Our NPM forum is the most specific and secular. Accordingly, it's the hardest to feed. It's really an artifact of our forum's founder who practiced this style. I've thought about merging it to another forum, but I'm not sure where it would go. So I'm feeding it more random news for now, just to give it a little luv.


What’s with that giant praying mantis at Happy Hollow Park?
Dave Bangert, Lafayette Journal & Courier Published 2:50 p.m. ET Aug. 23, 2019

Praying mantis sculpture at Happy Hollow Park, two years in the making, is the latest public piece at West Lafayette park entrances


"Harmony Afield," a 26-foot sculpture of a praying mantis and three fireflies, was installed this week at the entrance to West Lafayette's Happy Hollow Park. The piece, by Butler, Pennsylvania, artist Bill Secunda, is one of four recently installed at entrances to the West Lafayette park. (Photo: Dave Bangert/Journal & Courier)

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. – Here’s one initial reaction to “Harmony Afield,” a sculpture of a praying mantis flanked by three fireflies, a few hours after it was erected Thursday at the entrance of Happy Hollow Park.

“It’s big, I’ll give you that,” said Kathleen Evans, a Lafayette resident who was finishing a hike on the trails in the 81-acre park along Happy Hollow Road.

“And,” Evans said, “I’m going to say, I give it a thumbs up.”

Artist Bill Secunda concedes the big part of that review.

The sculpture – the centerpiece in a collection of works stationed at four entrances to Happy Hollow Park – comes in at 26 feet of steel plate and tubing. It was big enough that he had to place the piece in a pit in his studio in Butler, Pennsylvania, to do the welding. (“And I have a pretty big building,” Secunda said.)

The second part, that thumbs up? That, he said, he’ll take.

“You do these things hoping people can relate to it,” Secunda said from his studio north of Pittburgh. “From what I understand, people are stopping to get their picture taken with it. But it just went up. I hope that means they like it.”

More: Wabash Avenue's mural makeover continues, as street artists descend for Wabash Walls 2

More: Here are the completed murals from Wabash Walls 2

West Lafayette paid Secunda $80,000 for the four-piece set, continuing the city’s work to put public art at park entrances. Indianapolis artist Jeff Larimore created sculptures of a heron at Celery Bog Nature Area on Lindberg Road and a rooster at Cumberland Park along Salisbury Street.

Eric Lucas, a member of the West Lafayette Public Arts Team, said that when the search started for an artist two years ago, the thought was to come up with something different than the more abstract works at Celery Bog and Cumberland Park.

“Happy Hollow is more of a natural park,” Lucas said. “We intentionally wanted the art to reflect that.”

Secunda was chosen for the project in 2017, after the West Lafayette Public Arts Team went through a stack of proposals.


Bill Secundo works on "Harmony Afield" in his Butler, Pennsylvania, studio. The piece was erected this week outside West Lafayette's Happy Hollow Park. (Photo: Photo provided)

Three smaller pieces, all in the 8-foot range, went up earlier. A dragonfly is at the steps to the trailhead at Salisbury Street, near Grant Street. The Kingston Road entrance, just down from the former Happy Hollow Elementary, has a cricket. Secunda has a Luna moth at a Happy Hollow trail entrance along Indian Trail Drive.

A sculpture of a dragonfly, by Bill Secunda, greets hikers at the Salisbury Street entrance to Happy Hollow Park. The piece is one of four recently installed at entrances to the West Lafayette park.
A sculpture of a dragonfly, by Bill Secunda, greets hikers at the Salisbury Street entrance to Happy Hollow Park. The piece is one of four recently installed at entrances to the West Lafayette park. (Photo: Dave Bangert/Journal & Courier)

Secunda’s work, an array of metal pieces including buffalo made from nails, are on display in Aspen, Colorado, the St. Louis Zoo and in a number of private collections.

“They gave me a lot of room to work,” Secunda said about the Happy Hollow project. “But I tried to make it something a little out of the ordinary, I guess, but the people could really enjoy. Something kids might really like. … The town is so beautiful, and the park is so beautiful, I wanted this to add to that.”


A sculpture of a cricket, by Bill Secunda, greets hikers at the Kingston Road entrance to Happy Hollow Park. The piece is one of four recently installed at entrances to the West Lafayette park. (Photo: Dave Bangert/Journal & Courier)

West Lafayette crews installed the sculpture Thursday. But there’s still work to do. The three fireflies in the piece were designed to light up at night. Secunda said uplighting will be installed. A formal dedication of the sculpture will come this fall.

“When we get this piece lit at night, I think it will be pretty interesting,” Secunda said. “But it’s up. Now we find out what people think.”

Reach Dave Bangert at 765-420-5258 or at dbangert@jconline.com. Follow on Twitter: @davebangert.


A sculpture of a Luna moth, by Bill Secunda, greets hikers at the Indian Trail Drive entrance to Happy Hollow Park. The piece is one of four recently installed at entrances to the West Lafayette park. (Photo: Dave Bangert/Journal & Courier)