My name is Craig Gray, and I'm a sculptor here in Stock Island, Florida.
For about 15 years, I carved gravestones, I did granite countertops, and then I also
carved other artists' sculptures.
And so, that's how I kind of backed into the arts.
Then I got inspiration and decided to pursue my own work.
I had a residency at the Studios of Key West, a great organization, six years ago, and then
six months later, my family and I moved to Florida.
Up north, I was primarily a stone carver and I did a little bit of metalwork.
And then I came down here, and the only stone available was coral rock which doesn't lend
itself very well to carving.
It's a very soft stone, not durable over the long term.
So I started searching for another medium, and in South Florida the exteriors of buildings
are stucco.
So this piece is a set of orange slices.
I haven't finished painting the yellow yet.
Usually I define it some.
It's hollow, it's made of masonry backer board, metal lathe, and stucco, and then I carved
the stucco to give the slices definition.
This is one of the pieces that's up in Jacksonville, Florida.
The highway into creating public art, which I specifically moved to Florida, is there
is close to a hundred public art programs all shapes and sizes, all different types
of communities.
And the great thing about Florida and a few other states, is they lease art.
This a set of candy hearts.
This one here I am refurbing.
It was out on display in Hyattsville, Maryland for about two years, winter environment.
And then when I brought it down here, brought it back home, I brought it back in December
and the frost heaves, which we don't have in Florida, beat it really bad.
So I'm recovering it again with a second layer of metal lathe, which you can see here, and
then stucco.
I put largescale pieces from anywhere from a year to two years in about 25 communities
in the state of Florida alone.
And that kind of started me on that path.
And then you get the piece back, so then again, you can lease it out again, and from Florida
that kind of acted as a springboard.
So then I went to Chicago, I went to Jackson, Wyoming, all these places.
Right now I have 22 largescale pieces of art around the United States.
It's a great program where a lot of communities are a bit uncomfortable, you know, they want
to feel out the waters, basically, and say, "Is this going to be something that people
are gonna like?"
And a lot of the public art calls that I do, they're looking for a temporary installation
of sometimes a year to two years, and I can come back and do touchup work if somebody
tagged it or something like that.
A lot of cities are bringing in pieces.
They'll display them for a limited amount of time.
They move them around within the city, and then they come off display.
They're trying to keep it fresh.
This one just came off display from Rosemary Beach out on the panhandle of Florida.
It's kind of a funky piece because, you know, you can reach through it.
A lot of this rebar, this steel, was salvaged off of Route 1.
At the last installation when I came and picked it up, there were probably a dozen locks on
it.
I'm only guessing that people had made some promises and decided instead of locking to
a bridge, they locked to my sculpture which was kind of fun, you know?
And then I had it in another town and it was in a kind of a green space, it turned into
a giant Chia pet.
Vines had grown all through it.
I'm always open to, you know, how the art evolves.
The great advantage of working in South Florida here on Stock Island, is the fact that I can
work outside.
The cement dries within a couple days.
I could have never done this up, if I was working up north.
I mean it would take a week, and I would have to have it inside a heated building.
If you're driving by, which is the fun thing about this largescale artwork, you'll notice
immediately the shape, and you'll be like, "Oh, I know what that is."
But then as you come up closer, you'll see that there's still kind of a texture to it.
It's a little bit on the abstract edge.
I get selfies daily of somebody standing up in Kalamazoo, Michigan shivering in the cold,
next to a set of popsicles.
I mean, I had one outside Baltimore in Hyattsville, Maryland, a set of giant candy hearts, and
I have tons of pictures of these kids hugging candy hearts.
I mean, that's a little bit of a political piece.
I made that after the election, and it says, "I love you, embrace."
But it's subtle.
I usually don't do political pieces.
I just do friendly art.
You get a pretty decent group of tourists coming down here specifically for the arts.
They're already interested in the arts, they're interested in culture, and they're open to
that.
It's cultural tourism which is really nice.
I have people just randomly stop by who see our little sign out beside the road.
I love it.