Monday, April 28, 1997
Man mixes concrete sculptures into his life
By KEN ELLSWORTH Senior Staff Writer
SWEETWATER - Buzz Gos- sett is a creator in concrete and just
about anything else he can get his hands on.
His sizeable, neat as a pin yard at 311 Bell Street shows the
fruits of his labor.
A concrete life-sized cowboy pumps a lever at a well spout,
pouring water into a basin for a small cement pony. Nearby a ce-
ment pioneer lady dispenses water for a small flock of cement
geese.
Scattered about the yard are 10 to 15 similar figures, making
the yard a sort of sculpture garden.
"It's just a matter of liking to do things with your hands,"
Gos- sett says, "But you've also got to be a little bit crazy."
Gossett, 73, a World War II veteran of the Marine Corps and
a retired heavy equipment oper- ator, says he began making the
concrete figures about 10 years ago because he enjoyed crafts
and concrete was something with which he was familiar.
Since then, though, his list of suitable materials for sculpting
has expanded to metal and wood.
Dozens of strange looking metal birds that resemble long- legged,
long-billed shore birds congregate on the grass. Their backs are
made from shovel blades and their wide open bills are made from
blacksmith tongs.
Two wooden coyotes howl at the moon in a little rock garden
near the house. Gossett carved them from the wood of an elm tree.
Gossett, a Sweetwater native, also maintains a large rock col-
lection, a small horse drawn waggon collection, a waggon wheel
collection, and a shell col- lection. Inside the home, Gos- sett's
wife, Chris, maintains a 700-piece collection of vases in the
shape of ladies' heads. Some of the pieces are rare and quite
valuable.
But of all these things, it is Gossett's life-sized concrete
fig- ures that dominate the scene.
"I guess it just got bigger and bigger," Gossett
says of his hobby.
In one corner of the yard a bull is shown in the bucking position.
Nearby, only the legs and feet of the would-be rider stick up
in the air, the head and body appar- ently buried in the earth
by the force of the impact.
A little Mexican boy leads a burro. An Indian girl sits on
a rock caressing a lamb. A little black girl jumps rope with the
rope shown arched over her head.
"I've got to get all the national- ities in," Gossett
says.
The most visible sculptures to those passing by on Bell Street
are a group of odd looking western characters hanging out by a
fence. Over their heads a sign says, "Don't Mess With Texas."
One of the cowboy characters sports long, drooping mustaches,
a gun and holster, and a Bowie knife. Another character, painted
in light blue denim, sort of slumps by the fence.
"He's just a skinny old cowboy. He's the first one I ever
made," Gossett says, admitting that the figure is a little
out of proportion due to his own initial lack of sculpturing skill.
"They're whimsical. These are kind of silly things,"
Gossett says.
A specially built fence supports the concrete figures of four
chil- dren walking along the fence's top rail. The childrens'
arms ex- tend out to their sides for bal- ance and the expressions
on their faces show they are having fun.
The fence children, Gossett says, seem to collect the most
appreciative comments of visi- tors.
"I don't know where I got the idea for them, but it just
seemed like a real good idea. It started out to just be one or
two kids on the fence, but now I've got room for more down that
way. So, I'm going to do some more, if I live long enough,"
he says.
Gossett creates the figures by shaping the wet concrete around
a base of iron rods and chicken wire which, he said, make a sort
of "skeleton."
Sometimes, he shapes the fig- ures' heads by hand directly
out of the concrete. Other time he forms the heads from clay and
makes latex molds from the clay. Then, he pours the concrete in
the molds to make the heads.
The whole process would take several weeks just to make one
figure, Gossett says, even if he worked at it full time. But Gos-
sett works intermittently, so sometimes a figure is months in
the making.
The figures are very heavy.
"It just about takes a fork lift to move them," he
says.
People drive past and stop to look over the fence at the sculp-
tures, Gossett says. Occasionally they take pictures. Sometimes
folks knock on the door and ask for a tour.
"That's fine with us. My wife is usually the one that
shows them around," Gossett says.
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Copyright ©1997,
Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps Publications
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