Standin' on a corner in Winslow, Arizona

Most people recognize the song lyrics “Standin’ on a corner in Winslow, Arizona,” from the Eagles’ hit song “Take It Easy,” but far fewer associate those lyrics with Libby artist Ron Adamson. Adamson accepted a commission in 1998 to sculpt a bronze statue to commemorate the song, a statue that has become a focal point of memorials to Eagles band member Glenn Frey following his death from cancer Jan. 18.

“It was pretty weird,” Adamson said. “The day before Glenn Frey died my Facebook shared a memory from three years ago, with me and the two ladies who own a store across the street from the sculpture standing with it. Two days later the same statue was covered with black balloons and had gone viral on the Internet, with more than 30,000 shares and likes.”

Adamson’s sculpture has been featured in national media stories since Frey’s death, as mourners near and far have gathered in Winslow to honor Frey and his art.

Adamson began the project in 1998 and delivered it to Winslow in 1999. The project was one of his first bronze sculptures and required him to learn a few new skills in order to complete it.

“I couldn’t find anyone to cast it for me,” he said. “So I built my own blast furnace and burn-out oven. It was an immense undertaking, because I had no experience building such things. But it worked.”

Adamson said his involvement in the project was the result of him being one of the earliest artists in America to travel on the information superhighway. He said his cousin, Rocky Seelbach, had just retired from the United States military as a communications specialist and had returned home from being stationed in Guam.

“Rocky told me I should get on the Internet,” Adamson said. “I was one of the first artists in North America to have a website. I went down and got me an account, and Sue Feeback made my first webpage.”

The committee of Winslow, Ariz., residents who commissioned the sculpture found Adamson through that website. He was at an art show in Bishop, Calif., when his wife, Julie, called to tell him he’d received an email from some people in Winslow, Ariz.

“When she said that I made a joke about the Eagles song,” Adamson said. “I first heard that song when I was 16 years old and on my way to Norway to visit my mother’s family. It’s one of those songs that just sticks in your head.”

He emailed back and forth with members of the committee, almost losing the contract when they asked for a sketch of his idea.

“They were somewhat dubious about my ability to do this because I didn’t have any bronzes on my website. I’d dabbled in bronze, but it was mostly woodworking I had on my page. I almost lost out when they asked for a sketch, I couldn’t do it. I’m not a sketch artist, I can’t draw. But my wife, Julie, is a sketch artist and she drew the original idea for me. It went through a number of modifications, but she drew it.”

It was one of those modifications Adamson credits with sealing the deal.

He flew to Arizona with a one-third scale clay model of his proposed sculpture, a two-feet tall man playing a guitar, to pitch his work to the group. During his meeting with the committee, he found out they intended to place the sculpture on a corner, at street level.

“That’s not going to work,” he told them. “In the dark, with the guitar neck pointing out, you’re going to get someone hurt or killed walking or riding a bike into that thing.”

On the spot he broke the arm off the statue and repositioned it with the man leaning on the guitar, resting on the top of his boot.

“That’s the beauty of working with clay,” he said. “You can take parts off and twist them around and put them back on. Carving wood you only get one shot.”

Adamson said when he returned home he received a letter indicating he’d been selected to complete the project.

That’s when the fun began, Adamson said.

Having only dabbled in bronze, he was cast into a whole new world for his art. He traveled to a foundry in Kalispell, where artisans there were casting a full-sized horse in bronze. From them he learned new techniques for sculpting in pieces, using clear caulking compound to create the pieces.

“It was a horrible process,” he said. “It took about three days and you didn’t want to breathe those fumes.”

Adamson built the sculpture from the feet up, in 48 separate pieces. He then bought a tungsten inert gas (TIG) welder to assemble the pieces. Of course, in order to do that he had to teach himself how to weld.

As the project neared completion, the deadline for delivery quickly approached. In order to finish on time, Adamson welded for more than 30 straight, sleepless hours, then borrowed a truck and drove the completed piece to Winslow.

“It was more than 30 straight hours of welding,” he said. “My face was green from grinding the seams down in the bronze. Josh Ricketts helped me finish it off and then we borrowed his dad’s diesel Ford pickup truck, I only had a little Subaru car, and drove it to Arizona. We rolled into town about three minutes ahead of the big parade and party they had planned for the unveiling. When I got out of the truck and they realized it was me, ‘Take It Easy’ started blaring from loudspeakers all around. It was incredible.”

Adamson said the work wasn’t all his own. In addition to his wife’s sketch and Rickett’s help with the welding, his sons Jeff and Dustin also helped him pour the pieces into the moulds.

The art world, he said, has opened a lot of doors for him. He has sculpted awards for a film festival in Reno, Nev., as well as medals for various events. Celebrities such as John Stewart, Pat Hitchcock, Dean Stockwell and John Glenn all have awards sculpted by Adamson for various organizations.

“The art world has opened up a lot of opportunities for me,” he said. “When I was a young man and decided I was going to be an artist my dad was just aghast at the thought,” he said. “It was like I’d come down with a fatal disease.”

The disease caught hold, apparently, as Adamson has made a career with his art. In wood, in bronze and in paint, Adamson’s art has touched not just the communities of Libby, Montana and Winslow, Arizona, but has taken him around the country and around the world.