Local artist brings larger-than-life version of The Beatles to town

(6/07/07 - KTRK/HOUSTON) (KTRK) -- The Fab Four are here in Houston! In concrete, anyway.

The Beatles statues are now up at Sculpturworx on Summer Street near Sawyer in west Houston and they were created by a man who's left his mark on other parts of southeast Texas.

The Beatles are part of our musical landscape. Now, they are part of Houston's physical landscape. At 36 feet tall, the concrete statues are instantly recognized by the smallest of observers.

"Do you recognized these four people over here?" we asked to nine-year-old Neal Jensen.

"The Beatles, duh!" he responded.

"Do you know any of their songs?"

"No, not exactly."

The Beatles songs revolutionized the pop music industry in the 1960s. But it was the Sgt. Pepper period with day-glo military uniforms that stuck in the mind of local artist David Adickes.

"They're creativity, their musicianship, their writing, their sense of portrait," he said. "They're just very creative guys."

Adickes designed and built the giant cello outside the Lyric Center in downtown Houston -- a musical concept he wanted to expand.

"I've always liked standing figures that are pretty abstract, so I thought I'd like to do that, and I thought three or four and the Beatles were the obvious choice," he said.

Adickes has always thought big, designing giant presidential busts for a project in Pearland. And while the presidents are big, the Beatles are bigger -- at least physically.

"Each one of those weighs about 7,000 pounds, so you've got 25-30,000 pounds," said Adickes.

"So if Ringo was actually playing those drums, what kind of sound would it make?" we asked.

"Bad," he laughed.

Aside from the cello, he also did a large trumpet on the Strand and the Sam Houston statue in Huntsville.
(Copyright © 2007, KTRK-TV)

Get more News »

• Email
• Print
• Report a typo
•