth completed project of the Poetry Paths program of Franklin & Marshall College's Writer's House. The program, funded with a $250,000 grant from the Lancaster County Community Foundation, seeks to integrate public art and poetry into the fabric of city life.
Projects already have been completed outside Bright Side Opportunities Center, Tabor Community Services' Eastern Market building, the Pennsylvania College of Art & Design, Spanish American Civic Association and the Lancaster Public Library.
Projects soon to be completed are at the Keystone Art & Culture Center and the Fulton Opera House. Planned are those for the Lancaster Amtrak Station, Water Street Ministries, Penn Square and Shreiner-Concord Cemetery.
Kerry Sherin Wright, Poetry Paths executive director, described Parker's sculpture as fun and bright.
"I think he came up with a really fantastic way to link the art to the site," she said of the stitches.
Lisa Riggs, president of the Lancaster Barnstormers, said she was excited to see the sculpture installed.
"It's a beautiful sculpture and one that connects baseball to the arts," Riggs said.
She said hundreds of thousands of people attend games and other events at the stadium.
Parker said the sculpture is intended to be interactive. He expects it will be climbed on and sat upon.
Wright believes it has the potential to be a ballpark icon.
"People will say 'meet me at the stitches,' " she said.
