About The Giant Key West Chicken

The chicken took about six weeks with a group of three additional people who helped me. We put in a total of about 1,000 hours.

Key West has chickens everywhere and it seemed appropriate to build a chicken there.

Yes. It’s based on a real rooster I came to like named “Spirit” that had one eye.

A woman who lived in Key West saw it and wanted to buy it for her house. She’s an artist herself and was having an art show in Key West. She expressed in interest in buying it… and did!

It’s always hard to part with something you’ve invested in, but it gives me joy knowing it is with someone who appreciates it.

The body separates from the legs, so that’s step one. The body is about 3500 pounds and the legs are 2000 pounds each, and then there are two wing panels that remove, too.

Usually I base the price on the amount of time and the materials required.

Yes, from an initial drawing — then I had to base the size based on the components i had.

The chicken is made up of a landfill compactor, trenching machine, road grader and corrugated roofing.

Yes, everything except for the “feathers” which are made of corrugated metal.

Nothing was easy with this chicken!

I like the permanence of it and I like the fire and flames aspect of it!

Not really. The Cateraptasaurus is heavier (13,000 pounds) but not taller (13.5 feet).

Sometime this fall we expect it to go on its next adventure.

I will paint it every 10 years or so.

While there is a seat in the chicken, we do not allow you to climb because it is not safe.

We use a crane, big clamps, bars, props, temporary supports, scaffolding and whatever we can find to keep things in place.

I first made a grid using the actual size of a real rooster named “Spirit”. I then drew Spirit onto a paper grid, and then from there, created a full-scale grid on the ground that allowed me to measure the eventual metal parts and relate them to each other in three dimensional space.

Yes, I had an idea, but that didn’t matter.

It was a one-eyed rooster, “Spirit” that I got from the nearby chicken lady at the Chicken Store. I would use Spirit as a model as he roosted on a pipe.

I did not having funding for this project. I sold my Audi to pay for consumables and eventually won the Grand Esplanade award competition for Sculpure Key West.

The railings around the wheel well, the metal railing leading up the large stone steps from the wheel well, and the back curved railing leading to the loft.

Yes, I’ll have a few pieces for sale this summer and will be showing my metal fish in the coming Fish Show in September.

Yes, I do all sorts of work for people in the area — railings, custom parts, private sculptures - you name it!