local artist Jim Sardonis<\/a>. \u201cI mainly love nature in all its forms,\u201d Sardonis said.<\/p>\nThe Randolph sculpture, installed in 2019, has an older sibling, Reverence, which migrated from Randolph to South Burlington in 1999, and is seen by thousands each day as they head up Interstate 89. \u201cSurprising how many people know about them when I go to Boston, or some place, people mentioned them,\u201d Sardonis said.<\/p>\n
People like the Perkins family from Connecticut, who every summer take selfies with friends and family at the whales, and who on this day got a special treat, meeting the sculptor himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe always wondered who designed them and why,\u201d Perkins said.<\/p>\n
Reporter Joe Carroll: A little surprise for him to see you here?<\/p>\n
Jim Sardonis: Yeah, it tickles them when they find out I\u2019m the one that made them… I\u2019m delighted that anyone has a tradition that includes the sculpture.<\/p>\n
In Brookfield, Sardonis\u2019 first piece is set in stone. It\u2019s near the historic floating bridge in the village \u2014 two hippos called Father and Son. <\/p>\n
\u201cI did it shortly after my father died and my son was born,\u201d Sardonis said. At the time, he was teaching and thought it would be a good summer project. \u201cIt\u2019s given a lot of fun to kids over the years.\u201d <\/p>\n
The whales came later, in a dream. \u201cI had been standing on a beach looking at the water, and these two tails came up at the same time,\u201d Sardonis recalled.<\/p>\n
But Sardonis\u2019 most poignant work wasn\u2019t born from a dream. It was born of a broken heart. He and his wife, Dianne, lost an unborn daughter to anencephaly. \u201cThe brain doesn\u2019t develop for some unknown reason,\u201d Sardonis said. \u201cSo, they knew she wouldn\u2019t live when she was born. So, we had a tough weekend, knowing on Monday we would deliver her and spent an hour with her.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her name was Leah. Through the grief, Sardonis decided to make a sculpture to honor her and the care workers at nearby Gifford Hospital. It\u2019s called Vermont Family.<\/p>\n
Reporter Joe Carroll: Does working on sculptures help you out?<\/p>\n
Jim Sardonis: Oh yeah. That\u2019s… I mean, particularly when we lost the baby. Spending the year working on the sculpture was, yeah, just what I needed… We didn\u2019t realize until the sculpture was done that we would have a baby girl.<\/p>\n
Reporter Joe Carroll: Well, you seem very honest about what you\u2019ve gone through and what this means to you.<\/p>\n
Jim Sardonis: Well, we certainly have had a lot more joy in our lives than sorrow.<\/p>\n
Proof that even in the deepest valley of grief, art prevails.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 WCAX. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RANDOLPH, Vt. (WCAX) – In the hills of Randolph, where the ocean is nowhere in sight, two massive…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":969962,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[32],"tags":[648,1032,1033,171,389466,50,389469,9456,389470,67,132,68,2742,41707,47139,389468,389467],"class_list":["post-969961","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-jim-sardonis","tag-news","tag-reverence","tag-sculptor","tag-super-senior","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us","tag-vermont","tag-vt","tag-wcax","tag-whale-dance","tag-whales-tails"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117011330305699031","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/969961","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=969961"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/969961\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/969962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=969961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=969961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=969961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}