Heber City sculptor Steven Neal is hard at work on 71 pieces of art centered on the Book of Mormon and the country’s founding.
Two patriotic statues, Neal’s depiction of George Washington and his friend Michael Hall’s sculpture of Thomas Jefferson, were installed Wednesday, Sept. 16, outside the Capitol in Salt Lake City.
Neal said the display is in honor of the country’s 250th birthday.
The Jefferson statue is life-size.
“He has basically a throne of books built around him, and he weighs 1,400 pounds,” Neal said. “And George Washington is about 7 feet tall, kneeling. He’s life-size and a half.”
The statues will be in place for about a year and a half, after which they’ll be relocated to the Heber Valley.
That’s when Neal hopes to open part of his 12-acre sculpture garden, called the Monument of the Americas, in northern Heber City. About 30 sculptures are ready so far.
“I’ve been working on that 24/7 since I retired from surgery two and a half years ago,” he said. “I’ve produced about 23 sculptures in that two and a half years, so it’s 70-hour weeks.”
Neal is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and says the idea for the garden came to him in a vision. The plastic surgeon has been at work for three decades to make that vision a reality.
Once complete, the garden will feature a waterfall cascading over a wall designed to look like the golden plates, from which church members believe founder Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon. And Neal said the garden’s crown jewel will be an 18-foot statue of Jesus, visible from much of the valley.
It will also include figures from the nation’s founding, including the Washington and Jefferson statues now at the Capitol. Smith taught that the U.S. Constitution was divinely inspired.
To see images of Neal’s sculptures, click here.
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