Taking Flight
Clifton Cox, 2015
Taking Flight is a 13 foot high stainless steel work by Kentucky-based artist Clifton Cox. The artwork was created over 600 hours and a year’s time. Cox, who spent years in athletic pursuits and as a swimming coach, appreciates the physicality of creating large-scale sculpture. Taking Flight embodies this energy and movement. The artwork was installed in Laramie on the eve of the new moon, on March 12, 2021, representing a new journey for both the artwork and the artist.
Before arriving in Laramie, Taking Flight was installed in front of the University of Kentucky’s Fine Arts building from 2015 to 2020.
The work reflects the artist’s personal spiritual journey, but Cox is more interested in how the viewer interprets the artwork. Cox will return to Laramie to engage with the community and create a community narrative for the work.
Why is it important to you that the viewer creates their own understanding of Taking Flight?
“It allows the viewer to have ownership of their perspective and experience, along with developing a personal relationship with the art piece”
About the artist:
Clifton Cox is a distinguished Kentucky sculptor. Since 2000, Clifton has produced small to large-scaled art for galleries and public art exhibitions in the central and eastern United States. Clifton gravitated toward art as a transition from an athletic childhood, being attracted to the physical nature and conceptual challenges of creating in the three-dimensional space. Combining images with the essence of nature, along with mechanistic representation defines Clifton’s artistic development. Clifton received his Bachelor of Fine Art degree from the University of Kentucky, and a Master of Fine Art degree from Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville. Clifton lives in Lexington, KY.
Snowy Range Rotating Sculpture Program is a program of the City of Laramie administered by the Laramie Public Art Coalition. Artwork was selected through a national call for artwork based on community feedback. Work is on a three-year rotation. The current cycle is 2021 to 2024.
Sculpture pads are located at 3rd Street and Harney on the East Side of the Snowy Range Bridge and on Clark Street and Snowy Range Road on the West Side.