The new helix is there thanks to a small army of stonemasons, well-wishers and pizza makers. Photo by Tommy Gardner
This story by Aaron Calvin was first published in News & Citizen on July 3.
A Morristown sculptor whose roadside artwork was destroyed when a commercial truck hit it three years ago has reached a settlement with the insurance company over the value of the destroyed stones.
In April 2022, the driver of an Isuzu street sweeper fell asleep at the wheel on Route 100 near Morrisville, crashing through the Phoenix Helix, a swirling stone sculpture built at the roadside of MyEarthwork, the home gallery of Morrisville artist Thea Alvin.
Alvin told the News & Citizen at the time that the driver had been working all night and was tired, was not injured and sincerely apologized, but emphasized the loss she had suffered in the incident.
“It was a very important part of my identity as a sculptor, as an inventor — defiant and strong and a little insecure, a little imperfect, beautiful and steady and heavy and profound but also carefree,” she said at the time. “When it was crashed into, it felt like my identity was broken.”
Stonemason friends ended up coming to her aid and a new Phoenix Helix rose from the ashes, but a battle with the insurer of her work was more protracted. Three years after the sculpture was destroyed, Alvin said she has finally reached a settlement over the value of the artwork and concluded a disagreement over how the piece should be assessed.
Prior to the final mediation session, she posted on social media that she was close to settling with the insurance company over whether the destroyed sculpture should be considered art or just a stone wall.
“I have stood my ground that art is art, even if it is, especially, if it is, made of stone,” Alvin said.
The settlement was reached in mid-June, but Alvin — after conferring with legal counsel — declined to share the specific terms, prior to leaving to teach stone wall restoration on a private island in Brittany, France.
Alvin confirmed that a monetary compensation was reached, though not for the full appraised value of the work. She also confirmed that the insurer acknowledged that the Phoenix Helix’s value was due to its status as a work of art and not just a wall.
The destruction of the stone wall hasn’t been the only time a driver has veered onto her property off the busy nearby highway; Alvin said an errant driver recently took out her apple tree.
Alvin is well-recognized for her art both locally and internationally, though she’s made more headlines recently for her efforts to preserve open space along the Route 100 corridor. She’s led an effort to oppose the approval of a sprawling new industrial park planned across from the Morrisville-Stowe Airport under Vermont’s environmental regulatory law and put her skills to use in the effort by building handmade dioramas to illustrate the potential impact the development would have on the land.
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