DiPasquale’s other public art

Now that the Richmond Braves are history, what will happen to "Connecticut," Paul DiPasquale's fiberglass Indian brave who trains an eagle eye on all who enter The Diamond?

"It may stay where it is now, but what happens to it ultimately depends on what happens to The Diamond," said Mike Berry, general manager of the Richmond Metropolitan Authority, which owns Richmond's ballpark and its sentry sculpture.

Berry added that he has been communicating with an American Indian chief who's expressed interest in the sculpture on behalf of his tribe.

DiPasquale has another idea.

"I've proposed that, if it has to move, it go to the River District where it can look out over the Falls of the James."

Whatever fate befalls DiPasquale's first major public sculpture, which has resided at The Diamond since it opened in 1985, Connecticut will remain a colossus.

If he stood up, he would be 70 feet tall.

Connecticut is one of several DiPasquale sculptures in Virginia so public that they're hard to escape.

Here are status reports on three others:

And DiPasquale, citing recent praise of the statue in books and periodicals, is convinced his statue has earned its place.

His only regret is its inaccessibility.

"I like the height of the base and the size of the sculpture, but it was meant to be walked into," he said. "Once it became a drive-by sculpture on Monument Avenue, there was no way to invite people to walk into it and around it."

DiPasquale later cast The Headman in bronze, and it was reinstalled on Brown's Island in a metal-reinforced boat and protected by a steel fence to keep visitors at bay.

"It's been remarkably vandal-free since then," DiPasquale said.

"The only problem is that people like to climb on it," DiPasquale said of this colossus, which was commissioned by Virginia Beach's Neptune Festival, cast in bronze in five pieces in China and shipped to Virginia Beach for assembly.

"Climbing is not recommended. A sign asks people not to climb on it, but they do it anyway."

- Roy Proctor