Dancing Rabbits unveiled at Village Green
An unveiling of a new sculpture was held at Creemore Village Green last Thursday just in time for the Easter weekend.
As the sun was setting, the tarps were pulled off to reveal Anne McIlroy’s Dancing Rabbits, three whimsical bronze rabbits dancing their way into the park where the artist imagines them on parade toward the stage for a performance.
“This is an important piece of art that Anne is contributing to Creemore, to this community. I think it really shows the kind of people who live here, that they’re prepared to do that,” said Tony Arrell, a founding member of the Creemore Community Foundation.
He said the Dancing Rabbits sculpture will complement the fountain’s Children’s Dress-up Dance sculpture by Ralph Hicks.
“It’s been a project of joy,” said McIlroy. “It has been as much a project of joy working with all of you and being supported by you. I can’t tell you how much it means and I feel very honoured to be part of a project that is in this beautiful park. I hope we all have fun seeing the rabbits, really they are meant for joy.”
McIlroy said animals have long been her muse.
Her creativity led her to study fine arts at the University of Toronto but while finishing her degree, her brother, who was working on a degree in architecture at the same school, convinced her that she may find a career in architecture more lucrative.
“I think [fine art] was a perfect segue into architecture because of the creative process of learning to be a critical thinker in architecture,” said McIlroy. “It really is about design but it’s also about creating place and settlement.”
Thirty-eight years later McIlroy is a principal at Brook McIIroy where she specializes in designing places for people, both housing and public spaces in urban landscapes, waterfronts and mid-rise housing.
McIlroy said she has been drawing anthropomorphized dogs and rabbits in human clothing and doing activities since she was a child and found that the rabbits’ long ears were her ticket to success when it came to sculpture, making them more expressive.
She worked on the series of plaster rabbits in her home studio near Mansfield during the pandemic.
The rabbits, on a small scale, were shown at Lagom during the Creemore.
Festival of the Arts in 2022 at the invitation of the store’s owners. It was her husband who suggested they should be cast in bronze.
“It was great to have the bronze rabbits and it was something that we were able to bring into Lagom after the art show,” said McIlroy.
Later, in partnership with Creemore Community Foundation, which covered the foundry costs thanks to some donors with an interest in seeing the installation realized, the rabbits were enlarged.
Working with the same foundry that created the fountain sculpture and Harmony by Ernie Herzig – the third bronze sculpture in the park – the rabbits grew from about 10 inches to five feet in height. They were formed in pieces, perfecting the proportions, then coated in wax as part of the lost-wax technique, the same process used by masters Rodin and Donatello.
McIlroy said she enjoyed working with the team at the foundry.
“It’s a pretty cool thing to go through, to watch how it all works,” said McIlroy. “I was able to work with a wonderful set of people that got it. They just got it. They knew what we wanted to do and they also knew that Easter was an important time and we wanted to make this happen for the weekend.”
To make them as robust as possible, the rabbits are reinforced with steel. McIlroy said it was important that people could touch them and enjoy them.
Trina Berlo photo: Sculptor Anne McIlroy unveils the newly installed Dancing Rabbits bronze sculpture at Creemore Village Green April 17 with assistance from her husband Bob Davies (right) and son Graham Davies.
