Photography by Mark Wagoner

Jim Barnhill’s sculptures are arresting. His statuesque 9-foot bronze of Minerva, goddess of wisdom, is a celebrated symbol of the UNC Greensboro campus. The 10-foot February One at North Carolina A&T - where Barnhill is an associate art professor - commemorates the Woolworth sit-ins and civil rights movement. Other pubic installations can be viewed in Asheville, Hickory, and Raleigh, as well as Alabama, Pennsylvania, and California. But it’s not just the scope and size of Barnhill’s works that are impressive, as much as how Greensboro’s master sculptor captures the human essence.

Barnhill’s current project, a towering 111/2-foot iconic rendering of local namesake and Revolutionary War hero General Nathanael Greene, is slated for unveiling March 26. The statue will stand atop a 10-foot, 40-ton granite pedestal in the roundabout intersection of Greene and McGee streets.

The project is a gift from the Joseph M. Bryan Foundation to the City of Greensboro. And as with any custom-built artwork, there was a process of evolution between the artist and client. Although the committee’s vision for Greene was an 8-foot sculpture, Barnhill says he knew that scale would be out of proportion for the site.

So, he took photographs of the round from several angles with transparency overlays and a 2-by-16-foot board to represent how the statue would look in its final setting. Barnhill also built a small model, or maquette, to show how Greene would differ from the existing statue at Guilford Courthouse National Military Park that was sculpted by artist Francis H. Packer in 1915.

To help Barnhill with this project, John Durham, a park ranger and historian, helped source several books and journals on period costume and dress. Together, they found that the double-breasted jacket that Greene wears in the monument was not historically accurate. To make his adaptation of Greene as precise as possible, Barnhill referenced an existing painting by Charles Wilson Peale.

Portrait sculpting is an intimate process, one in which the artist considers the figure’s features, expression, stance, gestures, and body weight. “Sculpture has to be engineered from the beginning,” says Barnhill, who sculpted the massive structure for six months; the casting process took an additional six months.

He used 2,000 pounds of purged clay applied over a diamond mesh, steadied by a steel pipe armature, and strips of old printing plates to create divisions where the final welding would make sense during the bronze casting and assembly phase. “Bronze lends itself to the figure,” he explains of his method. “The fluidity captures what you’ve done in clay.”

Despite the combination of artistry and engineering, as the final clay sculpture was readied for mold construction, the metal armature sheared off. When Barnhill returned, he found that the man of great magnitude had fallen backward. Undaunted, Barnhill used the opportunity to rethink the work and create a slightly different gaze that would give Greene a more decisive look and stance, one of a leader and war hero.

Barnhill doesn’t always work with such larger-than-life creations. In fact, he also creates pieces just under two feet tall, as he teaches a sculpture studio class at the community-based Arts Alliance, housed in the Greensboro Cultural Center. At home, the notable artist ensconces his living and dining rooms with at least a dozen clay nudes comfortably displayed on mantel pieces, end tables, and corner cupboards.

Barnhill received his bachelor’s degree in art education from UNC Chapel Hill and a master’s in sculpture from UNC Greensboro. Although he began his career painting, Barnhill moved to different mediums. “I found painting got to be tedious and tight,” he explains. “Sculpting is more physical than being in front of the canvas or paper. I enjoy the labor.”

But whether he finds himself carving small crucifixes or monumental statues, Barnhill says he most enjoys the process of working with the human figure. “The twists, curves, and counter-curves are what make the work,” he notes. “There’s a rhythm and repetition that holds the structure together and pleases the mind’s eye.”